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SYSTEMATIC TKEATISE, 



HISTORICAL, ETIOLOGICAL, AND PRACTICAL 



ON THE 



PRINCIPAL DISEASES 



OF THE 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



AS THEY APPEAR IN THE 



CAUCASIAN, AFRICAN, INDIAN, AND ESQUIMAUX VARIETIES OF 

ITS POPULATION. 



BY DANIEL DRAKE, M. D 



CINCINNATI: 

WINTHROP B. SMITH.& CO., PUBLISHERS 

PHILADELPHIA: GRIGG, ELLIOT & CO. 
NEW YORK: MASON & LAW. 

1850. 




H¥BjR€)'(':i;,\r i M:l'(' l "\Mj pi 

ofllite 

INTERIO R VALLEY 

:iM:Ofrr;j Aprils. 



*>f 









in HE y.T SKA 






^V u 



Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1849, by Daniel 
Drake, M. D., in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the "United 
States, for the District of Ohio. 



M-zMIO 



CINCINNATI: 
Morgan and Over end, Printers, 



TO 



THE PHYSICIANS 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



IMPERFECT ATTEMPT 



AN EXTENDED FOUNDATION 



A HISTORY OF ITS DISEASES 



IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 



BY THEIR FELLOW LABORER 



THE AUTHOR 



PREFACE. 

The object proposed in the following work, is to give an account 
of the causes, symptoms, pathology, and treatment, of the princi- 
pal diseases of an extensive portion of North America — its 
Interior Valley. In exploring it, for the purpose of collecting 
facts, the Author endeavored to leave behind him all opinions 
but the single one, that he who would observe correctly, must 
have no theories either to maintain or destroy. 

To say that he has always been faithful to this rule of observa- 
tion, would be rash ; but, he may say, that he has sincerely and 
earnestly desired, to keep himself under its sway. He may affirm, 
still further, that it has been his constant aim, to purify from er- 
ror, the facts he was collecting ; and he trusts, therefore, that all the 
more important will be found substantially correct. Neverthe- 
less, the country to which the work relates, is of such vast 
geographical extent, that he cannot doubt, but that every reader 
will detect some errors, in what relates to the topography, climate, 
or diseases of his own locality. 

But while the object of this work is to embody facts, drawn, 
by personal intercourse, from numerous living physicians, or from 
publications made by them and their predecessors, and to combine 
the whole with his own observations, he has not been unmindful 
of the discoveries and improvements in etiology, pathology, 
and practice, of older and more enlightened countries ; but 
sought, as far as they have become known to him, to amalgamate 
the foreign with the indigenous, and thus present to his brethren of 
the Interior Valley, a book of practice, so full on all the diseases 
of which it treats, as to make it a useful manual for daily reference. 
He is obliged to admit, however, that, while seeking after knowledge 
among the physicians of his own country, he could give but little 
attention to the writings of those who live in other countries. 

Long journeys of observation, repeated through a large part of 
several years, with elementary teaching in winter, have much 
abridged the time for bibliothecal research ; and, perhaps, even 
diminished the taste for that mode of inquiry. 

Extensive as his explorations have been, large regions of 
country remain unvisited ; and many conclusions, at which he has 



vi PREFACE. 

arrived, might possibly have been different, had the facts, which 
those regions could have furnished, been obtained by him. Yet, 
as his personal examinations were carried through eighteen de- 
grees of latitude, and nearly as many of longitude, he trusts that 
facts which may, in some degree, stand as representatives of the 
whole, have been collected ; and, therefore, that no general con- 
clusion will be found radically wrong. 

As announced on the title page, it is the design of this work to 
treat of the diseases of the Caucasian, Indian, and African Vari- 
eties of our population, in contrast and comparison with each 
other — the first being the standard to which the other two are 
brought. For this purpose, no other country presents equal ad- 
vantages ; since, in no other, do we find masses of three varieties 
of the human race, in permanent juxta-position. There is, more- 
over, a fourth variety, the Mongolian, represented by the tribes of 
Esquimaux, whose huts of snow are scattered across the northern 
extremity of the Valley ; who subsist on a simpler diet, and live 
in a lower temperature, than any other known portion of the 
human race ; and, therefore, present, in their habits and physiol- 
ogy, many points of interest, to w r hich he has given such attention 
as the books of voyages and travels, have enabled him to bestow. 

In his traveling intercourse, with his brethren and collabo- 
rators of the Great Valley, from Florida, through to Canada, 
inclusive, although going among them generally, without letters of 
introduction, he has, with very few exceptions, been received in 
the kindest manner, and afforded every facility in their power ; 
for which he cheerfully makes this public acknowledgment. To 
designate, by name, all who manifested a high and encouraging 
interest in his enterprise, would be to form a catalogue too long 
for introduction here ; but of gentlemen residing without the United 
States, he is not at liberty to omit the names of Professor Joseph 
Morrin, of Quebec, Professor Archibald Hall, of Montreal, and 
Captain John Henry Lefroy, of the Royal, Magnetical, and Me- 
teorological Observatory, Toronto, as having afforded him im- 
portant assistance. 

While prosecuting his researches, he visited the larger part of 
the military and naval posts of the Interior Valley, both Ameri- 
can and British, bearing a letter, explanatory of his object, from 
Major General Scott, and received, at each, such facilities as 
were practicable. 



PREFACE. 



vn 



He desires, also, to record the names of several young gentle- 
men, who have rendered him various kinds of aid, in the prepa- 
ration of the work for the press. They are Doctor Charles A. 
Hentz, Mr. Theodore S. Dana, and Mr. Charles A. Caroland, stu- 
dents of medicine, and Mr. David Smith ; each of whom per- 
formed the part assigned to him, in the most faithful and zealous 
manner. Notwithstanding this, however, it is feared that, in the 
statistical portions, some errors may be found, though none he 
trusts of great magnitude. 

The hydrographical map, which forms the frontispiece of the 
book, seemed indispensable to its plan. The reader will perceive, 
that it is not designed to represent civil and political divisions ; 
but to assist in connecting what is said on medical topography, 
climate, and the limits imposed by latitude and altitude, on cer- 
tain diseases, into one system. It was drawn by Major D. P. Whi- 
ting, U. S. A., who also drew several of the topographical maps ; 
the remainder and larger part were from the accurate pencil of 
Captain C. A. Fuller, U. S. Civil Engineer. They were all exe- 
cuted under the author's inspection, out of the best materials he 
could command ; for a part of which, together with many useful 
suggestions, he is indebted to the veteran Topographical Engineer, 
Colonel Stephen H. Long, U. S. A. The engravings are on stone, 
by a young German artist, Mr. A. Wocher, of Cincinnati, and will, 
the author trusts, be found not unworthy of the typographical 
execution, under the supervision of Mr. Charles H. Bronson ; whose 
abilities and taste as a practical printer, have overcome many 
difficulties, resulting from the introduction of more than a hundred 
Statistical Tables, and from the absence of the Author, at the 
University of Louisville, during the past winter, while the work 
was in the press. Finally, the Author desires to express his obli- 
gations to Messrs. Winthrop B. Smith & Co., for their willingness 
to turn aside from their ordinary business, and become the pub- 
lishers of the largest original work which, as yet, has been written 
and printed in the Interior Valley ; thus rendering it, in all res- 
pects, an indigenous production. 

The germ of this work, was a pamphlet entitled "Notices Con- 
cerning Cincinnati" printed for distribution, forty years ago. 
The greater part of the Interior Valley of North America, was at 
that time a primitive wilderness. Ten years afterward, the 



v iii PREFACE. 

author formed the design of preparing a more extended work, on 
the diseases of the Ohio Valley ; but being called to teach, he 
became interested in medical schools, which, with the ceaseless 
labors of medical practice, for the next twenty years, left no time 
for personal observation, beyond the immediate sphere of his 
own business. Meanwhile, settlements extended in all directions, 
with which the area of observation expanded ; and the plan of 
the promised work, underwent a corresponding enlargement. He 
could look upon this long delay, without regret, if he were con- 
scious, that his work had, thereby, been rendered proportionally 
more perfect ; but he is obliged to confess, that the labors of a 
pioneer in many things, have not been auspicious, to a high de- 
gree of perfection, in any ; and, that a new country, with its di- 
versified scenes and objects, is not favorable to the concentration 
of attention, upon any one. 

He expected to have introduced into the first volume, the article, 
Yellow Fever, but found it would swell the book to an inconve- 
nient size. It will make the first part of the second volume ; the 
materials for which have been chiefly collected, and considerable 
portions of it written, so that the author hopes it may be com- 
mitted to the press in about a year. 

On the manner in which the work (when finished) will be re- 
ceived by the profession, he does not attempt to form a prediction; 
but has entire confidence in the justice of those for whom it is 
especially designed. He has, also, no reason to doubt, that the 
periodical press of the country, will treat him with equal justice ; 
and he desires nothing more. If a second edition should be de- 
manded, the errors which maybe pointed out, would be corrected, 
and new facts and observations introduced : If the work prove a 
failure as it respects public favor, the author will not be without 
his reward ; for he has found enjoyment in the labor of producing 
it ; and, having confidence in its general accuracy, knows that it 
must stand as a great collection of facts; a picture of the etiolo- 
gical condition and the diseases, of a newly settled country, in the 
middle of the nineteenth century; with which future, and more 
gifted, medical historians, will compare the causes, phenomena, 
and treatment of the maladies which may then prevail. 

Cincinnati, December 20, 1849. DAN. DRAKE, M. D. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS, 



BOOK FIRST. 

GENERAL ETIOLOGY. 

PAGE. 

Introduction, _...-------- l 

PART I. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HYDROGRAPHICAL ETIOLOGY. 

CHAPTER I. 
GENERAL ANALYSIS. 

Sect. I. Of the Natural Boundaries, Area, and Aspects, - 5 

II. Of the Hydrographical System, .--.-.. 8 

III. Of Altitudes and Configuration, ------ < 19 

IV. Geological Outline, 26 

V. Hydrographical Basins, --------- 2S 

CHAPTER II. 

THE SOUTHERN HYDROGRAPHICAL BASIN. 

GULP OF MEXICO. 

Sect. I. Position, Form, and Area, -------- 32 

II. Depth, - 33 

III. Currents, 34 

IV. Temperature, ---------- 36 

V. Tides and Inundations, - - - - - - - - -39 

VI. Coasts, 40 

CHAPTER III. 
THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 

SPECIAL MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COASTS OF THE GULF OF 

MEXICO. 

Sect. I. Vera Cruz, 42 

II. Tampico, -- -_--.__. 44 

III. Galveston Island and Town, -------- 45 

IV. Havana, and the Island of Cuba, ------- 46 

V. Key West, 47 

VI. Tampa Bay and Fort Brooke, ----_-_ 49 

VII. Pensacola: The Bay and Town, 49 

VIII. Mobile Bay and City, 54 

IX. Minor Bays, -.57 

X. The Pine Woods, - - 59 



x TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 

THE DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI — CONSIDERED AS A PART OF THE 

GULF COAST. 

Sect. I. Descriptive Hydrography, --------61 

II. Rise and Fall of the Lower Mississippi, - 64 

III. Depth of the Lower Mississippi, ----- . - 66 

IV. Temperature of the River, -------- 67 

V. Suspended and Dissolved Materials of the River, 70 

VI. Geological Age, Depth, Growth, Structure, and Chemical Composition of 

the Delta, - 73 

VII. Vegetation, 77 

VIII. Salutary Influences of the Jussieua Grandiflora, - - - - 79 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 
LOCALITIES IN AND AROUND THE DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 

Sect. I. Military Posts, ----- 86 

II. The Balize and Marine Extremity of the Delta, - 88 

III. New Orleans, 97 

IV. Smaller Towns within the Delta, _----_ 105 

V. Towns on the Bluffs of the Delta, 108 

VI. An Early Voyage up the Mississippi, - - - - - - 111 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 

MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BOTTOMS AND BLUFFS OF THE 

MISSISSIPPI RIVER ABOVE ITS DELTA. 

Sect. I. The Tensas or Concordia Bottom, ------- 122 

II. The Tensas Bottom, continued — Localities of its Bluffs, - - 123 

[II.] The Yazoo Bottom, 129 

III. The St. Francis Bottom, 131 

IV. General Remarks on the preceding Bottom, ----- 136 
V. American Bottom, --------- 137 

VI. Upper Mississippi, ---------- 141 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 

MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS WEST OF THE GULF AND 

OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

Sect. I. Region South of the Rio Del Norte, 151 

II. Basin of the Rio Del Norte, 152 

III. Southern Texas, 157 

IV. Valley of the Red River, 159 

V. The Arkansas River, --------- 163 

VI. The Ozark Mountains, --165 

VII. The Missouri River, 166 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. x { 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN — CONTINUED. 

MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE GULF AND 

TILE MISSISSIPPI, AND SOUTH OF THE OHIO BASIN. 

Sect. I. Geographical and Geological Outlines, ------ 176 

II. The Countay East tmd South of Appalachicola Bav and River, - 178 

III. Basin of the Appalachicola River, - - - - - - - 181 

IV. Basin of the Alabama River, -- 182 

V. Basin of the Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior River, - - - - 189 

VI, Localities in the Basin of the Tombeckbee, 192 

VII. Outlines of the Region between the Tombeckbee and Mississippi Rivers, 200 

VIII. Basin of Pascagoula River, -------- 201 

IX. Basin of Pearl River, 203 

X. Region between the Pearl River and the Mississippi : The Bluff-Zone, 204 

XL The Bluff-Zone continued : Valleys of the Big Black and Yazoo Rivers, 208 

XII. Remainder of the Region South of the Ohio Basin - - - - 211 

XIII. A Geological Section, 215 

CHAPTER IX. 
THE SOUTHERN BASIN — CONTINUED. 
MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI : 

THE OHIO BASIN. 

Sect. I. Limits and General Features, v - 217 

II. Trough of the River, 219 

III. Southern Ohio Basin. The Tennessee River, ----- 222 

IV. Basin of the Cumberland River, 233 

V. Basin of Green River, - -- 236 

VI. The Left Bank of the Ohio, from Green to Salt River: Basin of the latter, 241 

VII. Falls of the Ohio, Louisville, 246 

VIII. Basin of the Kentucky River, 249 

IX. Basin of Licking River : North East Kentucky, - 254 

X. General Remarks and Conclusions, ------- 257 

XL The Ohio River, from Maysville to Big Sandy River, - 258 

XII. Basins of the Big Sandy and Guyandotte Rivers, - 259 

XIII. Basin of the Kenawha River, ------- 261 

XIV. Basin of the Monongahela River, 264 

XV. Pittsburgh and its Dependencies, ------- 271 

CHAPTER X. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONTINUED. 

MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI: 

BASIN OF THE OHIO, ON THE NORTHERN SIDE OF THE RIVER. 

Sect. I. Basin of the Alleghany River, 275 

II. Basin of Beaver River, Conneaut Lake, Beaver and Erie Canal, - 282 

III. Basin of the Muskingum River, 284 

IV. The Region between the Muskingum and the Scioto Rivers — Hocking 

River, 290 

V. Basin of the Scioto River, 292 

VI. The Miami Basin— City of Cincinnati, 297 

VII. Northern Banks and Hills of the Ohio River, from the Great Miami to 

the Wabash, 305 



x ii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

VIII. Basin of White River, 309 

IX. Basin of the Wabash, 311 

X. Remainder of the Ohio Basin, - - - - - - - - 316 

CHAPTER XI. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN— CONCLUDED. 

REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER, AND NORTH OF THE 

OHIO BASIN. 

Sect. I. General Views, 319 

II. Basin of the Kaskaskia River, 320 

III. Basin of the Illinois River, 320 

IV. Basin of Rock River, 327 

V. Remainder of the Southern Basin, ------ 330 

CHAPTER XII. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE HYDROGRAPHICAL BASIN. 
GENERAL VIEWS OF THE WHOLE BASIN : LAKES SUPERIOR, MICHI- 
GAN, AND HURON. 

Sect. I. Basin of Lake Superior, - - 333 

II. Basin of Lake Michigan, - - - - - - - - 336 

[V.] Basin of Lake Huron, 345 

[VI.] Straits between Lake Huron and Lake Erie : Lake St. Clair, - 351 

CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN — CONTINUED. 

BASIN OF LAKE ERIE. 

Sect. I. Basin of the River Raisin, 359 

II. Basin of the Maumee River and Bay, ------ 360 

III. The Sandusky Basin, 366 

IV. Basin of Huron River, - 369 

V, Basin of Black River, 371 

VI. The Cuyahoga Basin, 372 

VII. Basin of the Chagrin, 376 

VIII. Basin of Grand River, 377 

IX. Lake Shore, from Painesville to Buffalo, ------ 378 

X. City of Buffalo, 380 

XI. Northern side of the Erie Basin, 382 

XII. Remarks on the Basin of the Upper Lakes, ----- 384 

CHAPTER XIV. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN — CONTINUED. 
BASIN OF LAKE ONTARIO. 

Sect. I. Hydrographical outlines, 389 

II. Basin of the Niagara River, ------- 390 

III. The Lake Shore from Niagara River to Genesseo River, - 392 

IV. Basin of Genessee River, -------- 394 

V. Basin of Oswego River, with its Lakes, ------ 400 

VI. Basin of Black River, 405 

VII. Coaat of Lake Ontario, from Niagara River to Burlington Bay, - - 406 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. x iii 

VIII. Coast and Basin of Lake Ontario, from Burlington Bay to the Valley of 

the Trent, 408 

IX. Basin of the Trent, and the Bay of Quinte, 411 

X. Kingston, 413 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN — CONCLUDED. 

Sect. I. The River St. Lawrence, from Lake Ontario to the Island of Montreal, 414 

II. Basin of Ottawa River, 417 

III. Island and City of Montreal, 418 

IV. Region South and North of the St. Lawrence, between Montreal and 

Quebec, 420 

V. Quebec, 424 

VI. Estuary of the St. Lawrence, ------- 426 

VII. Parallel between the Mississippi and St. Lawrence Rivers, - - 430 

VIII. Of the St. Lawrence as a place of Summer Resort for Invalids, - 432 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE HUDSON AND ARCTIC HYDROGRAPHICAL BASINS. 
INTRODUCTION. 

Sect. I. The Hudson Hydrographical Basin, ___-_- 437 

II. The Arctic Hydrographical Basin, ------ 442 

Conclusion of Topography, -------- 446 



PART II. 

CLIMATIC ETIOLOGY. 
CHAPTER I. 

NATURE, DYNAMICS, AND ELEMENTS OF CLIMATE. 
Sect. I. General Views, ---------- 447 

II. Causes which modify the Climate of the Interior Valley, - - 449 

CHAPTER II. 

TEMPERATURE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 

Sect. I. Mean Temperature of the Year, 453 

II. Extremes of Heat and Cold, 478 

III. Distribution of the Mean Annual Temperature through the Seasons, 485 

IV. Distribution of Temperature through the Months, - 496 
V. Pairs of Months, 507 

VI. Diurnal and Sudden Variations, - 510 

VII. Mean Temperatures Determined by Induction, - _ - - 516 

VIII. Temperatures of St. Louis and Cincinnati, with Diagrams, - - 519 

IX. Curve of Mean Temperature of the Interior Valley, - - - 530 

CHAPTER III. 

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 

Sect. I. Introduction, 531 

II. Barometric Observations at St. Louis, Missouri, - - - - 531 

III. Barometrical Observations at Cincinnati, Ohio, - - - - 536 

IV. Barometric Observations at Hudson, Ohio, 541 



xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

[IV.] Barometric Observations at Toronto, Canada West, - 545 

V. Barometric Observations at Montreal. Canada East, - 550 

VI. Generalizations, ---------- 550 

VII. Physiological and Etiological Effects of varying Atmospheric Pressure, 556 

CHAPTER IV. 

WINDS OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 

Sect. I. Introductory observations, ------ 557 

II. Tabular Views of the Wind at our Military Posts, - - - 559 

III. Tabular Views of the Wind at various Civil Stations, - - 564 

IV. Order, Relative Prevalence, Characteristics, and Effects of our Various 

Winds, -------- 572 

CHAPTER [IV]. 

AQUEOUS METEORS. 

Sect. I. Rain and Snow, - - - - - - - 587 

II. Clear, Cloudy, Rainy, and Snowy Days, - 594 

III. Humidity, 601 

CHAPTER V. 

ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA; DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 

Sect. I. Atmospheric Electricity. — Thunder Storms. — Hurricanes, - - 611 

II. Climatic Distribution of Plants and Animals, - - - 623 



PART III. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL ETIOLOGY. 

CHAPTER I. 

POPULATION. 

Sect. I. Division into Varieties, --------- 637 

II. Caucasian Variety. — Historical, Chronological, and Geographical Anal- 

ysis, 638 

III. Physiological Characteristics, „„_---_ 644 

IV. Statistical Physiology, 650 

CHAPTER II. 
MODES OF LIVING. 

Sect. I. Diet.— Solid Food, - - - - - e - - - 653 

II. Liquid Diet and Table Drinks, 657 

III. Water, 661 

IV. Alcoholic Beverages, --------- 668 

V. Tobacco, 673 

CHAPTER III. 
CLOTHING, LODGINGS, BATHING, HABITATIONS, AND SHADE-TREES. 

Sect. I. Clothing, - 676 

II. Bathing, 679 

III. Lodgings, -------- 679 

IV. Habitations, -------- 681 

V. Shade-trees, -------- 683 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV 

CHAPTER IV. 
OCCUPATIONS, PURSUITS, EXERCISE, AND RECREATIONS. 

Sect. I. Agricultural Labors, • 684 

II. Commercial Pursuits, -------- 535 

III. Mining and Smelting, 691 

IV. Salt Making, 694 

V. Mechanical and Chemical Arts, and Manufactures, - 695 

VI. Exercise, Recreation, and Amusement, 696 

Conclusion of Book First, 701 



BOOK SECOND. 

FEBRILE DISEASES. 

PART I. 

AUTUMNAL FEVER. 
CHAPTER I. 

NOMENCLATURE, VARIETIES, AND GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS OF AU- 
TUMNAL FEVER, TOGETHER WITH THE TOPOGRAPHICAL AND 
CLIMATIC CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH IT PREVAILS. v 

Sect. 1. Nomenclature. — Variety. — Identity, - 703 

II. Geographical Limits, ------- 704 

III. Conditions which impose Geographical Limits, and give unequal preva- 
lence to Autumnal Fever, - 709 

CHAPTER II. 

SPECULATIONS ON THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

Sect. I. Meteoric Hypothesis, --------- 71 Q 

II. Malarial Hypothesis, --• 719 

III. Vegeto-Animalcular Hypothesis, ----... 723 

CHAPTER III. 
MODE OF ACTION, AND FIRST EFFECTS OF THE REMOTE CAUSE OF 

AUTUMNAL FEVER. 
Sect. I. Application of the Poison, -------- 728 

II. Mode of Action, 732 

CHAPTER IV. 

VARIETIES AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

Sect. I. Varieties, 734 

II. Development and Pathological Character, ------ 736 

CHAPTER V. 

INTERMITTENT FEVER— SIMPLE AND INFLAMMATORY. 
Sect. I. Simple Intermittents — History and Pathology, - - - 742 

II. Treatment of Simple Intermittents, - 743 

III. Inflammatory Intermittents, ------ 751 



xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

MALIGNANT INTERMITTENT FEVER. 

Sect. I. General History, ------- 756 

II. Symptomatology, ------- 758 

III. Pathology and Complications, ----- 764 

IV. Treatment in the Paroxysm, ------ 765 

V. Treatment in the Intermission, ----- 773 

VI. Conclusion, -------- 778 

CHAPTER VII. 

REMITTENT AUTUMNAL FEVER — SIMPLE AND INFLAMMATORY — 
CONSIDERED TOGETHER. 

Sect, I. Symptoms, -------- 779 

II, Treatment, -------- 781 

CHAPTER VIII. 

MALIGNANT REMITTENT FEVER. 

Sect. I. General Remarks, ------- _ 794 

II. Diagnosis and Pathology, -------- 795 

III. Treatment, 799 

CHAPTER IX. 

PROTRACTED, RELAPSING, AND VERNAL INTERMITTENTS. 

Sect. I. Chronic and Relapsing Cases, -------- 809 

II. Vernal Intermittents, --------- 811 

III. Treatment — Hygienic and Medical, ------ 814 

CHAPTER X. 

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY AND CONSEQUENCES OF AUTUMNAL 

FEVER. 

Sect. I. Mortality of Autumnal Fever, 818 

II. Condition of the Blood in Autumnal Fever, ----- 819 

III. Pathological Anatomy of Intermittent Fever, - - - - 820 

IV. Pathological Anatomy of Remittent Fever, ----- 823 

V. Consequences of Autumnal Fever, ------ 831 

CHAPTER XI. 
CONSEQUENCES OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

Sect. I, Diseases of the Spleen : General Views, 835 

II. Splenitis, - 838 

III. Suppuration of the Spleen, 840 

IV. Enlargement of the Spleen, 842 

V. Diseases of the Liver, 849 

VI. Dropsy, 855 

VII. Periodical Neuralgia, 863 



THE 

PRINCIPAL DISEASES 

OF THE 

INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA, 



Book iTivst. 

GENERAL ETIOLOGY 



INTRODUCTION. 

There are diseases which occur independently of all known external influ- 
ences, which affect individuals of all races, and present in all cases substan- 
tially the same symptoms and lesions of structure ; of which cancer, fungus 
nematodes, melanosis, wens, cataract, ossifications, apoplexy, and various 
chronic affections of the skin, may be cited as examples. There are others, 
depending on known and common causes to which man is exposed in all 
countries, climates, and states of society ; such as inflammations from mechan- 
ical injuries, burns, or the ingestion of acrid poisons, which, respectively, 
present nearly the same characteristics, wherever or in whatever race they 
occur. Others, again, result from specific causes which are rej>roduced in the 
bodies of the sick, whereby they spread, with great uniformity of symptoms, 
to all who are exposed ; such as small pox, cow pox, measles, and hooping 
cough. In reference to all these, and other diseases which might be men- 
tioned, it may be said, that the observations made in one country are, in the 
main, equally applicable to every other. The maladies are the common 
scourge of our race ; and the knowledge of their symptoms, lesions, and 
treatment, the common heritage of our profession. 

On the other hand, there are diseases which scarcely ever occur but in cer- 
tain climates, localities, or states of society ; of which we may select for 
illustration, yellow fever, autumnal intermittent and remittent fever, plague, 
pneumonia, goitre and cretinism, gout, scurvy, and mania, most of which, 
moreover, in different countries, ages, and races, exhibit some variety of type, 
and demand some peculiarity of treatment. Here then is the foundation of 
local medical history and practice; a basis which does not support the 
whole nosology, and yet is broad enough for a large superstructure, when- 
ever an extended region constitutes the field of inquiry. 



2 INTRODUCTION. [book i. 

That many physicians overrate the degree of variation from a common 
standard which the diseases of different countries present, I am quite con- 
vinced ; but feel equally assured, that if the maladies of each country were 
studied and described, without a reference to those of any other, it would be 
found, if the state of medical science were equal in them, that the works thus 
produced would not be commutable, but that each would be better adapted, 
as a book of etiology, diagnosis, and practice, to the profession and people 
among which it was written, than to any other. How much better, would 
depend on the various identities and discrepancies which might exist between 
the countries thus compared. If their geological, hydrographical, topogra- 
phical, climatic, social, and physiological conditions were nearly the same, of 
course their medical histories would be much alike; but if they differed 
widely in one or several of these conditions, a corresponding diversity would 
appear in the respective histories of all the diseases, which admit of modifica- 
tion from causes referable to those heads. 

The work on which we are entering, is an attempt to present an account, 
etiological, symptomatical, and therapeutic, of the most important diseases of 
a particular portion of the earth ; not of a state or political division, for it is 
indirectly, and to a very limited extent only, that civil divisions can originate 
varieties in the character of disease. Physical causes lie at the bottom of 
whatever differences the maladies of different portions of the earth may pre- 
sent ; and hence the region which a medical historian selects, should have 
well-defined natural, and not merely conventional boundaries. 

The Interior Yalley, or deeply depressed, intermontane plain of North 
America, has been already announced, as the region to which this work re- 
lates. Great valleys have both alpine and marine borders, and the medical 
historian should comprehend them in his researches. Faithful to this duty, 
and adopting a hydrographical method, I have ascended our streams to their 
mountain sources, or descended them to the sea, at points exceedingly dis- 
tant from each other. The vast extent of this field of inquiry would, at first 
view, seem to be a great disadvantage, but is, in fact, highly favorable to the 
development of results ; as it enables us to trace a disease, in continuity, 
from its points of greatest prevalence, to its disappearance under new physi- 
cal or moral and social conditions. 

To these conditions I wish now to direct the attention of the reader. 
When they are subjected to a first analysis, we find them resolved into three 
principal groups. The first comprehends all that belong to the earth, con- 
sidered in the composition and mechanical arrangement of its superficial 
strata, the qualities of its soil, and the amount, distribution, and quality of its 
waters : these are the telluric or geological influences. The second compri- 
ses all that belong to the atmosphere, in its mechanical action, sensible 
qualities, and adventitious impregnations: which make the climatic or mete- 
orological influences. To the third belongs whatever appertains to society, 
considered in reference to national physiology, density of population, diet, 



book i.] INTRODUCTION. 3 

drinks, clothing, occupations, amusements, intellectual cultivation, and moral 
improvement : in which are embraced the social and physiological influences. 

It is not necessary to decide that all tue'agents capable of producing dis- 
eases net found in other countries, or of modifying those which are, can be 
referred to these heads ; but they will certainly comprehend the majority, 
including the most important ; and whatever remain, will fall under conside- 
ration with the particular diseases which they either occasion or modify. 

In describing our topography, climate, and states of society, I might have 
noted the relative prevalence of many diseases ; but such a course would have 
been attended with numerous embarrassments. I selected two, therefore, 
which, from universal observation, are known to have a most intimate con- 
nection, in their origin or prevalence, with soil and climate ; and have very 
generally noted the degree of their occurrence, or their absence, in each 
locality ; thus endeavoring to maintain in the mind of the reader, the con- 
nection which, in nature, exists between topography and etiology. He must 
not, however, forget that this connection is not limited to those diseases, but 
must expect that, in the study of many others, a reference to the topogra- 
phical descriptions on which we are about to enter, will frequently be made. 

As an introduction to the difficult task of topographical description, over 
so large a surface, I have attempted to prepare, as it were, a geographical 
back ground, fitted (to continue the metaphor) to bring out, more distinctly, 
the characteristics of each locality. Thus a comprehensive outline of the 
physical geography and hydrology of the whole region, precedes all local 
description ; and in the unsettled portions of the valley, comprehends all that 
seemed necessary to our purpose. I have also sought to give the progressive 
topography a geological basis, a hydrographical guidance, and a climatic 
order, all of which, it will be seen, was in some degree practicable. Begin- 
ning with the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and advancing north, we pass 
successively over all the geological formations of the valley, from the newest 
to the oldest. Again, commencing at the gulf, we start on a proper hydro- 
graphical base line, and by ascending the Mississippi, are guided in the same 
direction as before. Again, in starting from the gulf, below the twenty-third 
degree of north latitude, we get a tropical base line for our climates ; and in 
advancing to the north, reach, progressively, higher latitudes, greater eleva- 
tions, and further distances from the sea. Finally, while ascending the Mis- 
sissippi, if we turn from it to the east or west, we constantly attain to a 
higher level and a dryer surface. 

If we pass out of the valley of that river into the basin of the Great Lakes 
and the St. Lawrence, we find similar, though less striking, relations. Thus, 
in descending to the south, from the summit level beyond Lake Superior to 
the western end of Lake Erie, we pass regularly from older to newer geologi- 
cal formations — from a wetter to a dryer surface — from higher to lower 
levels ; and when we turn from the extremity of the latter lake, and advance 
in the direction of the St. Lawrence, we pass from newer to older geological 



4 INTRODUCTION. [book i. 

deposits, — from lower to higher latitudes, and from higher to lower eleva- 
tions, until we reach the tides in that river. Lastly, if we pass over the 
dividing ridge between the waters of the southern and northern parts of 
the Valley, and descend the rivers which disembogue into the frozen seas 
of the north, we travel most of the way over primitive rocks, are constantly 
arriving in a higher latitude, and as constantly sinking to a lower level, 
until we reach the ocean. 

It has been my aim to keep these various relations in view, and so to 
proceed with the descriptions, as to have no locality insulated, but each to fol- 
low some other in a natural sequence, and thus to arrange the whole into 
one topographical system. 

With what degree of success this object has been accomplished, each 
reader will determine for himself; while all, I trust, will approve the method, 
and admit the inherent difficulties of its execution on so great a scale. 



PART FIRST. 

TOPOGRAPHICAL AND HYDROGRAPHICAL ETIOLOGY. 



CHAPTER I. 

GENERAL ANALYSIS 



SECTION I. 

NATURAL BOUNDARIES, AREA, AND ASPECTS. 

I. Natural Boundaries. — The Interior Valley of North America 
begins within the tropics, and terminates within the polar circle ; traversing 
the continent from south to north, and passing through the entire northern, 
temperate zone. In the south it rests upon, and is deeply indented by, the 
Gulf of Mexico ; in the north it bears a similar relation to the Polar ^sea and 
Hudson Bay ; the latter penetrating it so deeply, as to come within twenty- 
two degrees of latitude of the Gulf of Mexico. On the east its limits are the 
Appalachian Mountains, which extend from the thirty-third to the fifty-third 
degree of latitude, each end terminating in a low water shed. On the west, 
the immense chains of Rocky and Sea-side Mountains, beginning within the 
torrid zone and ending beyond the polar circle, seclude it from the Pacific 
Ocean. These mountain borders, as may be seen on the map (PL I), 
diverge from each other as they cross the continent, and thus the Valley 
regularly widens as it passes from south to north. 

II. Area. — Of the area of this great intermontane region it is not easy 
to speak with much precision. To the south its latitudes vary from the 
eighteenth to the thirtieth parallels ; in the north, from the fiftieth to the 
seventieth. In the south, its eastern margin is found near the eighty-first 
meridian ; its western, in the one hundred and fifth ; but in the fifty-third 
degree of latitude, it advances east to the fifty-sixth meridian, and west to 
the one hundred and sixteenth; finally, in the sixty-eighth parallel, its 
western margin is found in the one hundred and thirty-sixth degree of 
longitude. 

If we assume eight millions of square miles as the area of North America, 
the Valley cannot be estimated at less than six millions, or three-fourths of 
the whole continental surface. Its northern half, however, is rendered nearly 
uninhabitable by the state of its surface and its climate; and, therefore, the 



G THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

portion which presents objects of immediate interest to the medical etiolo- 
gist, does not exceed three millions of square miles, of which, as yet, not 
more than one-third has acquired even a sparse civilized population. 

III. Aspects. — The Kocky Mountains, which, as we have seen, constitute 
the western boundary of the Great Valley, are a continuation of the Cordil- 
leras of Mexico. Their course is nearly north west, to the twenty- eighth or 
thirtieth parallel; then north, to the forty -fourth or forty-fifth, and then 
north-north west to the seventieth, where they reach the Polar Sea. Their 
elevation, which becomes rather greater as we advance, varies from ten 
to fourteen thousand feet. They are composed of many chains, closely 
united by offsets. Their average distance from the coast of the Pacific 
Ocean, to which they lie nearly parallel, is about ten degrees of longitude. 
Very near that coast, however, there runs another chain, of narrower base, but 
equal or greater altitude, especially in the far north, where some of the 
peaks rise to the hight of fifteen or sixteen thousand feet. These moun- 
tains originate in the peninsula of California, near the tropic of cancer, and 
terminate about the sixtieth degree of north latitude. They are called, by 
Humboldt, the Californian Maritime Alps — by Fremont, the Sierra Nevada. 
Many of them are volcanic. The valley of the Oregon, or Columbia River, 
lies between this chain and the Eocky Mountains, and makes its way to the 
Pacific through the former, about the forty-sixth parallel. 

The physician who would understand the true character of the climate of 
the Interior Valley, from south to north, cannot too strongly fix his attention 
on these lengthened and elevated mountain chains, which so effectually cut it 
off from the genial influences of the Pacific Ocean. In descending upon the 
plain, of which they constitute the western buttress, we find that they rise 
from five to six thousand feet above it. Beyond the fiftieth degree of north 
latitude, a chain of lakes approaches them, and a long river flows near their 
base into the Polar Sea. Below that parallel the lakes are distant ; the 
rivers generally flow off at right angles from these mountain chains ; and 
spurs and tracts of hill or high table land project from them, or are found 
insulated upon the plain, of which the most elevated and extensive are the 
following : 

1. The Sweetwater Mountains anal Black Hills. — Shooting out from the 
flanks of the Kocky Mountains, between the forty-second and forty-third 
parallels, the Sweetwater mountains bear to the east, from the one hundred 
and ninth to the one hundred and sixth meridian ; when, receiving the name 
of Black Hills, they stretch off to the north east, and terminate about the 
forty-sixth parallel. Their altitude ranges from four to eight thousand feet. 

2. The Llano Estacado, or Staked Plain, lies south of the last, in mean 
latitude thirty-four degrees north, and mean longitude one hundred and two 
degrees west. It may be regarded as an extensive tract of table land, the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 7 

general surface of which is, by estimate, two thousand feet above the streams 
which flow around its steep acclivities.* 

3. The Ozark Mountains. — They commence not far from the eastern 
margin of the Llano Estacado, of which they ought, perhaps, to be regarded 
as a rugged continuation ; and, bearing north east, terminate about the thirty- 
eighth degree of north latitude and the ninety-first of west longitude, near 
the Missouri river. Their breadth is not great, and their elevation (as yet 
undetermined) is, perhaps, not above that of the Llano Estacado. 

4. The Coteau des prairies, a table land rising to the hight of eighteen 
hundred and even two thousand feet, and distributing the rivers which origi- 
nate upon it, between the Mississippi and Missouri. Its head or northern 
extremity is in latitude forty- six degrees north. 

Such are the chief protuberances on the great inclined plain, which 
descends from the eastern base of the Rocky Mountains, to the synclinal 
axis, or trough, of the Valley. 

Let us pass to a similar survey of the eastern side of the Valley. 

As we have already seen, the Appalachian Mountains limit the Valley 
plain to the east. In length and breadth they are but little more than one 
third as great as the Hocky Mountains, — in altitude, about one-fourth: 
though a few summits, both in the south and north, rise to more than one- 
third of the elevation of the highest points of the western chainT Their 
general course is north east, and mostly parallel to the western shore of the 
Atlantic Ocean. They are composed of interrupted, but nearly parallel, 
ridges ; which, between the latitudes of forty-two and forty-six degrees, are 
cut through in two places to the level of the plain of which they are the eas- 
tern rampart, and in one place to the level of the sea. On their western side, 
they are flanked by an elevated belt of hills, from the latitude of forty-two 
to thirty-three degrees ; where, in North Alabama, it turns to the west, and 
approaches the Mississippi in the direction of the Ozark Mountains. The 
plain, which stretches from the Appalachian chain to the trough of the Great 
Valley, is much narrower than that of the opposite side ; and, although in 
general more rugged, presents no hills or table lands approaching in hight 
the Ozark Mountains, the Llano Estacado, or the Black Hills. That which 
constitutes the greatest difference in the aspect of this, compared with the 
last, is its interruption above the forty-second degree of latitude, by the 
Great Lakes, and the formation of the St. Lawrence, which makes its way 
through the Appalachian chain: — for this there is no parallel on the 
western side. 

The northern part of the interior of the continent presents much less of a 
valley aspect. The Rocky Mountains continue to the Polar Sea, near the 
seventieth degree of latitude ; but the Appalachian range expires before it 

* Commerce of the Prairies. By Josiah Gregg, now M. D. 



8 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE L book i. 

readies the Labrador coast of the Pacific Ocean, about the fifty-third par- 
allel. Thus it may be said, that a great flat stretches across the northern 
part of the continent from the Rocky Mountains, which is repeatedly 
indented by the sea, from the mouth of McKenzie River, near the ter- 
mination of the Rocky Mountains, round to the coast of Labrador, resting on 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

It will be seen from these statements, that the eastern side of the Interior 
Valley is much less protected from the influences of the Atlantic Ocean, 
than the western is from those of the Pacific. 



SECTION II. 

HYDROGRAPHICAL SYSTEM. 

We must now take a brief preliminary view of the hydrology of the 
region, the boundaries, area, and aspects of which have been comprehensively 
sketched. 

I. Seas. — Penetrating deeply into the southern and northern sides of the 
Valley, the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay (two mediterranean seas) 
exert a decided influence on its physical character; for they give a great 
extent of inland sea coast ; while they, respectively, draw to themselves, from 
opposite directions, many large rivers which originate near each other in the 
central parts of the Valley, and thus establish a sort of water axis through 
the continent, nearly in the direction of the meridian. 

II. Lakes. — While the south-western third part of the Valley is nearly 
destitute of lakes, the other parts present them in countless numbers. The 
smaller appear to be dispersed without any kind of order ; but the larger, 
present a series, or system, which merits attention. Commencing with Great 
Bear Lake, a large sheet of water in the north-west corner* of .the Valley, 
near the Arctic Circle, west longitude one hundred and twenty-seven degrees, 
the lacustrine chain stretches toward the south east. To that lake at first 
succeeds a series of smaller ones, with intervening straits, which connect 
them with Great Slave Lake. After this follows, in the same range, Lake 
Athabasca, then the smaller lakes Wollaston and Deer, then Lake Winni- 
peg, of larger size, and near it the well-known Lake of the Woods, in the 
forty-ninth degree of north latitude and ninety-fifth west longitude, with 
which arc connected, by the river Winnipeg, a considerable series of smaller 
lakes. The chain now suddenly expands into great dimensions; the first 
link, Lake Superior, being the largest on the continent. To this succeed 
Huron and Michigan, and then Erie, which approaches the flanks of the Appa- 
lachian Mountains, in the latitude of forty-one degrees north, and the 
longitude of eighty degrees west. With Lake Erie the axis changes from 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 9 

south east to north east, and is continued in that direction, parallel to the 
mountains, through Lake Ontario, until it reaches the St. Lawrence ; which has 
several lacustrine expansions, and is connected laterally with Champlain and 
many smaller lakes. This is, perhaps, the longest series of lakes which the 
world contains. The superfluous waters of those which lie farthest north, as 
Bear, Slave, and Athabasca, flow into the Arctic Sea. Further south, the 
middle portions (of which Lake Winnipeg is chief) pour their waters, through 
Churchill and Nelson Bivers, into Hudson Bay. The eastern, from Lake 
Superior to Lake Champlain, flow into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For three 
fourths of its length, that is, from Great Bear Lake to Lake Michigan, the 
series runs almost parallel to the Bocky Mountains ; diverging, however, to 
the north at an angle of a few degrees; while the last fourth part of the 
chain lies parallel with the northern Appalachian Mountains. About the 
ninety-seventh degree of west longitude, in Lake Winnipeg, the lacustrine 
axis intersects the river axis between Hudson Bay and the Gulf of Mexico. 
To the north east of this extended chain, on every side of Hudson Bay, the 
surface abounds in lakes, but they are generally small and without any 
known systematic distribution. 

III. Bivers. — The invention of steamboats has given a new impulse to 
settlements on the banks of rivers. There we find the largest cities ; and 
between them, where the banks and bottom lands are sufficiently elevated, 
we have the densest rural population. Thus our rivers have become objects 
of paramount interest to the medical etiologist; and without a full considera- 
tion of them, but little can be said on the endemic febrile diseases of the 
country. Reserving all details for subsequent chapters, I propose, in this 
preliminary and perspective view, to present a rapid, yet systematic, enu- 
meration of the most important. For this the way has been prepared, by 
the general survey of our mountains, elevated plains, seas, and lakes, with 
some of which every considerable river, either at one or the other of its 
extremities, is connected. In calling them over, it will be advantageous to 
do it by the centers or axes in which they originate. Of these centers, some 
are entirely within the Valley — others, among the mountains which constitute 
its lateral boundaries. I shall begin with the former. 

1. Valley Hydro graphical Axes and Centers. 
A. Of these centers the most important is the region which lies west of 
Lake Superior, in mean latitude forty- seven degrees north, and mean longi- 
tude ninety-five degrees west. Its position, as may be seen on the map 
{PI. /.), is near the superficial center of the continent. Its average elevation 
is about fifteen hundred feet above the sea, its greatest, less than two thou- 
sand, and still it sends off vast rivers, in three different directions. 

a. The Mississippi. Bising under its own proper name, and also by its 
great tributary, the St. Peter's, or Minisotah, this river descends to the 



10 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

south, through eighteen degrees of latitude, and after flowing three thousand 
miles, chiefly in the central trough of the Great Valley, pours its waters into 
the Gulf of Mexico, under the twenty-ninth parallel of latitude. 

b. The St. Laivrence begins, under the name of St. Louis, in the same 
region with the Mississippi. By a rapid descent, it throws its waters into 
the west end of Lake Superior, to issue from the opposite extremity under 
the name of St. Mary's. Lost in Lake Huron, it reappears under the name 
of St. Clair River, which opens into the lake of the same name ; whence it 
emerges, with a new designation, the Detroit, to be absorbed by Lake Erie. 
Out of the eastern extremity of this lake, it emerges as the Niagara River, 
to precipitate itself, by the celebrated Falls, into Lake Ontario ; from which, 
under the appellation of St. Lawrence, it flows north eastwardly into the gulf 
which bears its name, about the forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and 
the sixty-fourth of west longitude, having a length of about two thousand 
miles. 

c. Red River, of the North. The sources of this river lie on the same 
plateau as those of the two just described; whence it flows directly north, 
and discharges its waters into Lake Winnipeg, from which they issue under 
the names of Nelson and Hayes' Bivers, to be poured into Hudson Bay, in 
latitude fifty-seven degrees north. Its length, under different names, is about 
fifteen hundred miles. The bed of this river lies nearly in the same meri- 
dian with that of the Mississippi, and they flow, though in opposite directions, 
through the longitudinal trough of the great Interior Valley. 

B- West of Lake Michigan, in the mean latitude of forty-five degrees, 
and between the longitudes of eighty-nine and ninety-two degrees west, 
there is a hydrographical axis, which, although entirely subordinate to the 
preceding, deserves to be noticed. Its general course is south east and north 
west. To the north, it throws into Lake Superior a few short and unimpor- 
tant rivers, — to the east, it originates Fox River, which, passing through 
Lake Winnebago, enters Lake Michigan, by Green Bay. But the con- 
tributions of this axis to the Mississippi are much greater than to the 
Lakes. Thus, beginning in the north, we have the St. Croix, Chippewa, 
Sappah or Black, Wisconsin, and Rock Rivers, which flow to the south west, 
and enter the Mississippi at something like equal distances from each other, — 
the mouths of the first and last being more than four hundred miles apart. 
Of the whole, the Wisconsin is the largest, and constitutes the principal river 
of the state which bears its name. This axis, the mean elevation of which 
may be about one thousand feet above the sea, abounds in small lakes. Its 
northern and eastern margins approach very near to Superior and Michigan ; 
and hence the small number and short course of the rivers of those sides, 
compared with the opposite. 

C. The axis last described lies on the western side of Lake Michigan. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 11 

On the opposite side of that lake, through the center of the southern part of 
the state of Michigan, there is another axis, elevated from five to eleven hun- 
dred feet, from which the St. Joseph's, Kalamazoo, and Grand Rivers 
descend westwardly to Lake Michigan; the Saginaw, northerly to Lake 
Huron ; and the Huron, Raisin, and part of the Maumee, eastwardly to 
Lake Erie. 

D. In the states of Indiana and Ohio, south and south west of Lake Erie, 
there is a hydrographical axis, which, although, like the latter, greatly inferior 
to the first, deserves to be noticed. Beginning near the south-western 
extremity of Lake Michigan, it gradually rises on passing out of Indiana to 
the east, and before it has reached the western boundary of Pennsylvania, 
attains an elevation of eleven or twelve hundred feet. The descent from 
this ridge to Lake Erie is much more rapid, because shorter, than that 
in the opposite direction. The western part of this axis gives origin to the 
greatest number of rivers, although its altitude is least. Their sources are 
in the mean latitude of forty degrees north, and longitude of eighty-five 
degrees west. They consist of the following : 

a. The Kankakee, or true head of the Illinois, which, originating in the 
state of Indiana, flows nearly west, at a short distance from Lake Michigan, 
into the state of Illinois, where it takes the name of that state, and bearing 
to the south west, enters the Mississippi River above the mouth of the 
Missouri, being the principal river of the state. 

b. The St. Joseph's, which, originating partly in the north-east corner of 
Indiana, and partly in the south-west corner of the state of Michigan, flows 
to the north west to pour its waters into the lake of that name. 

c. The Wabash, which, beginning in the western edge of Ohio, runs west- 
wardly into Indiana; and, at length, turning to the south west and south, 
crosses the state, and enters the Ohio river, one hundred and thirty miles 
from its mouth. This is the great river of Indiana, and the largest tributary 
of the north side of the Ohio. 

d. The Maumee. Interlocking in its origins with the Wabash, in the 
states of Indiana and Ohio, this river flows in an opposite direction from the 
last, that is to the north east, and enters the west end of Lake Erie, 
through Maumee Bay — being much shorter than the Wabash. 

e. The Great Miami, whose sources mingle with those of the last two. 
It descends nearly south to join the Ohio Biver near Lawrenceburgh, at the 
boundary lino between Ohio and Indiana, twenty miles below Cincinnati. 

/. The Sandusky, which, originating further east, flows nearly north and 
expands into the bay of the same name, which opens into Lake Erie, near 
the city of Sandusky. 

g. The Scioto, a counterpart of the last, which interlocks in origin with it, 



12 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and flowing nearly south by Columbus, the capital of Ohio, reaches the Ohio 
River at Portsmouth. This is the longest river of the state. 

h. The Cuyahoga, which rises in the " Western Reserve," and pursues at 
first a western, and then a northern course to Lake Erie, at Cleveland. 

i. The Muskingum, again the counterpart of the Cuyahoga, with which 
some of its eastern sources interlock, bends considerably to the west, then 
turns eastwardly, and finally joins the Ohio at Marietta, nearly in the lon- 
gitude of Cleveland. 

j. Grand River, the origin of which is in the same tract with that of the 
Cuyahoga, takes a more direct, northern course to the lake, which it enters 
near Painesville, thirty miles further east. 

k. Big Beaver River, which, under the more dignified names of Mahoning 
and Shenango, its elementary branches, originates with the last two rivers, 
but flows south south east, to unite with the Ohio at the town of Beaver, 
thirty miles below Pittsburgh. 

Besides these there are several smaller rivers : as, on the north side of the 
summit level, Portage, between Maumee and Sandusky, and Huron, Vermil- 
lion and Black, between the latter and Cuyahoga. On the south side, the 
Little Miami, between the Great Miami and Scioto, and Hocking, between 
the latter and Muskingum. 

Thus, as we see, this is an important hydrographical axis, giving origin to 
most of the rivers which flow through Indiana and Ohio, while it performs 
the more important function of separating the waters of the Gulf of Mexico 
from those of the St. Lawrence, through eight degrees of longitude, or more 
than four hundred miles. This axis, depressed from four hundred to eight 
hundred feet below the hydrographical center west of Lake Superior, is, like 
it, a plain or table, with many ponds or small lakes, and numerous swamps. 

B. Par to the south, but still on the eastern side of the Mississippi, we 
have, in the high lands of the states of Alabama and Mississippi, properly a 
low spur of the Appalachian chain, a fifth hydrographical axis, from which 
short tributaries of Tennessee River descend to the north, and several more 
considerable rivers flow off to the south. These are the Yazoo and Big 
Black, which join the Mississippi, and the Tombeckbee and Tuscaloosa that 
unite with the Alabama to form the Mobile, which disembogues into the G-ulf 
of Mexico. 

Such are the interior hydrogaphical centers on the eastern side of the 
Mississippi. We must now pass to the western, and begin in the south. 

P, In the northern part of the state of Texas, far in the south west of the 
Valley, there is a hilly axis, which throws out the Sabine, Trinity, Brazos, 
Colorado, and Nueces, which flow into the Gulf of Mexico. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 13 

G. Ascending northwardly we come, between the thirty-sixth and thirty- 
eighth degrees of latitude, to another center — the Ozark mountains. 
Besides certain branches of the Arkansas River, and of the Great Osage — 
a tributary of the Missouri — the Gasconade, another affluent of that river, 
and the Maramac, St. Francis, White River, and Washita, tributaries of the 
Mississippi, have their origin, in whole or in part, in the Ozarks. 

H. Advancing to the north west we come to the Black Hills, in the great 
bend of the Missouri River, which send all their streams into that river on 
the east, or into its large tributary, the Yellow Stone, on the west. 

"We have now passed over all the important hydrographical axes and 
centers of the southern part of the Great Valley, and a few paragraphs will 
suffice for those of the north, lying beyond the great Lakes and the sources of 
the Mississippi. 

I. The water table between Hudson Bay and the Lakes and St. Law- 
rence, sends forth several rivers to the former, or into Lake Winnipeg, of 
which the Abbitibbe and Rupert may be mentioned. It also gives origin to 
the Ottawa, St. Maurice, St. Anne, and Saguenay, important tributaries of 
the St. Lawrence, which of course flow in an opposite direction. 

J. Finally, far to the north west, in the sterile regions east of Great Bear 
Lake, there is a center whence the Yellow Knife River flows into an arm of 
Great Slave Lake, and the Copper Mine and Thleio-ee-chok, or Backus 
River, into the Polar Sea. 

2. Mountain Border Axes and Centers. 

By a natural transition, we ascend from this part of the Valley to the most 
distant of the mountain axes in the north west. 

A. The Northern Rocky Mountain Axis. In the magnitude of the 
rivers which it originates, this is the greatest axis on the continent. Its mean 
latitude is fifty- one or fifty- two degrees north west, its average longitude one 
hundred and fifteen. Its general elevation is ten or twelve thousand feet ; 
but it embraces Mount Brown and Mount Hooker, which rise much higher. 
Its rivers may be divided into those which flow into and through the Valley, 
and those which make their way, in the opposite direction, to the Pacific 
Ocean. W 7 e begin with the former. 

a. Mackenzie River, of which the most northern branch — latitude fifty- 
nine degrees — is the Liards or Turn Again; then the Unjigah or Peace 
River ; lastly, the Athabasca. It flows through most of its course near the 
base of the mountains, and enters the Polar Sea, having its embouchure in 
the north-west corner of the Valley, at a higher latitude than any other river 
of the continent. 



14 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

b. The north and south branches of the Saskatchawan^ which flow 
eastwardly to Hudson Bay. 

c. The Missouri, which, by its northern branch, the Maria, has a con- 
nection with this axis. 

d. Frazer River, which flows southerly, and discharges its waters into 
the Pacific Ocean through Vancouver Sound, in north latitude forty-nine 
degrees. 

e. The North Fork of Oregon or Columbia River, which, after uniting 
with the South Fork, reaches the same ocean, a little above the forty-sixth 
parallel, near the one hundred and twenty-fourth meridian. 

B. The Southern Rocky Mountain Axis. The mean latitude and longi- 
tude of this axis may be taken at forty-one degrees north, and one hundred 
and seven degrees west. Its average elevation is eleven thousand feet. On 
the east or valley side, it sends down : 

a. The southern rivulets of Big Horn, an important branch of the Yellow 
Stone, which, flowing north east through six degrees of latitude, unites with 
the Misssouri under the forty -ninth parallel. 

b. The Nebraska or Platte, which, flowing nearly east, traverses the great 
inclined plain of the Rocky Mountains, and empties into the Missouri River, 
below the Yellow Stone, in the forty-first degree of latitude. 

c. The Kansas, which flows nearly east, to unite with the Missouri below 
the Platte, precisely at the western boundary of the state of Missouri. 

d. The Arkansas, which traverses the same plain, at first to the east, and 
then to the south east, until it joins the Mississippi, near the thirty-fourth 
degree of latitude, thirteen hundred miles below the Platte, and more than 
two thousand below the Yellow Stone. 

e. Red River, which has less connection with the axis than the last, and 
after flowing eastwardly for several hundred miles, turns to the south-south 
east, to discharge its waters into the Mississippi, in north latitude thirty- one 
degrees, being the last tributary of that great river. 

/. The Rio del Norte, which descends to the south, then turns to the 
south east, and discharges its waters into the Gulf of Mexico, in latitude 
twenty-five degrees. 

As the Missouri, after receiving the Yellow Stone, Platte, and Kansas, 
unites with the Mississippi, it follows that all the eastern rivers originated 
by this hydrographical axis, except the Rio del Norte, discharge their waters 
into the gulf through that great river. 

On the western side of the Rocky Mountains, the center we are now 
considering, originates : 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 15 

g. The southern fork of the Columbia, known under the name of Lewis 
River, which flows nearly north west to join the Northern Branch, or Clarke 
River, at "Wallah Wallah, and then proceeds to the Pacific Ocean. 

h. The Rio Colorado, which, pursuing a south-westerly course, enters the 
northern extremity of the Gulf of California, about the thirty-second degree 
of north latitude. 

Let us now turn to the eastern or Appalachian mountain chain, beginning 
in the north. The rivers which it originates are smaller, and the hydro- 
graphical centers less obvious, but still recognizable. 

A. The elevated White and Green Mountain axis, sends down to the 
north the Chaudiere, Nicollet, Yamaska, St. Francis, and many smaller rivers 
to the St. Lawrence ; to the west, they pour several streams into Lake Cham- 
plain, whence they make their way through the Richelieu to the same great 
river ; to the south, they give origin to the St. John's, Penobscot, Kenne- 
bec, and Connecticut, which flow into the Atlantic Ocean. 

B. The Adirondack center, lying between Lake Ontario and Lake Cham* 
plain, in mean latitude and longitude, forty-four and seventy-four degrees, 
has an average elevation at four thousand five hundred feet, and originates a 
number of rivers, which radiate in all directions. 

a. To the east, it sends down the Saranac, the Au Sable, and some smaller 
streams which empty into Lake Champlain. 

b. To the north, the Salmon, St. Regis, Racket, La Grasse, and Osioe- 
gatchie, tributaries of the St. Lawrence. 

c. To the west, Black River, of Lake Ontario. 

d. To the south, West Canada River, in which are the celebrated Trenton 
Falls, by which it descends to the Mohawk. Lastly, 

e. The Hudson, which flowing also to the south, enters the Atlantic Ocean 
at New York. 

The area of this center is small, and the rivers which it originates, though 
numerous and abounding in water, are short. 

C. Further west and south, in the mean latitude of forty-two degrees and 
longitude of seventy-eight degrees, lying in the states of New York and 
Pennsylvania, we have another Appalachian center, the average hight of 
which is about eighteen hundred feet. The rivers which flow from it are as 
follows : 

a. To the north, the Gennesee, or principal river of Western New Y x ork, 
which discharges its waters into the middle of the south side of Lake On- 
tario, after traversing less than a degree and a half of latitude. 



16 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

b. The Oswego, which likewise enters Lake Ontario, and discharges the 
water of many long, narrow lakes, which are fed by streams which originate 
in this center. 

c. To the east we have many of the western branches of the Susquehan- 
nah, which, pursuing nearly a south-easterly course, enters the head of 
Chesapeake Bay. 

d. From the south-western declivity of this center, all the head waters of 
the Alleghany descend to form that river, which, pursuing a southerly course 
to Pittsburgh, joins the Monongahela ; when the united stream takes the 
name of Ohio, and flows in a west-south-west course to the Mississippi. 

D. Between the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth degrees of north latitude, 
and seventy- ninth and eightieth of west longitude, in the state of Virginia, 
we have a third hydrographical axis, in which are found the celebrated min- 
eral springs of that state. Its average levels may be given at two thousand 
feet. To the east it throws off — 

a. The Potomac, which, after bending to the north, turns south easterly, 
and enters Chesapeake Bay. 

. b. James River, lying south of the last, running more directly east, and en- 
tering the same bay near its junction with the Atlantic Ocean. 

c. To the north, this center sends out the Monongahela, which flows in 
that direction, to unite, at Pittsburg, with its larger and longer fellow, the 
Alleghany, in forming the Ohio river. 

d. From the same center, Greenbrier River passes off to the south west, 
and descends, by a comparatively short course, into the Kanawha River, and 
thence into the Ohio. 

E. The last hydrographical axis in this chain of mountains is found 
chiefly in the state of North Carolina ; but it comprehends, also, the south- 
west angle of Virginia, the northern parts of South Carolina and Georgia, 
and the eastern margin of Tennessee. Its mean latitude is thirty-six de- 
grees — its mean longitude, eighty-two degrees. Its mean elevation is 
greater than either of the last two, being not less than three thousand feet, 
with some peaks much higher. 

From the eastern and southern margin, it throws into the Atlantic 
Ocean — 

a. The Roanoke, or at least one of its largest branches, which enters 
Albemarle Sound. 

b. Cape Fear River, wholly within the state of North Carolina, which 
reaches the Atlantic Ocean by a south-east course. 

c. The Yadkin, which, on entering South Carolina, takes on the name of 



part I.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 17 

Pedee, and continuing in a direction east of south, discharges its waters into 
the Atlantic. 

d. The Catawba, or Waferee, the Broad River, and the Saluda River, 
which converge into a common trough that bears the name of Santee, and 
by a south-easterly course, arrives at the Atlantic. 

e. The Savannah, which, for most of its course serves, as the dividing line 
between South Carolina and Georgia. It holds a direct, and nearly south- 
east direction to the Atlantic Ocean. 

Let us now turn to the interior, and enumerate the most important rivers 
which flow over it, from this axis. 

/. The Kenawha River. To the north this summit level sends off the 
Kenawha, which for some distance bears the name of New River. Its 
course is first north east, and then north ; so that it actually passes through 
the edge of the hydrographical center last described ; after which it bends to 
the north west, to unite with the Ohio Eiver, at Point Pleasant, two hundred 
and seventy four miles below Pittsburgh, about the thirty-ninth degree of 
latitude, and nearly in the longitude of its most distant sources. Its length 
is greater than that of either of the rivers just enumerated. 

g. The Big Sandy River, the head springs of which are in the northern 
brow of this center, whence they descend to the north, and uniting, flow into 
the Ohio, about sixty miles below the Kenawha. 

h. The Kentucky River, which flows in a north-west course from the same 
margin, and joins the Ohio, at Carrolton, between Cincinnati and Louisville. 

i. The Cumberland River, whose sources, like those of the last two, are 
found in the north-west flanks of the same mountain center. Its course is 
at first west, through the south-east corner of Kentucky, then south west 
into Tennessee, then west, and finally north north west, across the state from 
which it had departed, to the Ohio River, at Smithland, fifty-six miles from 
the junction of that river with the Mississippi. 

j. The Tennessee River. The origin of this river is largely from the 
hydrographical center we are now studying. The main trunk, which bears 
the name just mentioned, is composed of the Clinch, Holston, French Broad, 
and Tennessee proper. The Holston connects itself most intimately with the 
central portions of the summit level, where it interlocks with the sources of 
the Kenawha. The Tennessee, constituted by the union of these mountain 
streams, descends to the south west, through the eastern end of the state 
which bears its name ; then passing within sight of the north-west corner of 
Georgia, and dipping into North Alabama, as low as the latitude of thirty- 
four degrees thirty minutes, it wheels to the north, and traversing the states 
of Tennessee and Kentucky, in the meridian of eighty- eight degrees west, 
joins the Ohio, of which it is the largest tributary, at Paducah, forty-five 
miles from the Mississippi. This junction is six hundred and sixty miles 



18 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

below that of the Kenawha, while the head rivulets of the two rivers are in 
the same locality. 

k. Chattahoochee River. Its sources, which interlock with those of the 
Tennessee, are found chiefly in the state of Georgia, and the south-west 
corner of North Carolina. At first its course is south west, but at length 
changing to the south, and becoming a boundary line between Georgia and 
Alabama, it traverses middle Florida, and reaches the Gulf of Mexico, 
through Appalachicola Bay, below the thirtieth degree of latitude, and a little 
west of the eighty-fifth degree of west longitude. 

I. The Alabama River. About the latitude of thirty-five degrees, and 
longitude of eighty-four degrees, that is, from the western outliers of this 
hydrographical axis, the Alabama, under the name of Coosawattee, after- 
ward Coosa, has its origin in the northern part of Georgia. Entering the 
state of Alabama, near the north-east corner, it holds a south-south-west 
course to the Gulf of Mexico, near the south-east corner of the state ; having 
been joined by the Tallapoosa, whose sources are a little south of its own. 

Such are the principal rivers which arise, in whole or in part, in this great 
hydrographical axis, which constitutes the southern extremity of the Appa- 
lachian chain. Subordinate to these, however, there are several others which 
originate in the outliers and hill lands that flank the mountain platform. On 
the Atlantic side, they are, the Cape Fear, Pedee, and Alatamaha, of the 
Carolinas and Georgia. On the continental or valley side, the Guyandotte. t 
in Virginia, and Licking and Green Rivers, in Kentucky, which discharge 
their waters into the Ohio. 

The radiation from this axis extends round three fourths of a circle, that is. 
from the east, by the south and west, to the north ; and the states traversed 
by the rivers which thence flow off are, Virginia, in its south-western por- 
tions, the Carolinas and Georgia, a small part of Florida, the larger portion 
of Alabama, and nearly the whole of Tennessee and Kentucky. 

To the seventeen preceding valley and mountain hydrographical axes, nearly 
all the rivers of the continent may be referred. In their origins, however, they 
are not actually limited to the centers and axes with which they have their 
chief connection. Thus, the portions of mountain which lie between the five 
Appalachian centers just described, act as water sheds between the Atlantic 
plain and the Interior Valley; the whole range of the Rocky Mountains 
throws down streams into the heart of the continent, and also into the Pacific 
Ocean, yet they chiefly flow from the two portions of that chain which have 
been indicated. Still further, within the Valley, a water shed everywhere 
divides the streams of the north from those of the south ; and yet, the cen- 
ters and axes west of Lakes Superior and Michigan, and south of Lake 
Erie, send out nearly all the rivers which have their origin within the 
VaUcy. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 19 

SECTION III. 

ALTITUDES AND CONFIGURATION. 

It has been already intimated that the interior of the continent is tra- 
versed by a deep, winding, longitudinal depression, constituting a synclinal 
axis, which extends from the Gulf of Mexico to Hudson Bay. The Missis- 
sippi is found in this trough, through two thousand one hundred and ninety- 
two miles, and nearly sixteen degrees of latitude ; that is, from the gulf, in 
latitude twenty-nine degrees north, to the mouth of St. Peter's River, in 
north latitude forty-four degrees fifty-two minutes. Here the axis makes 
a detour to the west, and incloses the latter river for four hundred and thir- 
teen miles, to the upper end of Big Stone Lake,* into which the St. Peter's, 
having its origin in the adjacent Cotcau des prairies, on the west, discharges 
its waters. Within three miles of this point, to the north, is the southern 
end of Lake Traverse. The ground between them is low, and when the St. 
Peter's is swollen, it sometimes sends a portion of its waters into this lake, 
so that canoes have passed from one to the other.f From the other extremity 
of Lake Traverse, Swan, or Sioux Creek flows to the north, and unites with 
Red River, which, having descended from the highlands to the east, now 
occupies the synclinal axis to Lake Winnipeg, in north latitude fifty degrees 
twenty minutes. From the north end of the latter lake, in latitude fifty-three 
degrees forty-two minutes, to Hudson Bay, in latitude fifty-seven degrees, the 
axis embraces Nelson River. Having traced it to the sea. let us return to the 
summit level or culminating line, between Big Stone and Traverse Lakes. 
Its distance from the Gulf of Mexico, following the sinuosities of the trough, 
is two thousand six hundred miles ; its longitude ninety-six degrees thirty-four 
minutes west; its latitude forty-five degrees thirty-five minutes, or sixteen 
degrees thirty minutes from that of the embouchure of the Mississippi. Its 
altitude, Colonel Long assures me, cannot exceed nine hundred and seventy- 
five feet, if Mr. Nicollet be correct in assigning nine hundred and sixty-six 
feet as the elevation of Big Stone Lake. This gives a rise from the Gulf of 
Mexico of nearly twelve inches for every minute of latitude; and of four 
inches and a half for every mile, following the course of the river. 

As the distance from this line of culmination to Hudson Bay is but twelve 
degrees thirty minutes of latitude, and the long level of Lake Winnipeg 
intervenes, it follows that the descent of the trough to the north is under a 
different law from that to the south. To Lake Winnipeg, now estimated by 
Colonel Long at the elevation of seven hundred and fifty feet, the fall is 
gradual and moderate ; from that lake to Hudson Bay, precipitous. 



* Nicollet. Hydro-graphical basin of the Upper Mississippi, 1841. 
t Narrative of an Expedition to the source of the St. Peter's River, under the com- 
mand of Stephen H. Long, Major U. S. T. E. Compiled by N. H. Keating, 1823. 



20 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

A projection or profile of this water curve may be seen in PI II y Fig. 1. 
Its northern extremity is three degrees thirty minutes west of its southern, 
the longitude of the latter being eighty-nine degrees six minutes west, that 
of the former ninety-two degrees thirty-six minutes ; but at the summit 
level, as we have just seen, it is ninety-six degrees thirty-four minutes, and 
at the efflux of Nelson Eiver from Lake Winnipeg, ninety-eight degrees, or 
nine degrees west of the mouth of the Mississippi. 

A wide and deep current from the north, must have excavated this trough 
across the continent, and Lake Traverse and Big Stone Lake, are but hollows 
or chasms, left filled with water when that river ceased to flow. They are 
long, narrow, serpentine, and lie in the course of the obsolete river. They 
resemble the pools of a wet-weather stream, during a drought, or, more 
exactly, the crescent lakes of the lower Mississippi, which, as we shall here- 
after see, were once portions of its ancient channel. 

The width of these lakes is from one to two miles, and the immediate 
valley in which they lie but two or three times as much ; then comes a rise of 
fifty or one hundred feet, with a gradual ascent beyond, to the elevation of 
one thousand eight hundred or two thousand feet, on the Coteau des prairies 
to the west, and another nearly as high, to the east, on which the Missis- 
sippi originates. 

Such is the great continental aqueduct, which, from the junction of 
Red River with the Mississippi, in the state of Louisiana, under the thirty- 
first parallel, to the Saskatchawan, which unites with Lake Winnipeg and 
Nelson River about the fifty-fourth degree, receives and transmits, to the 
seas of the south and the north, all the superfluous waters which fall to the 
west of the trough, as far as the crests of the Rocky Mountains. 

As this long synclinal axis runs nearly parallel to the mountain ranges, the 
inclined plain which lies between them is an irregular parallelogram. Its 
general aspect is to the east, but as it advances from the mountains, one 
portion inclines to the south, and another to the north. The line of this 
culmination leaves the Rocky Mountains about the forty-eighth or forty- 
ninth degree of north latitude ; and advancing a little south of east, reaches 
Lake Superior, which is, as it were, set into its eastern extremity. On its 
way it is cut through by the trough or synclinal axis which has been 
described. 

Let us turn to the region east of that axis. Measured from south to 
north, its length is nearly as great as that of the western plain, but its 
breadth far less, and very unequal in different latitudes. Below the lati- 
tude of thirty-four degrees it is narrow ; it then suddenly spreads out to its 
greatest width, having for its eastern limits the spines of the Appalachian 
Mountains, from North Carolina to Pennsylvania; when, about the latitude of 
forty-one degrees north, its breadth is reduced nearly two thirds, and so con- 
tinues to Hudson Bay. Through this plain there is also a culminating 
ridge, which extends from the mountains toward the central water axis. 



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part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 21 

T^rom the southern side of this elevation, the waters ultimately reach the 
Gralf of Mexico, through the Mississippi; from the northern they fall into 
the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, and reach the Atlantic Ocean to the north 
east. 

Here, then, is a new and distinct hydrological system — another synclinal 
axis, somewhat at right angles to that which has been delineated, and con- 
fined to the middle portion of the eastern plain. It begins with Lake Supe- 
rior, and ends with the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In times past it had extensive 
water communications with the last, by several rivers, but especially the Illi- 
nois, which originates around the southern extremity of Lake Michigan, and 
flows to the Mississippi through a depression in the intervening barrier ; 
which is so deep, that in times of flood, canoes have passed from one trough 
or synclinal axis into the other. 

It results, from what has been said on the deep cuts which traverse the 
Interior Valley, that two voyagers might start from the Gulf of Mexico, in the 
latitude of twenty-nine degrees north ; and ascending the Mississippi to the 
mouth of the Illinois river, one of them might take the course of that stream ; 
pass into the Lakes, over an elevation of six hundred feet ; descend the St. 
Lawrence ; and make his exit into the Atlantic Ocean, upon the fishing banks 
of Newfoundland ; twenty degrees north and thirty degrees east of his place 
of departure. The other, continuing up the Mississippi and over the Lake 
Traverse summit level, at the hight of nine hundred and seventy five feet, 
would descend into Hudson Bay; whence he might pass into the polar seas, 
amid perpetual ices; after having traversed more than forty degrees of latitude. 

Let us develop still further the relative altitudes and configuration of the 
intermontane plain, through which such voyages might be performed, by sup- 
posing curves, like those in PI. II, Fig. 1, to be described over its whole sur- 
face; and, first, of those which might pass from south to north. If one were 
drawn for every degree of longitude, from the synclinal axis to the Rocky 
Mountains, it would be found (if its extremities rested on the sea) that the 
convexity of each would be greater than that of the preceding ; and that the 
whole would traverse the rivers nearly at right angles. It would also be 
seen that, in the north, the lines thus projected would approach the level sea 
much more slowly than to the south ; indicating that the broad region west 
and north west of Hudson Bay, inclines to the sea in a very gradual manner, 
and thus explaining its lacustrine character. If similar longitudinal curves 
were projected on the eastern side of the axis, the first two or three would 
rise with great regularity, pass over the high plateau, where we find the 
sources of the Mississippi, of Bed River, and the St. Louis, and then sink 
to the level of Hudson Bay, by a rapid descent, intersecting many rivers in 
their progress. The next would display a different character. Ascending 
from the gulf, they would, after a regular rise to the latitude of thirty-four 
degrees north, mount over the spur of the Appalachian Mountains, which has 



22 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

been mentioned as stretching across the northern part of Alabama and Mis- 
sissippi; descend, and traversing the Tennessee, Cumberland, and Ohio basins, 
at a hill summit elevation everywhere nearly the same, ascend the low sum- 
mit level between the Ohio River and the Lakes ; sink to the level of the lat- 
ter, and beyond them rise to a higher level than attained before, from which 
to decline, at an equable ratio, into Hudson Bay. 

Such a line, if projected on paper, would not be convex like those over the 
great plain west of the Mississippi, but serpentine, having three elevations and 
two depressions. Further east, we encounter the flanks and outliers of the 
Appalachian Mountains, which prevent one of these depressions ; but the other, 
depending on the lakes, continues, and even deepens as the lake surfaces sink 
lower in the east. 

In the second place, let us give attention to the surface curves of eleva- 
tion and depression, which might be drawn transversely to the Valley, from 
east to west, and consequently at right angles to those which have been 
described. Everywhere west of the great synclinal axis, such curves would 
rise from it more rapidly, extend further, and ultimately attain to a greater 
and more uniform elevation, than those which might be extended from that 
axis to the east. Thus, from within the tropics to the latitude of thirty 
degrees, or the northern coast of the Grulf of Mexico, curves drawn from west 
to east, would descend with great rapidity from the summits of the Cordil- 
leras of Mexico, at the altitude of ten or twelve thousand feet; cross the gulf, 
and rising, terminate on the mountains of Cuba, and on the still lower water 
table, which traverses the long peninsula of Florida, from south to north. 
From the northern coast of the gulf to the shores of Lake Michigan, such 
lines would descend rapidly from the lofty spines and peaks of the Rocky 
Mountains; then curve more gently over the broad, inclined plain which 
stretches from the base of those mountains to the synclinal axis ; dip into 
that axis, reiiscend, and traversing the narrower and less elevated plain to 
the east, rest on the summits of the Appalachian range, at an altitude a third 
or fourth as high as that of their western extremities. 

A specimen curve of this class is given in PL II, Fig. 2. For want of 
the requisite data it could not be projected under one parallel, but its 
extremities differ only a few degrees. The scale on which it is executed did 
not, moreover, admit of its being started from the summits of the Rocky 
Mountains, but they are indicated on the plate. Beginning at the South, or 
Fremont's Pass, it takes the course of the Sweetwater and Platte Rivers; 
passes thence to the Kansas ; descends that river to its mouth, and then con- 
tinues down the Missouri to the Mississippi ; — having traversed the great 
western plain, from the hight of thirteen thousand five hundred and seventy 
feet (if we suppose it projected from Fremont's Peak) to that of three hun- 
dred and eighty-eight feet, the elevation, according to Nicollet, of the great 
synclinal axis, at the mouth of the Missouri River. It now reascends, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 23 

and, still bearing a little south of east, passes over Illinois and Indiana; 
crosses the Ohio River at the Falls ; traverses the state of Kentucky, and 
may be supposed to terminate on the Balsam Mountain of Virginia ; which 
Professor Rogers informs me has an altitude of five thousand two hundred 
feet. * 

This profile, while it demonstrates the true valley character of the interior 
of the continent, will serve, especially, to illustrate the portion which lies 
between the thirty-third or thirty-fourth and the forty-first parallels of 
latitude. In passing further north, the form of the curve undergoes a 
change. 

A line projected in the forty-second degree would descend, like the last, 
from the summits of the Rocky Mountains ; cross the synclinal axis, where 
the surface of the Mississippi is six hundred feet above the sea; then curve 
over hills two hundred feet higher ; then sink to the level of Lake Michigan, 
five hundred and seventy-eight ; traverse that lake ; rise to one thousand 
over the water shed between it and Lake Erie ; cross the south-western por- 
tion of that lake; and ascend the mountains of New York and Pennsylvania, 
to an elevation of two thousand feet. Another, in the latitude of forty-three 
degrees, would describe a curve of the same kind, to the synclinal axis, at 
Prairie du Chien, where the surface of the Mississippi is six hundred and 
forty- two feet above the sea; then ascend the water table between that river 
and Lake Michigan, three hundred feet higher ; traverse the lake and the 
water shed to its east as before; sink to the level of the straits which con- 
nect Huron with Erie, five hundred and seventy feet ; then rise to the elevation 
of from eight hundred to one thousand feet, in traversing Canada, north of 
Lake Erie; then sink to five hundred feet at the Falls of Niagara; pass on 
through Western New York, near the same level ; descend the valley of the 
Mohawk, enter that of the Hudson, and, by a little deflection to the south, 
terminate on the Atlantic Ocean, at the city of New York. A curve in the 
latitude of forty-four degrees, intersecting the synclinal axis at an elevation 
of six hundred and eighty-four feet, would have all the inflexions of the last ; 
sink to the level of two hundred and thirty-two feet, at the efflux of the St. 
Lawrence from Lake Ontario ; then reiiscend, and terminate on the summits 
of the Adirondack Mountains, in northern New York, at the altitude of four 
thousand feet. The curve of the next parallel, forty-five degrees, descending 
from the mountains like the rest, would intersect the synclinal axis where 
the surface of the St. Peter's River, occupying it, is nine hundred and forty- 
six feet, or thirty feet below its greatest elevation ; ascend the high lands 
between that river and the Mississippi ; pass the Falls of St. Anthony, eleva- 

* The data for this curve are derived from Fremont, Nicollet, the civil engineers of 
Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, and the geologists of Virginia. Many of the altitudes 
west of the Mississippi are those of rivers, at low water, while those to the east are 
the summit levels of the low hills. My draughtsman, Captain Fuller, has endeavored to 
show the different kinds of surface — prairie, woodland, and river. 



24 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ted eight hundred and fifty-six feet ; rise to one thousand before descending 
upon Lakes Michigan and Huron, with their intervening water shed as be- 
fore ; then traverse Canada West ; sink to the level of the St. Lawrence a 
short distance above Montreal ; and finally, by a rapid ascent, rest on the 
G-reen and White Mountains of New England, at the altitude of four or five 
thousand feet. 

The curve of forty- six degrees would pass over the head of the Cotcau des 
prairies, which is two thousand feet in hight ; then intersect Red River in 
the synclinal axis a little north of its greatest elevation, at the altitude of 
about nine hundred and sixty feet ; then rise upon the sloping plain, from 
twelve to fourteen hundred feet high, on which the Mississippi descends ; 
then range over the water shed between Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, 
at a still higher altitude ; then sink to the level and pass through the northern 
margin of Lake Huron, at five hundred and seventy-eight feet; to rise again 
as it traverses Canada, to the general hight of eight or nine hundred feet; 
then descend and cross the St. Lawrence a short distance above tide water ; 
after which, suddenly rising, to rest upon that portion of the Appalachian 
chain which is found in Lower Canada and the state of Maine, at the hight 
of three thousand feet. The curves, representing the forty- seventh and 
forty -eighth parallels of latitude, cut the synclinal axis where Red River, 
which still occupies it, has an elevation of more than eight hundred feet ; 
whence they mount upon the plateau, about fourteen hundred feet high, on 
which, and between which parallels, the Mississippi, Red River, and the St. 
Louis have their sources. From this elevation they descend to Lake Supe- 
rior, six hundred and twenty feet, which they traverse from end to end; then 
re'ascend to the general elevation of one thousand feet, as they traverse 
Canada; then descend to tide water, in crossing the St. Lawrence below 
Quebec ; whence they rise upon the last portion of the Appalachian Mountains, 
south of that river, and cease at the elevation of about three thousand 
feet. The parallel of forty-nine degrees, gives a curve which descends on the 
water shed between the Missouri and the Saskatchawan of Hudson Bay ; 
dips to the level of about eight hundred feet, in crossing Red River in 
the synclinal axis; rises, touches the Lake of the Woods, passes along the 
water shed between Hudson Bay to the north, and Lake Superior and 
the St. Lawrence to the south, at the altitude of fifteen or eighteen hundred 
feet ; then suddenly sinks into the estuary of the St. Lawrence, and passes 
out to the Atlantic Ocean. This curve is distinguished from the preceding, 
by the high and uniform level which it maintains; and by representing, 
through nearly its whole length, the water shed which separates the streams 
which flow into Hudson Bay, from those which cast their waters into the 
Gulf of Mexico, the Lakes, and the St. Lawrence. 

The curves of the next two parallels, in descending, cross the synclinal 
axis in Lake Winnipeg, at the level of seven hundred and fifty feet ; then re- 
ascend, but not to as high a level as the last ; pass near to the south-eastern 



part j.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 25 

projection of Hudson Bay; rise over the expiring extremities of the Appa- 
lachian chain beyond the St. Lawrence, and then suddenly sink to the level 
of the ocean. 

The high lands, or mountains, near the eastern margin of the continent, 
are now at an end, and the valley plain opens out upon the Atlantic Ocean, 
or Davis' Strait. We have now arrived at Hudson Bay, which penetrates 
into the very heart of the continent. On the west, however, the lofty Rocky 
Mountain border, continues unbroken and unreduced in altitude. The curves 
of every parallel of latitude, descend as before from their summits, and reach 
their lowest level in Hudson Bay ; beyond which, through eight or ten degrees 
of latitude, they rise to the (uncertain) elevation of nine hundred or one 
thousand feet, and terminate with the coast of Labrador. From the sixtieth 
to the seventieth degree, the curves still descend from the high level, but ter- 
minate in Hudson Bay, or the straits which connect it with the Polar Sea. 

Thus, we find that the curves in the extreme north, are almost identical 
with those of the extreme south ; and that the configuration of the Valley, 
after we reach Hudson Bay, is nearly the same with that around the Gulf 
of Mexico. 

The mechanism of the Interior Valley may be still further illustrated, by 
supposing certain horizontal planes or lines, to be carried in various direc- 
tions over its surface. Thus a horizontal plane, at the altitude of twelve 
thousand feet, applied to the whole range of Rocky Mountains, from the 
latitude of eighteen degrees to sixty-eight degrees, north, would cut through 
many peaks, and pass over many others ; the excesses and defects of eleva- 
tion, perhaps, nearly compensating each other ; and a plane at the elevation 
of three thousand five hundred or four thousand feet, applied to the Appala- 
chian range, would give nearly the same result ; and if a plane at this eleva- 
tion were carried from the entire length of the Appalachian Mountains, wes- 
terly, it would not reach the Rocky Mountains, but cut the great prairies 
far on this side. 

The plane at the elevation of a thousand feet, or of the culminating line 
or the synclinal axis, at Lake Traverse, nine hundred and seventy-five feet, 
would pass a little above, or rest upon, or cut through, the summits of those 
portions of the Valley which are comprehended in the following states : Iowa, 
Missouri, except the Ozark Hills, north-eastern Mississippi, north Alabama, 
middle Tennessee, western and middle Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, 
Wisconsin, Michigan, and Canada West. The same plane, carried to the 
north, would apply with equal accuracy to a far greater area. Finally, a 
series of horizontal planes, rising from two hundred and thirty-two to seven 
hundred and fifty feet, and then sinking through the same scale, would rest 
on the surfaces of all the great lakes, from Ontario up to Winnipeg; and 
thence down through Deer, Athabasca, and Slave, to Great Bear Lake; the 
whole lying in oue axis (broken only by the high lands between Superior 
and Winnipeg), and ranging with the longest diagonal of the Valley, from 



26 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

south east to north west. One extremity of this range is in latitude forty- 
three degrees north, and longitude sixty-seven degrees west ; the other in 
latitude sixty-seven degrees north, and longitude one hundred and twenty- 
four degrees west. 



SECTION IV. 

GEOLOGICAL OUTLINE. 

Having shown the peculiar geographical and hydrographical system of the 
Great Valley, it will be proper to give a comprehensive introductory notice of 
its mineral geology. 

I. The soil or loose covering of the surface of a country consists naturally 
of the debris of the subjacent rocks, gradually accumulating upon them, and 
varying in depth and qualities according to their mineral constitution. As 
some rocks undergo disintegration much more rapidly than others, it follows, 
that they have covered themselves with a deeper bed of their ruins. Thus 
the shales, marls, and soft slates, with many sand and limestones, decay 
more rapidly than granite, or syenite, and other primitive rocks, and there- 
fore have a thinner soil. 

When the rains wash this pulverulent debris from the hills to the valleys, 
it is borne along by the streams, and gradually deposited in beds, which are 
raised higher by each sucessive inundation of the banks. These are the 
alluvial grounds or bottom lands. In composition they are by no means so 
simple as the soils which remain in situ, for the wreck of various strata are 
mingled, and a variety of organic matters, transported by the waters, become 
enveloped in them. By this transportation, it may happen, that the banks 
of the lower portions of a river, or the shores of a lake in which it disem- 
bogues, may be composed of materials widely different from the rocks on 
which they rest; of which our Great Valley presents many striking examples. 
All its rivers, when swollen by rains, and some even in their lowest depres- 
sion, transport a variety of materials; and often deposit them at great 
distances from their original beds ; thus creating a most extensive and com- 
plicated system of alluvial grounds ; some of which become dry after the 
freshets have subsided, while others remain permanently covered with water, 
in the form of shallow ponds, marshes, or mere swales. It is not practicable, 
to estimate the area of these grounds ; but they are so continuous, that 
every part of the Valley, from mountain to mountain, and from sea to sea, 
might be traveled over, without leaving them except to cross the streams by 
which they have been deposited. 

II. What has been said, affords but a limited conception of the surface of 
the Interior Valley. Along many of its rivers, and even mill streams, there 
are, in the rear of the alluvial bottoms, older and higher deposits of trans- 
ported materials; which, it may be seen at a single glance, were made by 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 27 

rivers incomparably deeper and broader than those which now flow in the 
same valleys. These are commonly called second bottoms, and might some- 
times receive a still higher numerical designation ; for, now and then, we see 
a third terrace. From the great length of time since they were deposited, 
the organic matters which they enveloped, are dissolved ; and, as they are no 
longer subject to river inundations, their surfaces are seldom marshy. In the 
aggregate, these ancient deposits are of less area than the recent alluvions, 
for they are found along a part of our rivers only. 

III. Nearly related to, if not identical with, these old terraces, are the 
deposits on the general surface of the country; overspreading the hills and 
valleys alike, and varying in depth from a few feet to a hundred or more. 
They are found from the level of the sea in the south, up to the Light of at 
least fifteen hundred feet ; both on the mountain slopes and elevated portions 
of the Valley plain. The materials which compose them, are water worn, and 
their arrangement, not less than their miscellaneous character, shows that 
they have been transported from the north. Nearly coextensive with these 
deposits, we find immense bowlders, or blocks of granite and other primitive 
rocks, at vast distances from their parent strata, indicating not only great 
depth of water, but buoys of moving ice in which they must have been im- 
bedded.* Medical geology does not require a further development of this 
subject, and it only remains to add, that these deposits have received the 
different names of diluvion, drift, and post tertiary ; and that they give to 
the regions in which they abound, a surface which bears no relation, in its 
mineral character, to the rocks which are buried up beneath. They have, also, 
by filling up the inequalities of a rocky surface, produced one of greater 
levelness, and thereby favored the production of ponds and marshes. 

IV. We must now penetrate the loose, upper coverings, and briefly indicate 
the nature of the strata below. In doing this, if we begin, as in the study 
of our physical geography, at the Gulf of Mexico, and proceed up the Valley, 
along its synclinal axis, we shall find that different rocks successively crop 
out; each to constitute the surface for a certain space, and then to be suc- 
ceeded by a deeper, which has emerged from beneath it. We shall also find, 
that we pass progressively from the very newest to the oldest ; though all the 
formations which lie between those extremes, in all countries, may not be 
met with. Thus, around the Gulf of Mexico, we begin on broad and deep 
alluvial deposits ; then rise on diluvial or post tertiary, and then on tertiary. 
To these, in southern Alabama and Mississippi, succeeds a cretaceous de- 
posit, extending into west Tennessee; followed by the coal formations 
of Illinois and Missouri ; then, advancing, we arrive, in northern Illinois and 
Wisconsin, upon the Devonian shales and sand stones, which underlie the coal 
basin ; then upon the Silurian or transition limestones, sandstones, and slates, 
and lastly upon granite and other primitive rocks ; which stretch northerly 

* Drake. Trans. Amer. Ph. Soc. New Series, Vol. II, 1818. 



28 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

from Lake Superior to the Polar Sea. To the east and west of the line 
supposed to have been traveled over, most of these formations spread out 
with great regularity and amplitude. Thus, there is a geological, not less 
than a geographical unity, in the Interior Valley. Not the unity of a single 
formation, existing everywhere, but the unity of one system of formations ; 
deposited on a scale of vast extent, and subsequently subjected to the same 
influences, whether conservative or destructive. In no other country, over an 
equal area, is the geological structure so simple and uniform ; in no other 
does it so decidedly constitute the whole into one natural region. 

It is an obvious truth, that these formations have undergone but few dis- 
ruptions, from any force acting beneath. The Ozark Hills of primitive rock 
in Arkansas and Missouri, have, it is true, been pushed up through the 
secondary ; and, in the former state, there are some volcanic appearances, in 
the midst of which we find the hot springs of Washita; still further, the 
great earthquakes of 1811, had their focus in the same quarter. But the 
whole region is of insignificant extent, compared with the entire Valley, which 
elsewhere shows scarcely a vestige of volcanic action. If, however, the rock 
formations of the interior of the continent, still lie in their original position, all 
that were deposited are not here now. Our best geologists have come to the 
conclusion, that much has been washed away ; that vast submarine currents 
have swept the continent from north to south ; scooped out or deepened the 
Valley by cutting down its strata ; produced the general levelness of its sur- 
face, and finally, left upon it the primitive bowlders and other drift or post 
tertiary deposits, which have been described. 



SECTION V. 

HYDRO-GRAPHICAL BASINS. 
The further study of "the physical geography and topography of the 
Great Valley, or tropico-arctic plain, requires it to be divided into regions, 
a task of no great difficulty after the descriptions through which we have 
passed. In the absence of mountain ranges, to serve as natural dividing 
lines, it becomes necessary to resort to rivers ; not, of course, using them as 
they are employed in designating the boundaries of political states, but 
referring to their arrangement into distinct basins, and to their confluence 
in different seas. On this principle, then, we proceed with our analysis. 

I. When the eye rests upon the map of North America (PI. /), it soon 
perceives where the great water sheds, or lines of division, lie. One of the 
most important, begins in the Appalachian Mountains, at the northern sources 
of the Alleghany River, in the state of New York, about north latitude, 
forty-two degrees fifteen minutes, and west longitude seventy-eight degrees 
and thirty minutes; whence it proceeds, almost parallel to the axis of Lake 
Erie, that is, to the south west, until it reaches the forty-first degree; 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 29 

when it turns northerly, and passing round the head or southern end of Lake 
Michigan, advances into the region west of Lake Superior ; having separated 
the rivers which flow into the Lakes, from the tributaries of the Mississippi. 
It has now attained the mean latitude of forty-eight degrees, and, by its ine- 
qualities of surface, determines the waters which fall upon it, in three different 
directions — toward the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi, the Gulf of the 
St. Lawrence by the River St. Louis, and Hudson Bay by Red Elver. 
Beyond this, to the west, it is cut through by the synclinal axis, in which we 
find a point, whence the streams flow to the south and north. It then rises and 
bears away to the Rocky Mountains, in north latitude fifty-one or fifty-two 
degrees ; separating, in its progress, the Missouri of the south from the Sas- 
katchawan and other rivers of the north. Here then we have a water shed, 
which, extending from one mountain range to the other, traverses thirty-six 
degrees of longitude, changes its latitude from forty-two to fifty-two degrees, 
and cuts off nearly one third of the Valley from the rest. Let us survey it a 
second time, with a view to its altitudes. Beginning, as before, at the sources 
of the Alleghany, Genessee, and Susquehannah rivers, in New York and Penn- 
sylvania, we find in different places, the mountain elevation of this water shed 
to vary from thirteen to eighteen hundred feet — fourteen hundred may, per- 
haps, be received as an average. Going westerly, through Ohio and Indiana, 
it gradually sinks, until, at Chicago, in Illinois, it has fallen to six hundr&d feet ; 
the elevation of the lake being five hundred and seventy-eight. From this 
depression it rises as regularly as it had fallen ; and on following it to the 
region west of Lake Superior, at the sources of the Mississippi, we find it 
restored to its mountain elevation, of from thirteen to seventeen hundred feet. 
It then sinks, in the synclinal axis, to nine hundred and seventy-five; beyond 
which it gradually rises, with the great inclined plain, to the Rocky 
Mountains. 

The eastern boundary of this division of the Great Valley is, of course, the 
Appalachian Mountains, at the sources of the Alleghany, Monongahela, Ken- 
awha, Cumberland, and Tennessee Rivers, round to the state of Georgia ; with 
the low water shed through the western part of that state and the center of 
Florida ; in other words, the eastern limits of this portion of the Great Valley 
as already defined. The western boundary is the Rocky Mountains. 

The greater part of the waters of this extensive region, find their way to 
the gulf, through the Mississippi; but the rivers of Texas, of the eastern mar- 
gin of Mexico, of the eastern side of Mississippi, of the whole of south Ala- 
bama, of the western margin of Georgia, and the western half of Florida, reach 
the gulf by their own proper chanuels. Hence the Mississippi drains but a 
part of this region, and cannot, properly, give its name to the whole, which 
I shall therefore call the Southern, or Mexican Hydrographical Basin. 

II. Starting, as before, from the mountain sources of the Alleghany River, 
we advance northerly, between them and the sources of the Susquehannah, on 



30 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the right, and those of the Genessee and Oswego, of Lake Ontario, on the left. 
In the valley of the Mohawk, about the parallel of forty-three degrees, the 
water shed sinks to the hight of four hundred and twenty-five feet ; but soon 
rises to the altitude of as many thousands, and winds among the Adirondack 
Mountains, between Lake Ontario and Lake Champlain ; where it separates 
the waters which flow into those lakes and the St. Lawrence, from those of 
Hudson River. It is then depressed to one hundred and forty- seven feet, 
between that river and Lake Champlain ; to rise upon the Green Mountains 
of Vermont, the White Mountains of New Hampshire, and the mountains of 
Canada East, to their termination at Cape Gaspe, on the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence ; about the latitude of forty-eight degrees north, and longitude of sixty- 
four degrees west. On the north side of the gulf, it recommences west of 
Davis' Straits, not far from the sixty-fourth meridian, and fifty- third parallel; 
and passing south of west, divides the waters of the St. Lawrence from those 
of Hudson Straits and Bay. Approaching Lake Superior, it winds round 
the northern curve of that lake (to which it approaches very near), separa- 
ting its tributaries from the rivers of the southern extremity of Hudson 
Bay; and continuing to the south west, divides the short rivers which fall 
into Lake Superior, from the longer which flow into Lake Winnipeg; until it 
reaches the great culminating center, on which the Mississippi has its origin. 
From this plateau, round the southern side of the Lakes to the place of 
starting, on the table land of the Appalachian mountains, the boundary is, of 
course, that already traced out. The area of this basin is much less than 
■that of the southern or Mexican. As all its waters find their way to the 
ocean through the St. Lawrence, it may be named the St. Lawrence Hy- 
drographical Basin. Other appellations, however, would be almost equally 
proper. Embracing so many great lakes, it might be called the Basin of 
the Lakes ; and, comprising the eastern portions of the Valley, a term ex- 
pressing that fact would be appropriate. Extreme precision would adopt 
Eastern for the whole, and Lake and St. Lawrence for its two great 
divisions. 

III. The region which pours its waters into Hudson Bay, extends from the 
seventieth to the one hundred and fifteenth degree of west longitude ; that 
is, like the Mexican Basin, quite across the Interior Valley ; while that last 
described, is set into one of its sides. The southern boundary of the region 
which throws its waters into Hudson Bay is, of course, the northern boun- 
dary of the two basins just described. Its northern boundary, commencing 
at the Rocky Mountains, about the fifty-fourth parallel, is the flat water 
shed, which, running to the north east, separates the waters of the Athabasca 
River and Lake, on the left hand, and those of the Saskatchawan and Mis- 
sinnippi, or Churchill, on the right. Turning to the north, about the one 
hundred and fifth degree of longitude, it divides the waters of Athabasca 
Lake, and Great Slave Lake, from those of Chesterfield Inlet ; after which, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 31 

it turns north eastwardhy, and gives origin to streams which fall into the 
Thleweechok, or Back's River, of the Polar Sea ; beyond which, round to 
Melville Peninsula, it has not been traced ; nor has that to the south of 
Hudson Strait, between the Bay and the coast of Labrador. The width of this 
region, from south to north, is about twenty degrees of latitude. It may be 
called the Hudson Hydrographical Basin. 

IV. The remainder of the Great Interior Valley, constitutes the Polar 
Hydrographical Basin ; which includes the whole northern sea coast of the 
continent, from Baffin Bay to the Rocky Mountains. From the proximity 
of Hudson Bay on the south, the Polar Basin does not extend far in that 
direction, until after we have passed westwardly beyond that bay, when it 
dips south to the fifty-fourth degree of latitude ; and embraces the various 
streams which make up McKenzie River. Its western boundary is, of 
course, the Rocky Mountains. Its northern boundary, the Polar Sea, is 
about the sixty-ninth or seventieth parallel — its longitudes from the nine- 
ty-third to the one hundred and thirty- seventh degree ; but in estimating 
its area, we must not forget the great reduction of length in the degrees 
of longitude within the polar circle, where this Basin has its extreme 
breadth; still, it is of greater area than the St. Lawrence, though not equal 
to the Hudson Basin. ^ 

We have thus, for the convenience of future topographical description, 
divided the Great Interior Valley into four natural Hydrographical Basins : 

1. The Southern, or Mexican. 

2. The Eastern, Lake, or St. Lawrence. 

3. The Hudson. 

4. The Arctic, or Polar. 

In concluding this general geographical and hydrographical anahysis, it 
may be well to say a word on political jurisdictions. The Southern Basin 
chiefly belongs to the United States; its south-western portions and extreme 
southern, to Mexico. The St. Lawrence Basin is divided, almost equally, 
between the United States and Great Britain. A small part of the Mexican 
Basin (north of the Missouri) lies within British jurisdiction ; while a larger 
portion of the Hudson, projects into the United States. All the rest of that 
Basin, and the whole of the Arctic, appertain exclusively to Great Britain. 
In population, they rank in the order in which they have been named. In 
proceeding to their topographical analysis, we shall begin with the Southern. 



32 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 

CHAPTER II. 

THE SOUTHERN H YDRO GR APHI C AL BASIN. 



GULF OF MEXICO. 

In proceeding to analyze the Southern Basin, I shall treat, first, of the 
Gulf ; second, of the Mississippi River and its banks ; third, of the regions 
west of the Gulf and River ; fourth, of the regions to their east. 

The natural relations between the Gulf of Mexico and the Interior Valley 
of North America, which it limits to the south, are so intimate, that without 
a preliminary study of the former, no successful progress can be made in the 
medical topography, hydrology, climate, and endemic diseases of the latter. 
Beyond this, however, the gulf has claims upon our attention ; for the com- 
mercial cities, fortresses, and naval stations, which must forever surround it, 
require that a chapter should be devoted to its description. This I shall do 
under the following heads — Position, Form, Area, Depth, Currents, Tem- 
perature, Tides, Inundations, and Coasts. 



SECTION I. 

POSITION, FORM, AND AREA. 

The ninetieth meridian west, and the twenty-fourth parallel north, intersect 
each other very near the center of the Gulf of Mexico, and thus fix its mean 
latitude and longitude. The extremes of the former are from a little below 
eighteen to a few minutes above thirty degrees north — those of the latter, 
between eighty-one and ninety-eight degrees west. 

From Cape Catoche, the termination of the peninsula of Yucatan in the 
south, round to the Rio del Norte, in the west, it washes the coasts of 
Mexico ; on which we find Vera Cruz and Tampico. On that side, the Cor- 
dilleras approach it so near, that some of their peaks can be seen from its 
surface. North east of the Del Norte, it washes the shores of Texas, Louis- 
iana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. Its remaining land limits are the 
Island of Cuba to the south east. Thus, low lands surround it on every side, 
except the west. This mediterranean sea has two important connections 
with the Atlantic Ocean: one on the south by the Strait of Yucatan, between 
Cape Catoche and Cape Antonio, where it opens into the Caribbean Sea; the 
other on the east, by the Strait of Florida, between Cape Sable and Havana. 

In reference to the terrestrial zones, it is divided almost equally between 
the torrid and temperate. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 33 

Its figure rudely approaches a broad, irregular oblong. Its north and 
south sides are pressed toward each other, near their middle, by the delta of 
the Mississippi and the promontory of Yucatan, a line from one to the other 
being the shortest by which it can be crossed. 

Its area, if we take seven hundred miles for its average width, and one 
thousand for its mean length, is seven hundred thousand square miles. It 
may be more or less, but exactness on this point is not required, for all de- 
mands of our object are satisfied, by knowing that immediately south of the 
Interior Valley there is an extensive body of warm water. 



SECTION II. 

DEPTH. 

The following statement of facts bearing on this point, has been sent me 
by Lieutenant Maury, of the Hydrographical Office, Washington : — " Little is 
known as to the depth of the central part of the Gulf, except that it is 
beyond the usual reach of the " deep sea lead " — say one thousand feet. 
There is a belt of soundings all around the Gulf, varying in breadth from a 
few miles to one hundred and forty or one hundred and fifty. For example : 
north of Cape Catoche the water gradually deepens for one hundred and 
forty miles, until no bottom is reached at one hundred and ninety-eight 
fathoms. So, also, from the Tortugas one hundred and eighty miles to the 
north east, it deepens, from sixty fathoms near those islands, to no bottom 
with a line of one hundred and sixty-two fathoms ; which point is also about 
one hundred and eighty miles from the nearest point of the Peniusula of 
Florida. So, too, south of Appalachicola the shoal water extends off two 
hundred and fifty miles to soundings of one hundred and twenty fathoms. 
With these exceptions, if you will draw a line parallel to the shore, and about 
fifty miles from it, entirely around the Gulf, this line will run along in about 
two hundred feet of water." 

Thus the bottom near the shore of the Gulf presents the junction of two 
curved inclined planes, an earthy and an aqueous; — a mechanism which 
suggests that a process of filling up has long existed, and may still be going 
on. At the same time, the entire bed may be rising. Admitting these op- 
erations, we may say, that the former leads to extension of the land; the 
latter, to recession of the waters. And that a change in the relative levels of 
the two has taken place within a modern (geological) period, is rendered 
certain, from the existence of long, low banks of recent marine shells, which 
lie ( in various places near the shore), several feet above the present level 
of the water. At what ratio this process has been carried on, or is now 
proceeding, is unknown. 
3 



34 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION III. 

CURRENTS. 

It is held as a fact, by marine hydrographers, that the trade winds, from 
the coast of Africa to that of South America, by acting on the surface of the 
Atlantic Ocean, impede its movement to the east, in the direction of the earth's 
rotation ; and thus cause an accumulation of the retarded water against 
the American continent, between the tropics, whence it flows off laterally. 
The currents to the north are all that demand attention from us. These, 
following the coast of South America, enter the Caribbean Sea by the Wind- 
ward Islands, and traversing that sea, south of Hayti, Jamaica, and Cuba, 
pass through the strait between the latter island and the promontory of 
Yucatan, into the Gulf of Mexico. Humboldt recognizes this current as a 
reality ; and Lieutenant Browning * informs me that the evidences of it are 
conclusive. First. In traversing those straits and the Caribbean Sea, south 
of Cuba, a ship's dead reckoning requires an allowance of half a mile an 
hour for a westerly current. Second. When ships depart from Jamaica for 
England, they prefer to sail to the west, and make a detour through the 
Gulf of Mexico, round the Island of Cuba ; thus keeping with the current, 
which more than compensates for the increased length of the voyage. It 
would appear, however, that the tropical water, thus introduced from the 
Caribbean sea, does not make a circuit directly round the west end of the 
Island of Cuba, to the Havana and Florida Straits ; but is diffused through 
the Gulf, performing in it a kind of circuit, and at last issuing through the 
straits just mentioned, as the well-known and celebrated Gulf Stream. On 
this point Humboldt holds the following language : 

" The coast of Mexico, along the Mexican Gulf, may be considered as a 
dyke, against which the trade winds, and the perpetual motion of the waves 
from east to west, throw up the sands which the agitated ocean carries along. 
This current of rotation runs along South America, from Cumana to the 
Isthmus of Darien ; it ascends toward Cape Catoche, and, after whirling a 
long time in the Mexican Gulf, issues through the Canal of Florida, and 
flows toward the Banks of New Foundland. The sands heaped up by the 
vortices of the waters, from the Peninsula of Yucatan, to the mouths of the 
Rio del Norte and the Mississippi, insensibly contract the basin of the 
Mexican Gulf. Geological facts, of a very remarkable nature, prove this 
increase of the continent. We see the ocean everywhere retiring. M. 
Ferrer found, near Sotto la Marina, to the east of the small town of New 
Santander, ten leagues in the interior of the country, moving sands filled 
with sea shells. I myself observed the same thing in the vicinity of 
Antigua and New Vera Cruz. The rivers which descend from the Sierra 

* United States Navy. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 35 

Madre, and enter the Atlantic Ocean, have in no degree contributed to 
increase the sand bank." * 

Further : Lieutenant Maury, of the Hydrographical office, Washington, 
writes me on this subject as follows : 

" The current from the Caribbean sea, after passing the Yucatan Strait, 
varies in force and direction, so as often to produce many eddies and counter 
currents. Still, my own opinion is, that, for the most part, it performs the 
circuit of the Gulf; but not in any well-marked or constant channel. In 
corroboration of this I would mention the tides at Vera Cruz, for instance, 
which ebb and flow once in twenty-four^ hours at ordinary times ; but which 
sometimes flow continuously to the north west, and at other times to the 
south east, for three or four days together ; sometimes, again, there is neither 
rise nor fall for several days." 

Again : The course of the Mississippi, from the mouth of the Ohio River 
to its termination at the Balize, seems to throw some light on this subject. 
For eight or nine hundred miles, its bearing is west of south, but when it 
reaches the vertex of its delta, at the mouth of Red River, it turns so far to 
the east, that, in flowing through two degrees of latitude, it makes nearly 
two degrees and a half, or one hundred and fifty miles, of longitude. 

Now, by what agency has the direction of the river been turned and kept to 
the east, ever since it reached the Gulf at the mouth of Red River, and^began 
to deposit that silt, of which the delta is composed? Has not a gentle circum- 
ferential movement of the gulf waters carried the silt in an eastern direction, 
while it was subsiding ? Such a movement, however slow, would of necessity 
cause the deposits to fall where we now see them ; that is, give to the delta 
and the new river bed, precisely the form and direction which they exhibit. 
The assumed cause explains the phenomena, and may therefore be admitted 
as a reality. If the river bed, on entering the gulf, turned to the west, we 
should certainly regard it as evidence that no currents flow from that direction. 

Finally: Lieutenant Browning informs me, that, near the eastern margin of 
the Gulf, from the Tortugas and Key West, round to Pensacola, or even to 
the Balize, there is a gentle current from south to north. This is evidently 
an eddy, and implies a stronger current in the opposite direction ; from the 
delta of the Mississippi, to the extensive reef which projects into the Gulf 
from Cape Florida to the Tortugas. Impinging against this reef, a part of 
the water is returned to the north, along the coast of Florida, while the 
remainder makes its way through the straits between that peninsula and 
Cuba, constituting the Gulf Stream. 

Although we regard this Stream as depending essentially on the oceanic 
movements which have been described, we must not overlook the contributions 
to the Gulf, made by the rivers which enter it. Very little of this supply 
is furnished by the countries lying around the southern semicircle of the gulf, 

* Pol. Essays on New Spain. Vol. I, B. I, Chap. iii. p. 62. 



36 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

for all the rivers of western Cuba, of the Peninsula of Yucatan, and of that 
portion of the Republic of Mexico, which lies between it and the mouth 
of the Rio del Norte, near the latitude of twenty-six degrees north, are 
very short. If, however, the river supplies are almost limited to the northern 
half of the Gulf, they are still much greater, relatively to its area, than those 
received by closed seas generally, or by the universal ocean ; for that portion 
of the continent from which they are derived, is nearly three times as great as 
the surface of the Gulf; thus reversing the proportions of land and water of 
the globe, taken as a whole. 



SECTION IV. 

TEMPERATURE. 

As all the rivers of the Gulf, from the Rio del Norte to the Chattahoochee, 
flow from higher latitudes than those in which they mingle with its waters, 
(some of them, indeed, as the Missouri, from nearly twenty degrees further 
north), and as their sources are from five hundred to ten thousand feet above 
the Gulf, the water they throw into it has, of course, a temperature which 
must, to some extent, reduce that of the water with which it mingles. In 
the absence of more important observations on this point, I may be allowed 
to state the following: On the 13th of March, 1843, 1 found the temperature 
of the mouths of the Mississippi forty-four degrees, Fahrenheit. Five miles 
beyond the bar of the South West Pass, the river water, distinguishable from 
that of the Gulf by its turbidness and yellowish tint, was still the same in 
temperature ; but that drawn up from a depth of sixty feet, being brackish 
and less turbid, was fifty-one, or seven degrees warmer. The temperature 
of the earth in that latitude, twenty-nine degrees north, is, however, about 
seventy, or nineteen degrees greater ; showing that the Mississippi had exerted 
a cooling influence to an unascertained depth. Passing laterally out of this 
river current, to the distance of a few miles, in the midst of transparent salt 
water, I found the temperature at the surface fifty-seven degrees. Sound- 
ings were not made at either station ; but as they were at the same distance 
from the shore, and the bottom is known to be an inclined plane, the differ- 
ence between forty-four and fifty- seven degrees (thirteen) was undoubtedly 
attributable to the Mississippi. To what distance in the Gulf that difference 
extends, is unknown; but it is by no means as far as it would be, if the river 
discharged itself by one mouth instead of several. 

These observations were made, however, when the river water had its min- 
imum temperature. In the latter part of summer and in early autumn, it 
attains to more than seventy degrees ; when its cooling effect is nearly or 
quite nullified. A few days after these observations were made, I found the 
surface of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne — shallow bays of brackish 
water, lying nearly a degree further north — to be fifty-six and fifty-five de- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 37 

grees. It is worthy of remark, that no river of any size enters the former ; 
while the small rivers, Pearl and Pascagoula, discharge their waters into the 
latter ; which, therefore, although a little further south, was one degree cooler. 
On the same voyage, I found the temperature outside of Dauphin Island, in the 
open Gulf, but in shallow soundings, fifty-six degrees; in ascending Mobile 
Bay, half a degree north of Lake Borgne, fifty-two degrees; and at the 
dock in Mobile, forty-nine degrees and a half. As the Alabama River, 
the largest tributary of the Gulf easttfof the delta of the Mississippi, dis- 
charges its waters into this Bay, we have additional evidence of the cooling 
effect of river water, in the sinking of the thermometer from fifty-six to 
forty-nine degrees and a half, in a distance of fifty miles. In 1844, April 
10th, I found the heat of Lake Pontchartrain sixty-nine degrees; that of the 
G-ulf, off Dauphin Island, seventy degrees ; and that of Mobile Bay, sixty- 
five degrees, or four below that of Pontchartrain ; — still showing the river 
influence. 

But, of course, all the cooling of the northern margins of the Gulf is not 
referable to the influx of river water ; for the winter exerts its influence, and 
with so much greater effect, as the waters are shallower. Still, the facts 
which have been cited demonstrate, that the atmospheric influence is rein- 
forced by the fluviatile; and at certain times, when the mountain winds, 
called " northers," descend and sweep over the Gulf with great velocity, for 
several successive da}-s, their cooling influence on the shallow waters of the 
Gulf is decisive, even as far south as Key West. I was assured, by the late 
estimable Commander Johnston, U. S. N., that when stationed on that coast, 
he had seen many of its fish benumbed, and even destroyed, by one of these 
long continued and violent winter tempests, acting on the shoal waters of 
the Florida Beef. 

At what period of the year the cooling influence of the northern 
rivers and the northern winds, effects the greatest reduction of the tempera- 
ture of the shallow waters of the Gulf, is not known; but from various con- 
siderations, we may fix the minimum between the end of February and the 
vernal equinox. If this be correct, the observations made in February, 
1843, give us the minimum heat of the shallow waters, from the mouths of 
the Mississippi to Mobile Bay, inclusive, and the scale is, forty-four, forty- 
nine and a half, fifty-two, fifty-five, fifty-six, and fifty-seven degrees, 
according to the saltness, not the depth, of the water. 

At what period of the year do the waters of the Gulf attain their maxi- 
mum heat ? This is not known, but in all probability, it is not far from the 
autumnal equinox. The following observations show, imperfectly, the ratio 
of increasing vernal temperature near the shore. 



Dates. | L. Pontchartrain. | Lake Borgne. | Gulf. | Mobile Bay. 


1843, March 13 

1844, April 10 

24 


56° 
69° 


55° 


56° 
70° 
79° 


52° 
65° 
80° 



38 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



From these numbers it appears, that the rise of Gulf temperature in the 
spring, is at the rate of half a degree a day. 

If the northern portions of the Gulf are cooled by these river currents, 
the southern are warmed by the great marine current, which enters it from 
under the equator, through the Strait of Yucatan. Under these influences, 
the temperature, in traversing it from north to south, ought to rise more 
rapidly than it would from the mere influence of climate ; but we are in want 
of observations on this point ; and, indeed, I have not been able to collect 
many experiments on the temperature of any part of the Gulf, beyond the 
limits just given. For the following, I am indebted to Lieutenant Maury, of 
the Hydrographical Office, Washington. 



SURFACE TEMPERATURE OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. 



Name of vessel. 


Where from. 


Where bound. 


Month. 


Tem. o 


f water 


Min. 

72° 


Max . 

"82 s " 


Vandalia, 


Pensacola, 


Havana, 


Nov. and Dec. 


Falmouth, 


Havana, 


Key West, 


November, 


76° 


81° 


Falmouth, 


Pensacola, 


Vera Cruz, 


October, 


78° 


82° 


Falmouth, 


Vera Cruz, 


Tampcio, 


December, 


740 


76° 


Falmouth, 


Pensacola, 


Mouth of Mississippi, 


February, 


57° 


64° 


Falmouth, 


Vera Cruz, 


Pensacola, 


March, 


59° 


75° 


Mississippi, 


Key West, 


Pensacola, 


August, 


81° 


86° 



The value of these observations would be much greater, if the latitudes, 
distances from land, and depths of water, had been noted. The highest 
among them is eighty-six degrees, in the month of August, north of Key 
West. Mr. Lyell * has quoted from Major Kennall, another observation of 
the same amount ; but in what latitude it was made is not stated. If we 
receive them as correct, we may conclude that the heat of the middle and 
southern parts of the Gulf, is several degrees higher than that of the 
Atlantic Ocean in the same parallels ; a difference attributable no doubt to 
the introduction of tropical waters from the Caribbean Sea. 

The existence, to the south of the Great Interior Valley, of this immense 
basin of tropical water, having a temperature several degrees higher, than if 
the strait between Yucatan and Cuba had [no existence, is a hydrological 
condition, which deserves the attention of the meteorologist and etiologist 
of the Valley. If it were replaced by land, our south and south-west winds, 
in winter and spring, would fall far short of producing those thaws which, at 
present, they infallibly occasion, even in Canada, if they continue to blow for 
a few days. Taken in connection with the Kocky Mountains, it also explains 
the surprising reduction of temperature which follows on a change in the 
course of the wind, from a few points south of west, to a few points north of 
west ; by which, currents that have passed over the warm surface of the 



* Principles of Geology. Vol. I, p. 166. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 39 

Gulf, are replaced by currents from the snowy summits of those mountains. 
The physician will also perceive, that those who navigate the Gulf, or reside 
on its coasts, must, forever, be liable to the diseases which properly belong 
to the most southern climates. 



SECTION V. 

TIDES AND INUNDATIONS. 

I. Tides. — Along all the northern coasts of the Gulf the tides are of incon- 
siderable hight ; especially in the rivers, where they are less than in the heads 
of small bays and inlets. In the mouth of the Mississippi, I was told by 
Captain Arnable, the observing commander of the towing steamer, Phoenix, 
that they ordinarily rise about a foot, the weather being calm. At new and 
full moons, they reach eighteen inches. Mr. Parker, an intelligent pilot, made 
three months of daily consecutive observations, at the Balize, in the South 
East Pass, having devised for the purpose a graduated scale. The highest, 
during that period, was thirty-three inches; the lowest less than a foot. 
When the Mississippi is low, the tide is said sometimes to manifest itself 
above New Orleans; the water, of course, being fresh. At Mobile, Mr. 
Troost, civil engineer, estimates their average hight at a foot. At Tampico, 
to the south west, they rise, however, as Lieutenant Browning informs me, 
to the hight of four feet. 

II. Inundations. — A gale, to or from the land, may raise the tides to double 
their ordinary hight, or prevent them altogether, according as it promotes or 
opposes them. A tempest sometimes drives the waters up the rivers, and 
over the lowlands, creating a deluge. At the Balize, there is a tradition that 
in the month of August, 1812, the water at Fort St. Philips (PL V), thirty 
miles up the Mississippi, rose nine feet in half an hour ; the Balize was, of 
course, inundated, and every cabin half way to New Orleans was removed 
from its foundation blocks. In August, 1831, the same place experienced 
another visitation. For several days preceding it, the reflected light of the 
sun displayed a greenish tint; showing a peculiar condition of the atmosphere. 
The 16th was rainy, with gusts. At night, the wind became suddenly fixed 
from the east; and blew with the utmost violence. On the 17th it continued, 
with copious rain, from clouds which hung very low; and, by night, the inun- 
dation was at its hight. Nearly all the people of the village were driven to 
their boats. The rise was many feet. These facts were given me by Mrs. 
Anderson, an observing lady, long resident at the Balize. 

In Mobile Bay, on the 18th of October, 1841, as Mr. Troost informed me, 
a south wind, of five days' continuance, raised the water nine feet four inches ; 
and, on the 4th of March, 1842, another, of ten days' duration, heaped it up 
several inches higher. 



40 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

The isthmus on which New Orleans is built, suffers occasional deluges of 
the same kind, from Lake Pontchartrain, which convert the cypress swamps 
in the rear of the city, into deep ponds, and even flow over many of the 
streets. 

In Pensaeola Bay, the fury of the waves is directed upon the long, narrow 
dune of white sand, called Santa Rosa Island (see PL III ), which they 
mount over, but falling into the Bay and Sound which lie in its rear, do no 
mischief. 

Similar inundations are occasionally experienced, from the same cause, on 
the islands of Galveston and Key West. 

In short, they occur throughout the whole coast, for everywhere it lies so 
low as to permit them. But they never happen in many places at the same 
time ; for a wind which may occasion them at one locality, might blow the 
water from another. 

The low shores of the Gulf must forever remain liable to these deluges, 
and of course they will always abound in pools and marshes. 



SECTION VI. 

COASTS. . 

What has been said on the shoal waters and inundations of the Gulf, will 
suggest the general character of its coasts — everywhere low. From Vera 
Cruz around to Cape Florida, there is not a single league of rocky, or iron- 
bound shore ; nor any other harbor equal to that of Pensaeola, the entrance 
to which is through water only twenty-four feet in depth. Everywhere the 
tides and waves fluctuate on sloping beaches of sand or silt ; the latter being- 
present, however, only at the mouths of rivers; and where it can be kept in 
place by the roots of grasses. The sand is generally white, and so fine as to 
be readily moved by the waves, or drifted by the winds. By these agents, 
dunes of irregular and ever-changing forms are built up ; some of which con- 
stitute peninsulas, while others are severed from the main land, and converted 
into crescent islands. The watery surface is not less diversified than the 
earthy. Numerous creeks and bays of every size and form, lagoons, ponds, 
swamps, and marshes, are intermingled with the earthy deposits and drifts ; 
and present, throughout a terraqueous margin ; which sufficiently indicates 
that the surrounding continent is advancing upon the Gulf. Some of the 
pools and marshes consist of fresh water; others are brackish; others almost 
as salt as the Gulf itself. In some places there are long, navigable sounds, 
or lagoons, between the main land and the dunes or sand islands. 

The principal bays are, Tampa, Appalachicola, Pensaeola, and Mobile, to 
the east of the delta of the Mississippi; and Galveston, Matagorda, Espir- 
itu Santo, Corpus Christi, Aransano, Santiago, and Tampico, to its west. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 41 

Besides these, smaller Lays and lagoons are numerous. In reference to 
the western coast, Humboldt observes — 

" The shore of the provinces of Santander and Texas, from the twenty- 
first to the twenty-ninth degree of north latitude, is singularly festooned, and 
presents a succession of interior basins from four to five leagues in breadth, 
and from forty to fifty in length. They go by the name of lagunas, or salt- 
water lakes. Some of them ( as the Lake de Tamiagua ) are completely 
shut iu; others (as the L. Madre and the L. de San Bernardo) communicate 
by several channels with the ocean."* 

Rivers enter the heads of many of the bays, and are filling them up with 
silt, in proportion to the extent and looseness of the surfaces which are 
drained. Of the whole, the Mississippi is the only river which has accom- 
plished its work ; having not only filled up its bay, but built up land from 
the bottom of the open sea ; — an achievement which has resulted from its 
commanding the resources of a larger portion of the continent, than all the 
other rivers from Cape Florida to Vera Cruz. A striking and instructive 
effect has resulted from the partial filling up of many inlets. Their shores 
opposite the river deposits, are everywhere more infested with autumnal 
fever, than further down their estuaries, near the Gulf, where their banks and 
bottoms abound in sand derived from the margins of the tertiary or post- 
tertiary plain, which surrounds the Gulf. Beneath these deposits, on the 
eastern side of the Gulf, wherever rocky strata are to be found, they % belong 
to the tertiary formations, and consist of friable lime and sand stones. 

These general descriptions are applicable to the coasts of the Gulf east 
and west of the delta of the Mississippi ; but do not apply to that immense 
alluvial deposit, which requires to be described separately ; that description, 
however, must be given in connection with both the Gulf and River ; and 
will, therefore, be deferred until we have examined the principal localities 
of the coast. 



* New Spain, Vol. II, p. 185. 



42 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

CHAPTER III. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



SPECIAL MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE COASTS OF THE GULF 

OF MEXICO. 
In proceeding to describe such localities as are of interest to the physician, 
a question of limits arises. Shall we take those places only which stand 
upon the Gulf, like Vera Cruz and Pensacola, or ascend the rivers which 
enter it, as far as settlements have been made upon them ? The answer 
must be, that the former would be too restricted, and the latter too extended. 
I shall, therefore, take the intermediate limits of tide water, which will carry 
us to the heads of the river estuaries and of the little bays ; and enable us 
to embrace, in the zone of the Gulf coasts, such localities as Fort Brooke and 
Mobile. In entering on this, the beginning of our medical topography, I 
propose to start with the most southern locality, Vera Cruz, on the western 
side of the Gulf, and travel north to the delta of the Mississippi ; then, to 
begin anew, at the most distant point in the south, Havana, and travel 
northerly to the same delta. 



SECTION I. 

VERA CRUZ. 

Vera Cruz, the most populous town and the commercial metropolis of the 
Republic of Mexico, and the largest city of the western Gulf coast, has at 
all times been an object of interest, with the medical etiologist ; and yet I 
have not met with the materials for a satisfactory description. 

Its latitude is 19° 11' 52" N., longitude 96° 8' 45" W. It was 
founded by the Spaniards near the close of the sixteenth or in the be- 
ginning of the seventeenth century, about two hundred and fifty years ago ; 
on the spot where Cortes first landed for the conquest of Mexico.* We are 
indebted to Humboldt, for a sketch of its topography. 

"It is situated in an arid plain, destitute of running water, on which the 
north winds, which blow with impetuosity from October until April, have 
formed hills of moving sand. These downs (Meganos de Arena) change 
their form and situation every year. They are from eight to twelve meters 
(twenty-six to thirty-eight feet) in bight, and contribute very much, by the 
reverberation of the sun's rays and the high temperature which they acquire 
during the summer months, to increase the suffocating heat of the air of Vera 

* Clavigero's History of Mexico, Vol. II, p. 296. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 43 

Cruz. Between the city and the Aroyo Gavilan, in the midst of the downs, 
are marshy grounds covered with mangles and other brushwood. The stag- 
nant water of the Baxio de la Tembladera, and the small lakes of l'Hormiga, 
El Rancho de la Hortaliza, and Arjona, occasion intermittent fevers among the 
natives. It is not improbable that it is, also, not one of the least important 
among the fatal causes of the vomito prieto, or yellow fever. All the edi- 
fices of Vera Cruz are constructed of materials drawn from the bottom of the 
ocean, the stony habitation of the Madrepores ( piedras de Mucara ), for no 
rock is to be found in the environs of the city." "Water is found on dig- 
ging the sandy soil of Vera Cruz, at the depth of a meter (9.8 feet); but 
this water proceeds from the filtration of the marshes formed in the downs. 
It is rain water, which has been in contact with the roots of vegetables ; and 
is of a very bad quality, and only used for washing. The lower people (and 
the fact is important for the medical topography of Vera Cruz) are obliged 
to have recourse to the water of a ditch (zanja), which comes from the 
meganos, and is somewhat better than the well water, or that of the brook of 
Tenoya. People in easy circumstances, however, drink rain water collected 
in cisterns, of which the construction is extremely improper, with the excep- 
tion of the beautiful cisterns (algibes') of the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, of 
which the very pure and wholesome water is only distributed to those in the 
military. This want of good potable water has been for centuries looked 
upon as one of the numerous causes of the diseases of the inhabitants."* 

Such was the situation of the city, in 1803. Forty-two years afterward, 
A. D. 1845, when visited by Norman, it was not materially different, except 
that the population, which Humboldt stated at more than sixteen thousand, 
is given by Mr. Norman at six thousand. " The form of the city is semi- 
circular, fronting the sea. It is situated on an arid plain surrounded by 
sand hills, and is very badly supplied with water, — the chief reliance being 
upon rain collected in cisterns, which are often so poorly constructed as to 
answer but very little purpose. The chief resource of the lower classes is 
the water of a ditch, so impure as frequently to occasion disease." " The 
outside of the city looks solitary and miserable enough. The ruins of de- 
serted dwelling houses, dilapidated public edifices, neglected agriculture, and 
streets once populous and busy, now still, and overgrown with weeds, give 
an air of melancholy to the scene, which it is absolutely distressing to look 
upon." f Mr. Thompson informs us that there are large swamps in the rear 
of the city. | 

The castle of San Juan d'Ulloa, stands upon and nearly covers a rocky 
island, in front of the city. 

According to Humboldt, the rich merchants of Vera Cruz, at the time of 



* Polit. Es. on New Spain, Vol. II, p. 175. 
t Notes of Travel, p. 90—96. 
J Recollections of Mexico. 



44 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

his visit, had summer residences at the interior town of Jalapa, four thousand 
feet above the Gulf; where they enjoyed a " cool and agreeable retreat, while 
the coast was almost uninhabitable from the moschetoes, the great heat, and 
the yellow fever." That disease, it is well known, prevails in Vera Cruz 
every year ; suspended, or nearly so, during the winter, but returning after 
the vernal equinox, with as much certainty, as intermittents and remittents 
recur, before the autumnal equinox, along the rivers of Illinois, or Alabama. 
According to Humboldt, it never extends into the country. It may be col- 
lected from him, that intermittents also occur in Yera Cruz, and at other 
places along that coast ; but to what extent, I cannot discover ; nor whether 
a disease, answering to the remittent autumnal fever of the more northern 
portions of the Valley, and distinguishable from yellow fever, is met with 
there. 



SECTION II. 

TAMPICO. 

At the distance of about two hundred miles north-north west from Vera 
Cruz, in the state of Tamaulipas, we have the Mexican town of Tampico. 
Its position, in L. 22° N., is on the left or northern bank of the Elver 
Panuco, immediately below the junction of the River Tamissee, and six 
miles from the Gulf. These rivers, which resemble deep and winding canals, 
descend from the Sierra Madre, or eastern range of the Cordilleras; and 
traverse the broad, flat, and fertile zone, which surrounds the western 
segment of the Gulf. The Panuco flows from the south west, and the 
Tamissee from the north west. The interior, mountain city of San Luis 
Potosi, stands on the head waters of the former. Between these rivers, and 
also to the north and south, there are long, narrow lakes, running nearly 
parallel to the Gulf Coast, with many communications between them 
and the rivers. The region around Tampico is not, like that around Vera 
Cruz, a vast field of drifted sand ; but is covered with a productive soil, and 
a luxuriant, natural or cultivated vegetation. The town is built on a bold 
and rocky bank, above high water mark, without any intervening foul beach, 
as the deep water extends to the foot of the bank. In its rear, to the north 
and north-west, the ground remains wet for a while after great rains ; but 
there are in that quarter no permanent ponds. To its west, between the two 
rivers, there is a lake marsh, and on the further or south side of the river, 
the head of a narrow lake which stretches off to the south.* 

Tampico is the most important town on the western side of the Gulf, 
between Vera Cruz and Galveston. The country in its rear is attractive to 
agriculturists ; the rivers which traverse it, facilitate communication with 

* Norman: Rambles by Land and Water, 1S45. — Lieutenant Browning, U. S. N. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 45 

the interior ; and the' harbor itself is more accessible than most others on 
the western side of the Gulf. The commercial intercourse between this place 
and New Orleans, always considerable, is likely, hereafter, to be so much 
greater as to give to its medical topography a decided importance. From 
Lieutenant Browning, I learn that intermittent fevers prevail, especially 
in spring; but as the summer comes on, they are merged in yellow fever, 
which, as at Vera Cruz, may be regarded as the great and never failing 
endemic. 



SECTION III. 

GALVESTON ISLAND AND TOWN. 

This is at once the name of a bay, an island, and a new American city, of 
the state of Texas. The Bay has the form of an irregular parallelogram ; 
with one end on the Gulf, and the other forty miles north, in the country. 
The San Jacinto enters its north-west, and the Rio Trinidad, or Trinity 
River, its north-east corner. Its width is from twelve to eighteen miles, with 
an average depth of nine or ten feet ; reduced to five or six, over Red Fish 
bar, which bisects it into nearly equal parts. 

The Island lies with its eastern half immediately in front of this bay, 
within a mile of the main land ; and extends west south-west, in a straight 
line, to a length of thirty miles, with a breadth of four or five. The harbor 
is between the eastern end of the island and the mouth of the bay, with an 
entrance from the east.* At the entrance of the bay, there is a low, flat 
island, containing about one thousand acres, which, with Bolivar Point, a 
promontory of the main land, limits the harbor to the north. Galveston island is 
but a compact bed of drifted sand, rising a few feet above the level of the 
Gulf, and liable to partial inundation, from the fluctuations produced by 
strong southern and eastern winds. 

The City, of which the Lat. is 29° 18' N., and Lon. 96 ° 6' W., stands adja- , 
cent to the harbor, on the north side of the island. Near the water's edge, in 
front of the former, the surf has thrown up a levee of sand and shells about two 
feet high in its center, and one hundred feet broad ; immediately in the rear 
of which, is a broad depression, so low that high tides run into it, and rain 
water accumulates, so that it presents either a marsh or a sheet of water, 
three-quarters of a mile long, and from one to three hundred feet broad. 
The principal business street, called the Strand, runs upon this natural levee ; 
and on the south side are the warehouses, which run back over the morass, 
which receives their filth. The rest, and more interior portions of the city, 
are built on a dry and porous soil, and present an aspect of cleanliness and 
comfort.f 

* Texas; by Mrs. Mary Austin Holley, 1836, p. 26. 

t An account of the Yellow Fever, which appeared in the city of Galveston, 1839 : 
by Ashbel Smith, M. D. 



46 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Until about 1836, Galveston island was uninhabited ; in 1837, the 
emigration to it, from the United States, became active; in 1839, the 
city contained from two thousand to two thousand five hundred inhabitants, 
and the number has been increasing ever since. Galveston has experienced 
several invasions of yellow fever, when that disease was epidemic in New 
Orleans. It is also liable to the common forms of autumnal fever. 

Between Galveston and the delta of the Mississippi, there is no coast 
locality of interest, and in pursuance of the plan already announced, we must 
now transfer ourselves to the eastern side of the Gulf. 



SECTION IV. 

HAVANA, AND THE ISLAND OF CUBA. 

Although the Island of Cuba makes no part of the Interior Valley of 
North America, the relations between them are so intimate, that the medical 
historian of the latter, should include the former in his descriptions.* These 
relations are three fold: 1. The meteorology of Cuba gives us a tropical 
starting point for tabular views of the climates further north. 2. It is im- 
possible to study the yellow fever of the northern shores of the Gulf, without 
a reference to the city of Havana. 3. That city and the island to which it 
belongs, are the chief places of resort for those invalids of the Valley, who 
seek a southern winter residence. 

Cuba is a long, narrow island, lying nearly east and . west, between the 
latitudes of twenty and twenty-three and a half degrees north. Its extremi- 
ties and center are elevated and broken; in fact, may be regarded as a 
mountain of the sea. The greatest hights are in the eastern extremity of 
the island, where the Pico de Tarquino rises to the altitude of eight thou- 
sand four hundred feet. 

But as this portion of the Island lies in the seventy- seventh degree of west 
longitude, it is too remote from the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Flor- 
ida to exert any perceptible effect on the climate of either. The Island, 
moreover, presents its extremity instead of its side to the Gulf, which greatly 
reduces the influence it might otherwise exercise. Intermittent fever, but 
not yellow fever, prevails along the rivers of Cuba.f 

Havana (PL I) stands on the northern margin of the island, near its 
western extremity, in N. Lat. 23° 9' 27", and W. Lon. 82° 22' 53", about 
one hundred miles from Cape Florida. A capacious harbor, with high, rocky 
portals, washed by the Gulf Stream, abounds in shipping, at all seasons of 



* I have not been able to meet with any full description of the medical topography 
of Havana ; and the account which I expected from a highly intelligent medical friend, 
once resident there, has not come to hand. 

t Notes on Cuba. By a Physician. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 47 

the year except the hottest. The city stands on a plain, which lies on 
the western side of this harbor, and is surrounded by hills. * In one 
corner of the plain, near the harbor, there is a swamp, the exhalations 
from which are wafted over the city and shipping. The streets are nar- 
row, and kept passably clean, f Its settlement was begun by Spain, in 
1519. Its commerce is with nearly all the civilized world. Ever since 
the yellow fever attracted attention, or was recognized as a distinct dis- 
ease from the remittent autumnal fever of the temperate zone, it has 
prevailed as an endemic of Havana, raging epidemically from April until 
December, and occurring sporadically throughout the remainder of the 
year. Thus, in reference to that fever, Havana and Vera Cruz are in 
a manner identical ; and in almost every alleged case of its importation into 
New Orleans, one or the other of those cities has been assigned as its source. 
If Havana have been accused more frequently than Vera Cruz, it was 
because of the greater amount of commercial intercourse, and the shorter 
time required for the voyage. 



SECTION V. 

KEY WEST. 

The water shed or central swell of Florida, which, on the confines of 
GJ-eorgia, in the thirtieth parallel, has the altitude of one hundred and fifty or 
sixty feet, gradually subsides, and after passing the latitude of Tampa 
Bay, twenty-seven degrees thirty minutes north, is no longer obvious, t 
Thence to Cape Sable, the southern extremity of the Peninsula, the surface 
continues to sink, and at that point, disappears beneath the sea. Its sub- 
mergence, however, is imperfect, and to the south-west for nearly two hun- 
dred miles, there is a series of reefs and keys, || the most distant of which 
are the Tortugas, or Turtle Islands. The basis of this chain of shoals and 
low islands, is tertiary limestone, with superincumbent beds of sand, shells, 
and corals. In a hygienic, or medical point of view, there is but one of the 
whole series, which deserves attention, and that is — 

Key West (P/. /.), formerly called Thompson's Island. In position, this 
Island is about forty miles south-west of Cape Sable, the southern extremity 
of Florida, and between eighty and ninety north of Havana, with the Gulf 
Stream rolling between. It makes a part of the distinguished and dreaded 
Florida Reef, on which so many vessels have been wrecked. Its greatest 



* Norman : Rambles by Land and Water. 

t Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains. By George F. Ruxton. Esq. 
1848. 

t Bradford's Illustrated Atlas, p. 139. 
|] Cayos, Rocks, Sp. 



48 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

length from east to west is seven miles, with an average breadth of two. Its 
elevation varies from that which permits an overflow by ordinary tides, up 
to ten feet; the greater portion, however, not rising above six or seven. 
The surface of the Island presents many marshes and shallow basins, filled 
during the rainy season with fresh water; which, although imbibing from 
the soil, or receiving from the spray of the Gulf, sufficient salt to render it 
brackish in the dryer portions of the year, is the most potable which can be 
obtained in the Island. The surface has a layer of soil supporting an herba- 
ceous vegetation, and shaded by a growth of small trees and shrubs.* Seve- 
eral years ago, Commander Mcintosh, U. S. N., while stationed at Key West, 
had (as he informed me ) a number of vistas cut through this jungle, 
along which he dug ditches, and allowed the tides to flow into the marshes, 
and the fresh water of the great rains to flow out ; whereby the salubrity of 
the Island, as he believed, had been greatly increased. 

Occasionally, the waves throw upon the shores of the Island an immense 
quantity of sea weed, enveloping mollusca and other marine animals ; the de- 
composition of which, under the action of an almost tropical sun, adds greatly 
to the deleterious qualities of an atmosphere, already impure from more per- 
manent causes.f These deposits are made under the influence of agitating 
winds, which are sometimes so violent as to drive the waves over the whole 
Island, and produce great devastation. The chief settlement of the Island 
is the town, harbor and military post of — 

Key West, in N. Lat. 24° 33' and W. Lon. 81° 52'. For a while, this was 
the principal naval station of the United States for the Gulf of Mexico. It has 
ever since been a military post. The inhabitants of the town consist largely 
of wreckers, or persons engaged in saving the crews and cargoes of vessels 
wrecked on the Florida Reef. 

Yellow fever prevailed at this place, as an epidemic, at the time it was a 
naval station ; but is not an annual visitant, as it is of Havana, ninety miles 
further south. According to the army returns, autumnal fever is not very 
prevalent. The average ratio of intermitting fever is twenty per cent. — of 
remitting fever two per cent. J It can scarcely be doubted that additional 
attention to the surface of the Island would render it, for a southern locality, 
highly salubrious. 



* Dr. Morgan : Phil. Jour, of the Med. and Phys. Sci. Vol. viii, p. 54. 
t N. Amer Med. and Surg. Jour. Vol. iii, p. 24. 
i Med. Statis. U. S. Army, 1840. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 49 

SECTION VI. 

TAMPA BAY, AND FORT BROOKE. 

Tampa Bay (PL I) extends in a north-east direction, about thirty-five 
miles into the peninsula of Florida. It bifurcates into heads ; the larger of 
which, to the west, having no rivers, and being, as yet, nearly destitute of 
inhabitants, may be dismissed from further notice. The other receives the 
Alalia, an inconsiderable stream; and the river Hillsboro', which, at its mouth, 
is one hundred and thirty yards wide ; though but a few miles up, it is so 
contracted, that a steamer can with difficulty turn in its channel. 

There are oyster beds at its junction with the Bay, and, of course, no allu- 
vial deposits. To the east, between it and the Alafia, there are some low 
wet grounds, and actual marshes ; but its banks and the coast to its west, are 
dry and sufficiently elevated, bearing open forests of pine and scrubby oaks — 
the former predominating on its right bank, the latter on its left.* 

Fort Brooke, N. Lat. 27° 57' and W. Lon. 82° 35', stands on the east 
bank of the estuary of Hillsboro' Kiver. 

It has been regarded as a highly salubrious post. Yellow fever has 
scarcely ever invaded it. The ratio of remittent fever is nine per cejit. — 
that of intermittent, seventy-three per cent. The high ratio of the latter 
disease has not, however, destroyed the character of this post, with our army 
surgeons ; who have observed that a large proportion of the cases were con- 
tracted elsewhere, when the troops were on detached service. f 

Tampa Bay affords the best harbor south of Pensacola ; and, since the ter- 
mination of the Seminole war, settlements have begun upon its banks, which 
at no distant period may render it an eligible winter residence for invalids — 
the most southern to be found on the Peninsula of Florida. 



SECTION VII. 

PENSACOLA: THE BAY AND TOWN. 

I. The beautiful Bay of Pensacola, in the state of Florida, is connected 
with the Gulf of Mexico, by a strait one mile in width, the greatest depth of 
which is twenty-four feet. The banks of this entrance consist of sand drifts, 
which rise but a few feet above the surface of the water. 

That on the west side, separated from the main land by a shallow lagoon, 
is called Foster's Island; that of the opposite side, likewise separated by a 



* Commander Johnston, U. S. N., and Dr. Holmes, U. S. A., MSS. penes me. 
t Med. Statis. U. S. A., p. 296. 
4 



50 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

long, navigable sound, is called Santa Eosa Island. This island stretches 
off to the east for the distance of forty miles, being from one to two miles in 
width, and rising in some places to such a hight, that its white sands are 
visible to a considerable distance, and serve as beacons to the navigator. Its 
surface presents many little pools and marshes, abounding in shrubs and 
rattlesnakes, and is generally studded with tufts of a heath-like undershrub 
( Ceratiola ericoides ), among which there are a few scattering and stunted 
pines and live oaks. Its whole outer beach is lashed by the waves and swells 
of the Gulf. Its opposite shore is separated from the continent, by Santa 
Rosa Sound, just mentioned, which opens into the Bay of Pensacola, about 
three miles from its mouth. From below the junction of the Sound, the 
Bay widens ; yet one shore is everywhere distinctly visible from the other. 
On both sides a post - tertiary or tertiary plain, from twenty to eighty 
feet high, composed of yellowish sand above, and white sand beneath, 
approaches more or less closely to the margin of the Bay, and constitutes its 
banks. At the distance of about twenty miles inland, the Bay, like that of 
Tampa, terminates in two heads or subordinate bays. 

The eastern, called Stj. Mary de Galves, has two small tributaries bearing 
the names of Yellow Water, and Black Water Rivers. The western, named 
Escambia, receives the waters of the river Escambia. The two former of 
these rivers, drain but a small tract of sterile country, and therefore throw 
into their receptacle a correspondingly limited quantity of silt. Their 
estuaries, however, are flanked with impenetrable cypress swamps, as may 
be seen by a reference to PI. III. The Escambia, originating in the state 
of Alabama, where the soil is fertile, has brought down, and deposited in its 
portion of the bay, an extensive bed of alluvion, which is sufficiently elevated 
to support such trees, shrubs, and gramineous plants, as delight in sub- 
aquatic situations. Among the last, is a tall culmiferous grass (Phragmites 
communis), having perennial roots, but annual stems, which, by their luxuri- 
ant growth, and speedy decay, constantly add to the vegetable elements of 
these deposits of silt. Near its mouth, this river, like the others, is bordered 
with broad cypress swamps, which are terminated by higher post-tertiary 
deposits, bearing long-leaved pines. In the first twenty miles from the Gulf, 
that is to the place of bifurcation, the axis of Pensacola Bay is nearly north- 
east ; but the prongs, or subordinate bays, turn to the north. In various 
places the shores are skirted with narrow salt marshes, and, around the 
heads of the Bay, especially between its divisions, there are extensive cypress 
swamps. 

Viewed from any position, Pensacola Bay is an object of much natural 
beauty. Its pellucid waters, salt enough to abound in oyster beds, are 
encircled at their very edge with a narrow girdle of white sand, which 
harmonizes pleasantly with the foliage of the live oaks, magnolias, cypresses, 
hollies, and various flowering shrubs, which overshadow its margins, and 



PL.III. 




part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 51 

relieve the somber back ground of long-leaved pine woods, which over- 
shadow the higher terraces. 

The medical, naval, and military histories of Pensacola Bay, are of equal 
interest with its scenery. The first merits great attention, from the national 
importance of the two latter. Constituting the only sheltered and capacious 
harbor on the northern semicircle of the Gulf, the Government has made 
this bay a naval station, and erected the various works necessary to its defense. 
At the entrance there are three fortifications : Fort Pickens, on the west end 
of Santa Rosa Island ; Fort McCree, on the east end of Foster's island ; and 
Fort Barrancas, a mile above, on more elevated ground. At the distance of 
another mile, on the same low sand ridge, stands the Naval Hospital ; and a 
mile higher up the bay, on the same side, the Navy Yard. The road from 
one to the other of these establishments, passes over loose dunes of white 
and yellow sand, which, by the action of the winds, is continually drifted from 
place to place. These sands produce pines and other plants that flourish in 
such localites ; but their recrements do not accumulate on the surface ; for 
the soluble parts sink with the rain water into the loose strata beneath, and 
the insoluble are buried up by the action of the winds. Even the mold 
and manure, which are thrown upon the gardens attached to the Navy Yard, 
are speedily dissipated, and a surface, not unlike that of drifted snow^ reap- 
pears. Still, in the midst of these dunes, there are concavities in which 
accumulations of soil, or matters impervious to water, have been made, and 
thus pools or swales, bearing sub-aquatic shrubs and herbaceous plants, have 
been generated. They are, however, of limited extent. Above the Navy 
Yard, as may be seen on PL III, there are two bayous, bordered with salt 
marsh, and surrounded by dry and elevated pine terraces, presenting the site 
of the old Cantonment Clinch. Ten miles from the portals of the Bay. 
keeping still on its western side, stands the ancient — 

II. Town of Pensacola, in N. Lat. 30 ° 28' and W. Lon. 87 ° 12'. Its site 
is a level plain of blown sand, rising but a few feet above the surface of the 
water, and surrounded by the post-tertiary, pine-covered terrace, which every 
where environs the Bay. Between the town plat and this terrace, there is a 
narrow, semi-circular belt of swamp, originally covered with cypress trees, 
(Cupressus disticha), which have been replaced by a dense jungle of Titi 
bushes (Mylocarium ligustrinum). Numerous springs of soft water, the 
product of rain upon the adjacent plateau, discharge themselves into this 
swampy belt, the extremities of which are salt marshes, of limited extent. 
In the month of March, I found the heat of these springs as low as sixty-two 
degrees Fahrenheit; a temperature, which shows their origin to be superficial, 
and that they had been affected by the previous winter. By these springs 
the water of this paludal tract is kept pure; and by the compact Titi grove, 
the rays of the sun are prevented from acting on its surface. 

Pensacola is an old town, and settlements near the outlet of the Bay were 
made before that of the town. Having belonged successively to Spain, 



52 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

France, England, and the United States, its population, improvements, and 
modes of living, offer a mixture of the whole. The houses, mostly of wood, 
are chiefly built in the Spanish and French styles, and scatteringly distribu- 
ted over the plain. 

Apart from the people of the town, the seamen of our national ships, the 
persons attached to the Navy Yard, and the small garrisons which man the 
different forts, the population of Pensacola Bay is but limited ; for the sur- 
rounding country is, in general, too sterile for profitable agriculture. The 
densest population, beyond the limits of the town, is found near the mouth 
of Blackwater River. 

The yellow fever has been several times prevalent in the town, among the 
shipping, and at the Navy Yard; but the number and malignity of its 
invasions bear no comparison to its severe visitations of Mobile and New 
Orleans. 

Of autumnal intermittent and remittent fever, it will be proper to speak 
more extensively. From the forts to the town of Pensacola inclusive, (all on 
the west side of the Bay), although there are some swales and small swamps 
or ponds among the sand dunes, and some narrow tracts of salt marsh, there 
are, as we have seen, no deposits of silt ; and the organic matters accumu- 
lated in the wet or paludal spots, are chiefly those which belong to the pine 
forest. Now the inhabitants of this range of coast have for a long time 
enjoyed an exemption from autumnal fever, remarkable for a southern locality. 
The town of Pensacola has even been resorted to as a summer residence by 
citizens of Mobile and New Orleans. When, however, we ascend the same 
coast, about ten miles above the town, to the estuary of the Escambia Biver, 
we find a state of things entirely different. The silt brought down by that 
stream, has filled, as we have seen, a large portion of the western head of the 
Bay, and thus generated a marsh, several miles in width, near which the 
settlers have been fatally scourged by autumnal fever ; although they escaped 
yellow fever when it prevailed in the town and Navy Yard below. The 
medical history of this devoted locality dates back more than eighty years, 
as may be seen from the following narrative by Lind. * 

" In the year 1766, sixteen French protestant families, consisting of sixty 
persons, were sent, at the expense of the English government, to West 
Florida. The ground allotted for their residence was on the side of a hill, 
surrounded with marshes, at the mouth of the river Scambia.f These new 
planters arrived in winter, and continued perfectly healthy until the sickly 
months, which in that country are those of July and August. About that 
time eight gentlemen (from one of whom I received this account) went to 



* Essay on the Diseases Incidental to Europeans, in Hot Climates. By James Lind, 
M. D. Phil. Ed., 1811, p. 161. 
t Escambia. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 53 

this new settlement to solicit votes for the election of a representative in the 
general assembly of the province ; by remaining but one night, every one of 
them was seized with a violent intermitting fever, of which the candidate for 
becoming the representative, and another of their number, died. The next 
day seven other gentlemen came upon the same business to this unhealthy 
spot ; but, by leaving it before night, they escaped the sickness, and all con- 
tinued in perfect health. Among the French settlers, during these two 
months, the annual fever of the climate proved so fatal on this unwholesome 
spot, that of sixty persons fourteen only survived ; and even those who re- 
mained alive, in the September and October following, were all in a very ill 
state of health ; not one of them had escaped the attack of the fever, and 
most of them died within a few months afterward, from the injury it had 
done to their constitutions." 

No other settlement in this locality seems to have been attempted for a 
long time afterward. At length, in the year 1832 or 1833, a new attempt 
was made, by laying off a town, to be called Florida, on the eastern side of 
the estuary, in the edge of the pine woods ; as maybe seen by a reference to 
PL III. All the pine terraces of the south are proverbially free from 
autumnal fever; but here the pine lands lie to the leeward, while exten- 
sive silt marshes spread out to the windward. Between twenty and thirty 
wooden houses were built, and tenanted by as many families. Their history, 
as given me by Dr. Hulse, the intelligent and reliable surgeon of the Naval 
Hospital, and by Mr. Innerarity and Mr. Kelly, old and respectable citizens 
of Pensacola, may be told in a few words. Year after year, while the inhab- 
itants of the coast below remained healthy, they were assailed by autumnal 
fevers of the most malignant character; the spot was at last called a " Grave- 
yard ;" and being abandoned by those who survived, I found, on passing 
through it in 1843, but two families remaining. 

These well- ascertained facts have so important a bearing on the origin of 
autumnal fever, that I have considered them worthy of circumstantial detail. 
The heat and moisture of the lower and upper portions of this little Bay are 
the same; but while the former has only a few limited tracts of pine marsh, 
the latter includes extensive deposits of silt and organic matter; and to them, 
I think, we are bound to attribute the fatal insalubrity which has been 
described. 

III. Perdido Bay is found a few miles west of that which has been 
described. Its coasts are composed of white sand, with copses of live oak. 
Its seclusion is very great ; yet several naval officers have placed their fami- 
lies on its retired banks, near the Grulf, where they are said to spend the 
summer and autumn in perfect exemption from every form of fever. Such is 
the connection between a sandy surface, and a salubrious summer atmosphere. 



54 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION VIII. 

MOBILE BAY AND CITY. 

I. Mobile Bay (PZ. IV) is one of the largest, and decidedly the most 
regular in form, of any with which the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico 
is indented. Its axis lies in the meridian. Its broad base is more than half 
cut through by a low, narrow, peninsular sand dune, which penetrates it on 
the eastern side, and, approaching Dauphin Island (another dune of white 
sand), narrows the entrance to a strait ; immediately within which is the har- 
bor — the water of the Bay being too shallow to permit the further ingress of 
ordinary ships. Near the Gulf, this Bay presents a broad expansion, but soon 
becomes much narrower by an approximation of its eastern to its western 
coast ; — the latter continuing, nearly in a straight line, into the interior. This 
narrowing reduces it to twelve or fifteen miles; which breadth it retains 
nearly to its head. The banks on either side, are composed of post tertiary 
or tertiary sand and clay, of which the predominant colors are yellow, white, 
and red. The Bay receives but a single river, which, by several mouths, 
enters at its apex, having previously assumed its name. The constituent 
streams of this river have been indicated when treating of our hydrograph- 
ical axes. They drain a region of country, chiefly in Alabama, equal in area 
to that state, or more than fifty thousand square miles; and hence, more 
water is thrown into this Bay, than into any other around the Gulf. The 
Coosa and Tallapoosa, uniting, form the Alabama ; and the Tuscaloosa and 
Tombeckbee, joining, form a common trunk, which retains the name of the 
latter. As they flow on to the south, the Alabama and Tombeckbee gradu- 
ally approach, and at length, about one hundred miles from the Gulf, mingle 
their waters, lose their name, and are called Mobile River. Their place of 
junction was, no doubt, once the head of Mobile Bay.* Thence to the head 
of the existing Bay, there is a series of low, alluvial islands, surrounded by 
river channels, known under the names Mobile, Tensaw, and Spanish Biver. 

Two-thirds of the region which the river drains, is composed of loose or 
decomposable tertiary and cretaceous deposits, sufficiently fertile to support 
a luxuriant tree and herbaceous vegetation ; and hence the supply of alluvion 
is inexhaustible. With these materials, organic and inorganic, the river has 
filled the upper part of the Bay ; and is still carrying on a work, which has 
been already completed in the estuary of the Mississippi. When the drift- 
wood and sand meet the tides of the Bay, they are lodged against the shores, 
or deposited on the bottom ; but the argillaceous matter advances further 
toward the Gulf, and gives to the lower part of the Bay a bottom of mud, 
which is gradually diminishing the depth of its waters. Thus, at some in- 
definitely future period, the Bay will be filled up ; after which, the Mobile, 
like the Mississippi River, will begin to project a peninsula, or cape, into 

* Dr. Heustis: Arner. Jour. Med. and Phys. Sci., Vol. XIX, p. 68. 



mm 



PLIV. 



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part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 55 

the Gulf. In these progressive changes, Mobile Bay differs widely from 
Tampa Bay, while the Bay of Pensacola is intermediate, as to condition, not 
less than locality. 

In a generalizing comparison of the Mississippi, Mobile, Pensacola, and 
Tampa estuaries, we find that the ratio of filling up, has been according to 
the order in which they have been named ; which, again, corresponds to the 
relative magnitude of the rivers which enter them, and the fertility and pro- 
gressive elevation above the sea, of the regions which they drain. The 
shores of Mobile Bay are skirted with silt marshes and cypress swamps, be- 
yond which the banks are more elevated than those ^around Pensacola Bay, 
and covered with pine and oak forests. In some places, the banks press 
closely on the waters of the Bay. 

II. Mobile, the commercial metropolis of the state of Alabama, and also 
of south-eastern Mississippi, is built near the present head of the Bay, on 
its western side, thirty miles from the Gulf, in N. Lat. 30° 41' 48", and TV. 
Lon. 87° 59'. Its site is an ancient beach of the Bay, rising from the 
water's edge to the hight of eight or ten feet, and extending back to the 
post tertiary, or tertiary plain, at the distance of six or seven miles. The 
margin next the Bay, was originally overflowed by tides and waves, and con- 
sisted of river alluvion, imbedding the trunks of trees. Much of the site, 
which is somewhat terraced, like the river bottoms of the interior "of the 
Great Valley, is sandy, with beds of clay beneath, which prevent the rains 
from sinking into the earth, and lead to the formation of swales, or marshy 
grounds, that require ditching before they can be cultivated. A well, dug 
at some distance from the Bay, but on the city plat, passed through yellow 
sand for sixteen feet, affording good water ; but on descending a few feet 
deeper, a fetid mud, enveloping the trunks of trees, was reached, and the 
water was spoiled. * In another part of the city, a well was dug to the 
depth of twenty-five feet. It passed through strata of clay and sand, and 
then came to marsh mud, with the trunks and leaves of trees, t 

To the south, adjoining the city, there is a cypress swamp, considerable 
portions of which are overflowed by the high tides of the Bay, or by the 
waves, when swells from the Gulf ascend it. The water of this swamp is 
chiefly supplied, however, by springs, which issue from the base of the neigh- 
boring sand terrace. The margin of the swamp rests on an immense deposit 
of silt and drift wood, which presents a foul and suspicious aspect. On the 
upper or north side of the city, and constituting to some degree its boundary, 
is a small bayou, called One Mile Creek ; and beyond it another, named 
Three Mile Creek; designations which indicate their distances from the city. 
On each side of, and between these sluggish streams, there are swamps over- 
shadowed with cypress, sweet-gum (Liquidamlar sty raciflua), {magnolia, and 
other trees and shrubs, common in such localities of the South. These 

* Dr. Gates. f Dr. Heustis : Amer. Jour. 



56 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

swamps never become dry, even to the depth of two inches below the 
surface. * 

In front of the city, the Bay abounds in islets and beds of alluvion, envel- 
oping driftwood and covered with a heavy growth of reed grass ( Phrag- 
mites communis^), and other aquatic and sub-aquatic plants. 

III. Spring Hill, at the distance of six miles from the margin of the 
Bay, is the permanent residence of several families, and a place of retreat for 
the inhabitants of the city in seasons of yellow fever. This bluff is the 
eastern border of the pine terrace which surrounds the Bay, the waters of 
which, no doubt, once overspread the lower plain to this bluff. Its elevation is 
something more than one hundred feet. Several copious springs, which I 
found in the month of April to have the temperature of sixty -eight degrees, 
Fahrenheit, issue from this escarpment. One of them, by an under-ground 
hydraulic system, is made to supply the city ; the water of the Bay being too 
brackish for domestic use. Derived from the rains which fall on the terrace 
behind, the water of this and other springs which I examined, appears to 
contain nothing but a trace of muriate of soda. As the citizens of Mobile, 
and especially its recent immigrants, look to this spot as a place of escape 
from danger, during the yellow fever months, I may be excused for adding, 
that a natural curiosity exists in the neighborhood, a visit to which may 
relieve the tedium of an anxious exile from the city. 

IV. The Thundering Spring. About eight miles west south-west of 
Spring Hill, the road passing through a forest of long-leafed pine, is the 
fountain to which this name is applied. It boils up, in the edge of a valley 
two or three hundred yards wide, with such copiousness as to form a con- 
siderable brook. The water is transparent, but throws up a quantity of 
yellowish sand, which, in part deposited around, has formed a sort of crater. 
A pole can be thrust down about ten feet, when it strikes a rock ; which, 
judging from quarries in the neighborhood, must be a soft, tertiary sand 
stone. The temperature of this spring, in the month of April, was sixty- 
nine degrees, Fahrenheit; its mineral impregnation, the same as that at 
Spring Hill. No gas of any kind escapes. The name which this fountain 
has received, was suggested by a remarkable peculiarity. A subterranean 
^ound, like that of low, distant, and muttering thunder, is distinctly heard, at 
short but not regular or rhythmical intervals. On applying my ear to the 
trunk of a neighboring tree, this thundering, or earthquake-sound, was not 
only louder, but I heard a constant sound, resembling that produced by hold- 
ing a finger in the ear ; and which every now and then was augmented to the 
rumbling which has been described. Some very susceptible persons affirm, 
that they can, by their feet, feel a slight vibration of the ground. The 
radius of the sound is so limited, as to indicate that the peculiar movement 
of the waters, or some other agency which occasions it, is not far below the 

* Dr. Lewis : New Orleans Med. Jour., Vol. I, p. 282. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 57 

surface. Some efforts have been made to add this place to Spring Hill, as 
a summer resort ; but the desire of those who retreat from the epidemics of 
the city, is, to remain so near as to receive early intelligence from those 
whom they have left behind, and, as yet, it has not been much frequented. 
About two hundred yards below this spring, on the same level, there is an- 
other which emits no sound. Its temperature is one degree less. 

V. Inhabitants. — A settlement was commenced on Mobile Bay, by the 
French, about the year 1700. In 1712, Homans published a map, which 
presents Fort Louis, near or on the spot where the city now stands.* From 
that time, until the cession of Louisiana to the United States, in 1803, Mobile 
was occupied either by the French or Spaniards. For many years after the 
cession, it attracted but little notice, and continued to be a rude and un- 
important village; but about the year 1825, it began to fix the attention of 
the people of the northern states of the Union; and in twenty years became a 
city of eight or ten thousand inhabitants ; consisting chiefly of Americans, the 
French and Spaniards having mostly left it. The new houses., nearly all of 
wood, are built in the fashion of other American towns, though many of the old 
habitations are interspersed among them. The streets are paved with semi- 
fossilized shells, chiefly the Rangia cyrenoides ; which are found in long, 
low beds near the city, as also in various other places around the Gulf, at 
the elevation of a few feet above the highest tides. t 

Next to New Orleans, Mobile has suffered more from yellow fever than any 
other town north of Havana and Tampico. As might be expected from its 
topography, faithfully represented in PL IV, autumnal fever, both intermit- 
tent and remittent, of every type and grade of violence, is an annual visi- 
tant ; and frequently imposes on the yellow fever a certain degree of periodi- 
city. It is not, of course, limited to the city ; but appears, with even greater 
intensity, among the people of the surrounding alluvial plain, and on the foul 
margins of the Bay, both above and below the city. The inhabitants of the 
neighboring pine woods remain exempt. 



SECTION IX. 

MINOR BAYS. 

Between Mobile and New Orleans, there are three small Bays (PI. V), 
which deserve the attention of the medical topographer; as they are places of 
refuge for the people of those cities during the prevalence of epidemics; and 
resorts for sea bathing, not only for those citizens, but the people of the inte- 
rior. They are defended from the Gulf by a series of islands, which stretch 

* Darby's Louisiana, p. 316. f Conrad. 



58 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

directly west from the mouth of Mobile Bay, under the names of Dauphin, 
Petit Bois, Bound, Horn, Dog, Ship, and Cat ; between which and the main 
land there is water of sufficient depth for small steamers. 

I. Pascagoula Bay. — This is the most eastern. It receives, on its west 
side, the waters of Pascagoula Biver, which drains the ten or twelve south 
eastern counties of the state of Mississippi, and some of the adjoining parts 
of Alabama. Being an alluvial stream, it has made extensive deposits in its 
estuary, and reaches the Bay by two mouths, which are separated and 
skirted by low alluvial grounds and small lakes. On the opposite coast of 
the Bay, there are likewise marshes and lagoons. Between them, to the east, 
stands the old French village of Pascagoula, now Krebbsville; and near the 
junction of the river with the Bay, there are modern residences, with an ex- 
tensive hotel, having places for sea bathing in front. These settlements are 
on higher and dryer banks, which, at their base, present a fillet of white sand, 
in beautiful contrast with the waters of the Bay.* 

The French settlement on this Bay, was among the first on the northern 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and dates back to the early part of the 
eighteenth century. As Doctor Fearn, of Mobile, has informed me, it is 
seldom visited by yellow fever; and being but little infested even with 
autumnal fevers, has become a place of summer retreat for the people of 
that city. 

II. Bay of Biloxi. — To the shores of the Bay of Biloxi belongs the 
distinction of having received the first immigrants to Louisiana. The set- 
tlement was begun by the French, in the month of May, 1699. t 

I am indebted to the distinguished Dr. Samuel A. Cartwright, of Natchez, 
for an account of this locality, at which he spent several months. The Bay 
is in front of an arm or prong of Pascagoula Sound, with which it has a con- 
nection, as may be seen on PI. V, about fifteen miles west of Pascagoula 
Bay. From its mouth, Biloxi Bay projects inland to the north-west, with 
an average width of two miles, until it attains the length of twelve or fourteen. 
The villas or settlements called Biloxi, are situated on the peninsula or 
tongue of land between Pascagoula Sound and this inlet, which, in their 
rear, is (locally) called Back Bay. This peninsula is about two miles wide 
and nine long. Its surface is sandy and sterile, with a narrow strip of lower 
and richer soil. There are no marshes, however, between the Sound and 
Back Bay; but on the farther or continental side of the Bay, there are 
fresh water swamps. Three streams or bayous enter the Bay on that side ; 
all of which are deep and narrow. The Peninsula of Biloxi, is a place of 
sojourn for the people of New Orleans, during the prevalence of yellow fever, 



* Besancon's Annual Register, p. 150. 

t Bancroft's Hist, of the Col. of the U. S. Vol. Ill, p. 201. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 59 

but it has not always remained exempt from that epidemic. Autumnal 
fever, however, scarcely ever invades it. 

III. Bay of St. Louis. — This beautiful little Bay lies west of Biloxi. 
I have not the materials for a description, but may state, in general terms, 
that the Pine Woods approach the Gulf shore to its east ; and that it receives 
the waters of two small rivers, the Jourdain and the Wolf. Near the en- 
trance of the Bay, on its eastern side, is Pass Christian, and on its western, 
Shieldsboro' ; both of which are summer retreats for the people of Mobile 
and New Orleans, especially of the latter. This indicates, that it has been 
found a salubrious locality; yet, more than once, it has been invaded by yel- 
low fever. Its liability to autumnal fever appears to be small. 



SECTION X. 

THE PINE WOODS. 
The medical topography of a country would be incomplete, if it did not 
Comprehend specimens of its healthy localities along with the sickly; as it is 
by comparing them, that we arrive at a knowledge of the influence of 
topographical conditions, under the same climates. If the low and alluvial 
or marshy tracts, around this part of the Gulf, are infested with autumnal 
and yellow fevers, there is an adjacent plain, the hight and composition of 
which, give it a decided character of salubrity. This tertiary or post-tertiary 
deposit of sea sand and clay, has been already referred to in the descriptions 
of Pensacola and Mobile. It borders the north-eastern segment of the Gulf, 
from Lake Pontchartrain, or rather from the delta of the Mississippi to Pen- 
sacola ; and consequently lies in the rear of all the places which have been 
described. Between the city of Mobile and Pensacola, its altitude is one 
hundred and fifteen or twenty feet ; but further back from the coast, it 
rises higher. The rivers which flow through it to the Gulf, are the Perdido, 
between Pensacola and Mobile, and the Pascagoula and Pearl, between the 
latter and Lake Pontchartrain ; all of which are edged with swamps, over- 
shadowed with cypress, sweet gum, and other semi-aquatic trees ; decorated 
with a somber drapery of long moss (Tillandsia usneoides). The prevailing 
and characteristic forest tree of this plain, is the long-leafed pine ; which, in 
many parts, as between Pensacola and Mobile, forms a dense and lofty forest, 
to the exclusion of almost every other tree. Straight, and generally destitute 
of limbs to a great hight, these pines present to the eye a vast system of 
intercolumniation, which, seen at night, by the running fire that occasionally 
consumes their shed cones and long leaves, with the dry grass among which they 
have fallen, presents a grand and striking spectacle. This conflagration is one 
cause why so little humus, or mold, accumulates on the surface ; another is 
that but little mold is generated by the exuvice of a pine forest, and hence the 
surface remains barren. Where the plain is too level for the water to flow off, 



60 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

it has collected in small basins, and favored the growth of a more varied 
vegetation, the remains of which have contributed to arrest its descent into 
the earth ; and thus, in the midst of the pine desert, the eye is relieved by 
oases of flowering shrubs and annual plants, from which rivulets are seen to 
flow and congregate into larger streams. In descending from the plain, they 
readily cut channels through its loose strata ; from which there likewise issue 
copious springs of pure water, the quality of which has been already given, 
when speaking of the Pensacola and Mobile fountains. 

Such are the celebrated Pine Woods, to the protecting influence of which 
the people of New Orleans and Mobile commit themselves for safety, in yellow 
fever seasons ; expecting to enjoy an equal immunity from intermittents and 
remittents. Thus, in the region we are describing, the sweet gum and 
cypress, with their festoons of moss, are the symbols of deep soil, foul 
surface, impure water, vegetable decomposition, and fevers; while the 
long-leafed pine, symbolizes sterility, dryness of surface, gushing springs of 
pure water, and sound health. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



THE DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI — CONSIDERED AS A PART OF 

THE GULF COAST. 

It is impossible to give an intelligible account of the Delta of the Mis- 
sissippi, which must forever constitute the most important part of the coast of 
the Gulf of Mexico, without frequent references to the river above. This 
may sometimes carry us far into the interior ; but such eccentricities are un- 
avoidable, unless we had begun the analysis of the Southern Basin, with a 
description of the river itself, instead of the Gulf; which would, in the end, 
have involved us in greater difficulties. Our aim, in fact, is not to describe 
the Great Interior Valley, but to develop, before the reader, those physical 
conditions, which may be presumed to exercise an influence, either directly or 
indirectly, on health ; and the same method is not adapted to both objects. 



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part i,] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 61 

SECTION I. 

DESCRIPTIVE HYDROGRAPHY. 

The axis of the Delta of the Mississippi (PL V), lies nearly south-east 
and north west from the Balize, or junction of the North East Pass with the 
Gulf of Mexico, to the mouth of Red River; a distance, following the me- 
anders of the stream, of three hundred and forty miles.* In latitude, these 
extremities differ about two degrees — in longitude, nearly three. On the 
west, the Delta is bounded by the diluvial plains of Opelousas — on the 
east, by the tertiary, or post-tertiary highlands of West and East Feliciana, 
and of Baton Rouge ; which, having closely approached the river, recede from jt 
after passing that town, and trending to the east, pass round Lake Maurepas, 
Lake Pontchartrain, and Lake Borgne, to the Gulf of Mexico, at the Bay of 
St. Louis ; thus including those lakes within the Delta. That they do, in 
fact, belong to it, is rendered certain, by the discharge of a portion of the 
waters of the Mississippi through the Iberville — a bayou which leaves the 
river a few miles below Baton Rouge, and joining the River Amite, after its 
descent from the plateau just mentioned, flows into Lake Maurepas ; and 
thence, by the Bayou Manchac, into Pontchartrain, which is connected with 
Lake Borgne and the Gulf, by channels that meander among the Rigolets at 
the mouth of Pearl River. The water of these lakes, or, more properly, 
bays, is shallow and brackish ; and they can be regarded in no other light, 
than as portions of the Gulf, partly filled up with silt, carried into them from 
the Mississippi by the Iberville, Amite, and Pearl Rivers. Within the 
historic period, the Iberville has conveyed but a moderate quantity of water ; 
and of course the deposits from that source have latterly been small. 
Whether it did not formerly discharge a more copious stream, cannot be 
known. For the distance of one hundred and forty miles, the Mississippi, 
before a levee was constructed, poured over its left bank, during its annual 
swells, a great quantity of water, which finally made its way into the lakes 
just mentioned, and by its deposits must have contributed to their filling up. 
The prevention of this overflow by art, has thus diminished to some extent 
the ratio of deposition in the lakes, and prolonged indefinitely the process of 
their transformation into dry land. At present, the tract between them and 
the river, varying in width from five to twenty-four miles, is a cypress swamp, 
with ponds which are nearly on a level with the lakes. Much of it, how- 
ever, in autumn, becomes dry land; and most of it is sufficiently elevated to 
admit of being reclaimed by adequate ditching and draining. South of Lake 
Borgne, down to Chandeleur Bay, there is, however, an extensive tract, (ex- 
tending from the left bank of the Mississippi), which is permanently terraque- 
ous, and mostly irreclaimable. 

That portion of the Delta which lies south-west of the Mississippi, is larger, 



* Nicollet : Hydrograph. Basin. 



62 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and its hydrography much more intricate. Its general surface is every- 
where below that of the waters which flow through, or rest upon it, when 
their great fountain, the Mississippi, is swollen. Hence most of it is unin- 
habited ; and presents an indescribable labyrinth of lakes, ponds, bayous, 
swamps, and shaking prairies ; much of which, however, by early autumn, 
becomes so dry as even to oppose an obstacle to its cultivation. The waters 
which replenish this system of natural canals and reservoirs, are derived from 
two sources : first, the streams which descend from the plateau of Opelousas 
on the west, and the bottom lands of Red River on the north ; second, the 
bayous, or lateral outlets of the Mississippi, which are three in number. 
The largest and uppermost, is the Atchafalaya, which leaves the Mississippi 
only three miles below the mouth of Red River, and, in the opinion of Mr. 
Darby, * was once the bed of the latter river. The descent of this bayou, at 
first, is rapid, and its course nearly south ; while that of the Mississippi, 
after the separation, is south-east ; and hence they diverge from each other. 
One hundred and twenty miles below, the main river sends out Bayou Pla- 
quemine, which runs nearly west, until it joins a branch of the Atchafalaya. 
Thus reinforced, that bayou, when its parent stream is swollen, assumes the 
aspect of a large river. As it winds its way to the south-south-east, on a 
plain which declines gently to the south -south -west, it discharges a great 
quantity of water over its right bank, and sends off lateral bayous, which 
connect it with the Teche, with Lake Chetimaches, or Grand Lake, and 
with several smaller lakes ; while it pours a deep inundation over many ex- 
tensive swamps. Before reaching the Gulf, at the distance ( following its 
meanders ) of nearly two hundred miles, it enters the lower end of Lake Cheti- 
maches, on issuing from which, it receives the Bayou Teche ; whence both, in 
a single channel, flow on to Berwick's Bay, an arm of the Bay of Atchafa- 
laya. There is, as yet, but little cultivation on the banks of the Atchafalaya 
and still less on those of the lake with which it is so intimately connected ; 
for the entire area around that large reservoir, is subject to deep annual 
inundation. When the Mississippi is low, the current in the Atchafalaya 
and Teche is very slack, and the tides flow up them to a great distance. 

The position of the Teche is west of the Atchafalaya, and its general 
course nearly parallel to that bayou. It skirts the plains of Opelousas, and 
traverses the parish of Attakapas, having lateral connections in its upper 
part, with the Atchafalaya, of which the principal is the Bayou Courtableau, 
through which, however, it does not, at present, receive much water. 

In the opinion of Mr. Darby, a part of Red River once flowed in the 
Teche — a theory which may explain why its waters no longer rise to the 
level of its banks. This beautiful natural canal forms the south-western 
water boundary of the Delta. 



* Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana, 1817. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 63 

Let us return to the Mississippi. At Donaldsonville, twenty-four miles 
below Bayou Plaquemine, and eighty above New Orleans, is the efflux of Bayou 
La Fourche, the last of any considerable size, sent off by the great river. 
The course of this bayou is at first south, and then south-west, to the Gulf, 
between Barataria and the Timballier Bays. Its length, sinuosities, and 
complications, are much less than those of the Atchafalaya. The entire 
tract between these two bayous is subject to deep, yearly submersion. That 
between the La Fourche and the Mississippi, in the direction of New 
Orleans, abounds in streams which originate within the delta, and in ponds 
and lakes, of which the largest is Barataria. 

From this rapid hydrographical sketch, it will be seen that the Delta, west 
and south of the Mississippi, is a true terraqueous region, the greater 
portion of which is annually inundated ; while in the neighborhood of the 
Gulf, there are large tracts of permanent salt marsh. The perfect silence 
and deep solitude of many parts of this peculiar region, are described by Mr. 
Darby as profoundly impressive. * 

The remaining hydrographical description need not detain us long. We 
begin with the Mississippi, at the head of the Delta, and follow it to the Gulf. 
On both sides, an artificial levee, or earth embankment, raises the banks of 
the river three or four feet above their original hight, (which was previously 
greater than that of the swamps behind), and thus prevents the escape of any 
considerable quantity of water, except when a crevice is accidentally formed. 
On the outside of this embankment, lies the cleared and cultivated land, 
which may average a mile in width, and declines gradually to the cypress 
swamps in the rear. The depth of water in these swamps, varies from a 
few inches, to ponds and lagoons of several feet. In the spring and early 
summer, they are all flush ; but before the following winter, extensive tracts of 
swamp have become dry land, to be again inundated. 

Some plantations are so level, that the rains, and the water which percolates 
the banks or escapes by small crevices in the levee, when the river is swollen, 
will not flow off to the swamps. Ditches, intersecting each other at right 
angles, are then required, to receive and conduct it to the levee, through 
which it is discharged into the Mississippi, by steam power. The machinery 
for this purpose, is modeled after the paddle-wheels of our steam boats. 
Being placed in the ditch where it passes through the levee, the rotation of 
the wheel drives the water forward ; this creates a depression, into which 
that behind, of course, immediately flows ; and thus a current is established 
through the principal ditch, by which all connected with it are emptied. 

As the voyager traverses the Delta, he finds a monotonous sameness in the 
natural scenery, which, however, contrasts agreeably with that of the interior 



* In the foregoing sketch I have preferred to follow our distinguished Physical 
Geographer, Mr. Darby, rather than any more recent authority; on account of his well- 
known accuracy, and his having written from personal observation. 



64 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



of the Valley. There he looks up to behold it — here he looks down ; there 
he sees streams running into the river — here he sees them flowing out ; there 
his horizon is limited — here it is boundless ; there diversity of objects enables 



him to estimate his progress — here 



dty gives him the feeling of moving 



in an eddy. An equal sameness prevails in the subjects of cultivation on the 
banks ; so that almost the only source of variety, is in the style of the old 
French and new American plantations, as they appear in succession. 

Passing by New Orleans, which is one hundred and four miles from the 
junction of the Mississippi with the Gulf, the voyager, at the distance of fifty 
or sixty miles below the city, finds himself on a kind of peninsular cape, 
which projects boldly but obliquely into the Gulf; with Chandeleur Bay on 
his left, and Bastian Bay on his right. The banks have become much 
lower, and the belts of arable land narrower ; at length, through some natural 
or artificial opening, he catches a momentary glance of the green waters of 
the Gulf. Further on, the banks sink nearly to the level of the salt water, 
and the swamps, with a diminished number of trees, begin to crowd hard 
upon the river ; which, after having given off numerous small bayous, divides, 
about twent}^ miles from its termination in the Gulf, into three channels, and 
thus presents a subordinate and more limited delta. These channels are called 
the South West Pass, the South Pass, and the North East Pass ; the last 
of which, at the distance of seven or eight miles from the Gulf, sends off, 
northerly, the Pass a la Loutre ; and in the opposite direction, the little 
Bayou, on which stands that old pilot's emporium, the Balize; finally, 
the main trunk divides, before reaching the Gulf, and while one branch 
retains the name of North East, the other is called the South East 
Pass. The iuterest which attaches to this extreme point of the Delta, 
requires that a Section should be specifically appropriated to it. 



SECTION II. 

RISE AND FALL OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI. 

In conformity to the general law, that as we descend great rivers to the 
sea, the range between high and low water diminishes, we find that of the 
Mississippi much greater above than within its Delta. 

The following Table shows this range at several points from Natchez to 
the Gulf: 



T ,... 1 Distance from 1 Range from low to 
Localities. the Gulf. high water. 


Natchez, 
Baton Rouge, 
Donaldsonville, 
New Orleans, 
Balize, 


406 Miles. 
244 « 
187 « 
104 " 
2 " 


52 Feet. * 
30 " 
25 " f 
14 " 

3 " | 

I 


Cincinnati, on the 
Ohio River, 


1548 " 


63 " 



* Nicollet. — Too much, I suspect. + Darby. 



PART J. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA 



65 



Not having data for the Mississippi above Natchez, I have added the 
range from low to high water at Cincinnati, on the Ohio river. 

At first view, it might be supposed, that the longer the range between 
luVh and low water, the greater is the overflow of the banks ; but the re- 
verse is the fact ; for the inundations become deeper, and of more frequent 
occurrence as we descend ; and but for the levees, the whole Delta would be 
deeply submerged every spring and summer. 

While the rivers, which, by their union, make up the Mississippi, rise 
and fall several times in the course of every year, that river, within the 
Delta, has generally but one rise and one fall ; that is, a maximum which it 
slowly attains, and a minimum to which it sinks as gradually. This will 
appear from the following table :* 

Monthly recession of the Mississippi from high water mark at New 
Orleans: Average of the calendar years, 1833, 1834, 1835, and 
1836. 



January, 


7.90 Feet. 


July, 


5.82 Feet. 


February, 


5.13 " 


August, 


7.97 « 


March, 


4.27 •< 


September, 


13.10 » 


April, 


2.94 " 


October, 


13.33 " 


May, 


4.67 « 


November, 


12.34 " * 


June, 


4.72 « 


December, 


8.84 " 



We are here presented with a gradual fall from April to October, and as 
gradual a rise through the remaining five months. 

The greatest flood cannot often occur as early as March, as the rivers of the 
north have not then broken up; and it does not always happen in April. 
Thus, in 1843, I found the maximum in June; and in 1844, in July. In 
these instances, however, extraordinary rains had reinforced the usual 
spring floods. 

The sustained elevation from February to July, results from the progres- 
sive opening of spring, beginning in the low latitudes of Red River, the 
Arkansas, and the Tennessee, and extending, with the advance of spring, to 
the sources of the Mississippi proper, and the Missouri, in latitudes forty - 
seven and forty-eight degrees. If the Mississippi flowed to the east or 
west, its vernal rise would be more rapid, more elevated, and of shorter 
duration. After the subsidence commences, less and less water, of course, 
flows into its bayous, or oozes through its banks; and, as that which has 
been effused drains off into the Gulf, large tracts, as already mentioned, are 
laid bare, and at length, under the burning sun of July, August, and Sep- 
tember, are dried until they crack open; — thus passing, in the course of two 
months, from a saturated condition to the opposite extreme. 



* Barton, in Historical Notice of New Orleans, p. 290, 1840. 



66 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION III. 

DEPTH OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI. 

In advancing from the interior to the Gulf, the volume of the river in- 
creases far more in a vertical, than in a horizontal direction. Indeed, its width 
above the mouth of the Missouri, is often quite as great as below the mouth 
of Red River, the last of its tributaries. Within the Delta, its depth becomes 
so great, that bars and islands are nearly unknown; and snags are almost as 
rare, except along its banks. Accurate soundings have not, however, been 
made at many points. According to Mr. Darby,* an admeasurement taken 
nine miles below the efflux of Bayou La Pourche, and one hundred and 
seventy-five from the river's mouth, gave a depth of one hundred and fifty 
feet beneath high water mark. At New Orleans, Mr. Albert Stein, Civil 
Engineer,! and Professor Riddell, of the Medical College of Louisiana,! have 
made soundings; which gave, respectively, one hundred and fifty, and one 
hundred and forty-two feet; but in 1844, several gentlemen and myself 
sounded opposite the city, and unexpectedly found a depth of two hundred 
and forty feet. There might have been some error in the experiment ; never- 
theless, I was informed by Captain Whiting, U. S. A., that certain officers of 
the army, in sounding opposite the Barracks, three miles below the city, 
found a pool of still greater depth. Of the soundings from this point to the 
division into three Passes, twenty miles from the Gulf, I cannot speak. In 
the South West Pass, Mr. Stein found the average depth sixty-eight feet ; 
the greatest, eighty ; the least, fifty-four. Near the outlet or bar, it was 
twenty-two ; on the bar, as low as fifteen, and even thirteen feet four inches. 
The South Pass is much shallower; and the North East Pass is also not so 
deep as the South West. 

Assuming one of the lowest soundings opposite the city — one hundred 
and fifty feet — as the basis of a calculation, and deducting therefrom ten 
feet for the fall of the river from the city to the Gulf, and fifteen feet for the 
depth of water at the South West Pass, we find that the bottom, at that 
Pass, is one hundred and twenty-five feet higher than the bottom opposite 
the city ; and that, consequently, the water at the bottom in front of the 
city must ascend that hight before it can surmount the bars and reach the 
Gulf, or else it constitutes an eddying pool. 

The fall of the surface of the Mississippi, at low water, through that part 
of the Delta which extends from its vertex at Red River to New Orleans, is 
sixty-five feet; which, divided by the distance — two hundred and thirty-six 
miles — is equal to three inches and three-tenths per mile. Below the city 
to the Gulf, the fall is one inch and two-tenths. Thus, the farther the Delta 



* Description of La., p. 65. 

t Documents on the Navigation of the Mississippi River, p. 47 

J Commercial Review of the South West. "Vol. II, p. 437. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 67 

advances into the Grulf, the greater is its horizontality, and, consequently, the 
slower its current. From experiments made at New Orleans, Professor 
Riddell and Mr. Stein have been led to fix on two feet per second as an 
average velocity for all stages of water. 



SECTION IV. 

TEMPERATURE OF THE RIVER. 
Several circumstances influence the temperature of rivers : First. A stream 
largely supplied from springs, will be warmer in winter and cooler in summer, 
than its banks beneath the surface, or the air resting upon it. Second. A 
shallow river is much sooner brought to the temperature of the earth's surface, 
and that of the air, than a deeper one. Third. An alluvial and turbid river will. 
ceteris j^aribus, be more heated by the sun than one which is transparent ; as 
it is by impinging on solid and opaque bodies, that the sun's rays develop 
caloric; while, at the same time, its bed will radiate less heat than if its 
waters were clear. Fourth. When a river descends rapidly upon a plain, its 
waters will be cooler than those of another river of the same volume origin- 
ating on the plain. Fifth. TThen one river flows nearly under a parallel of 
latitude, and another in the meridian, the former will have the temperature 
proper to the latitude, while the latter, if it flows from the north, will be 
colder, having that which is the mean of all the latitudes it has passed 
through. Thus, as I have several times observed, the Ohio, which flows 
nearly west, is two degrees warmer than the Mississippi, which descends from 
the north, both being examined near their junction. To the west of the 
Mississippi, the Arkansas, the Kansas, and the Platte, like the Ohio, flow 
nearly under the parallels in which they originate; but the Missouri and 
Upper Mississippi originate in high latitudes, and descend to the south. In 
reference to the Delta, the whole are northern. If we assume two miles an 
hour for the average velocity of the river, as it traverses the Delta three 
hundred and forty miles, that portion of the river bed empties itself, and is 
filled with cooler water from the north, every seven days. To enable us to 
estimate the effect of this circulation on the climate of the Delta, we must 
ascertain both the area of the river's surface, and its actual temperature. 
The former may be obtained without much uncertainty. Taking its length, 
from the mouth of Pted Ptiver to the Balize at three hundred and forty miles, 
and its breadth at half a mile, we have one hundred and seventy square miles 
as its area ; but to this we may safely add thirty, for the area of the greater 
bayous, giving two hundred square miles of river surface within the Delta. 
The latter desideratum — the annual temperature of this water — presents a 
greater difficulty. It has not, indeed, been ascertained ; at least, I have 
not met with the requisite observations. On the 24th of February, 
1843, I found the temperature of the water flowing into the Grulf over the 



68 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

bar of the South West, or deepest Pass, to be forty-two and a half degrees ; 
while that of the Gulf, a few miles out, was fifty-six and a half, or fourteen 
degrees higher. On the 1st of March, the temperature in the middle of the 
North East Pass, opposite the Balize, was likewise forty-two and a half 
degrees ; and on the 5th, that at Fort Jackson, thirty miles above, was the 
same. On the 11th of the same month, the temperature of Lake Pont- 
chartrain was fifty-six, and of Lake Borgne fifty-five — average fifty-five and 
a half, or thirteen degrees higher. The difference of a degree between these 
lakes and the Gulf, doubtless arose from their higher latitudes. These were 
probably minimum winter temperatures; and they indicate, as a general 
average, a difference of thirteen and a half degrees between the waters 
arriving from the north, and those sojourning in the Gulf, on which the base 
of the Delta rests. I did not, however, find an equal difference in summer. 
On the 5th of June, of the same year, the temperature of Lake Pontchar- 
train was seventy- eight; that of the Mississippi within the Delta, on the 7th, 
was seventy-two — difference six degrees. This date was too early by almost 
two months, to give the highest summer heat. On the corresponding day of 
1846, Professor Biddell * found the heat to be seventy-five, or three degrees 
greater. His observations, continued, at short intervals, from the 21st of 
May to the 12th of August, show a gradual rise from seventy- two degrees 
at the first date, to eighty- five on the 1st of August; after which the 
temperature declined. The mean of his observations from the 12th of July 
to the 12th of August — eighty-three degrees — may, perhaps, be received as 
the maximum summer temperature of the river, in that year, at New 
Orleans. Opposite the same city, in February, 1843, the- minimum was 
forty-one degrees. The mean of these numbers, sixty-two degrees, may, in 
the absence of better data, be received as the annual temperature of the 
river as it passes by the city, and it is several degrees below the atmospheric 
mean. Thus, observation confirms the a priori conclusion, that the Missis- 
sippi acts as a cooler to the banks and the atmosphere of its Delta ; and when 
we recollect that it meanders through that region, until its surface amounts 
to two hundred square miles, that its trough is replenished every seven days, 
and that nearly all population and all cultivation are on its immediate banks, 
from which the water is abstracting caloric and transporting it to the Gulf, 
we seem called upon to believe, that its climatic influence ought not to be 
overlooked. This, however, is far from being equal throughout the year; 
for, as it depends on the quantity of water, it is, of course, least in the latter 
part of summer and in early autumn, when the river is low ; and we find, in 
fact, that its temperature then rises to the mean heat of the atmosphere. 
Thus the extremes of winter and summer, are greater in the river than in the 
atmosphere of the Delta; and the difference results from depression of 



* Com. Rev. of the South West, Vol. II, p. 436. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 69 

the former in winter and spring, or rather for the first half of the calendar 
year. 

But it is not by its temperature only, that the Mississippi acts upon the 
climate of its Delta. During its annual flood, which continues from March 
to July, there is a constant infiltration into the banks, and an inundation, as 
we have seen, of large portions of the Delta. As this water has a tempera- 
ture below the mean heat of the ground which it penetrates, or the surface 
which it overflows, some degree of refrigerating effect may be attributed to 
it ; but a greater effect results from the evaporation in June, July, August, 
and September, which, of necessity, prevents the sun from heating the sur- 
face of the ground to as high a temperature as it would otherwise attain. 
This evaporation, moreover, maintains the humidity and freshness of the air. 
In conclusion, it may be said that, while the river floods, in March and April, 
lend their influence to the production of occasional cooler days and rawer 
winds, than would otherwise occur, they assist, in May and June, in giving 
to the banks a climate whose deliciousness is equaled only by its salubrity. 

It would be interesting to know the mean annual temperature of the river 
at the different parallels which it traverses, for the purpose of comparing it 
with the mean atmospheric temperature ; but observations to this end iiave 
not yet been made. I will, however, state a few which go to show the 
difference between two distant points, at nearly the same time, in two seasons 
of the year. On the 7th of June, 1843, the river being very high, its tem- 
perature near Bayou Sara, within the Delta, was seventy-three degrees, and 
on the 10th, near Cairo, about nine hundred miles above, it was seventy; 
showing that it had only acquired one degree of heat, for every three hun- 
dred miles. On the 10th of February of the same year, when the river was 
not so high, I had found it, at the upper of these stations, thirty-four de- 
grees, and at the lower, forty-two, indicating an increment of heat nearly 
three times as great as in the month of June. The difference in latitude 
between the stations is a little more than six degrees. So that, in summer, 
a flow through two degrees of latitude was necessary to the acquisition of 
one degree of temperature ; but in winter, a degree of latitude gave one degree 
thirty-three hundredths of heat. It deserves to be added, that in the latter 
experiment, the temperature continued substantially the same to the Balize; 
though both the distance by the river and the difference in latitude were 
sufficient, if the ratio of increase had continued the same, to have raised it 
nearly two degrees. The small change of level may have been one cause of 
this constancy ; but the facts are too few to warrant a generalization, or to 
develop the ratio of increased temperature, from diminished latitude and 
reduced elevation above the level of the Gulf. 



70 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. ' 

SECTION V. 

SUSPENDED AND DISSOLVED MATERIALS OF THE RIVER. 

I. It will aid us in studying the medical geology of the Delta, to pass in 
review the materials which the river draws to itself from the countries which 
it drains; for all its deposits, however modified or mingled, are thence 
obtained and transmitted to its estuary. 

1. As may be said of every other river, the waters which constitute the 
Mississippi are derived from the atmosphere, and reach its trough directly 
by flowing on the surface, or indirectly from under the surface, through 
which they have descended to burst out in the form of springs. We shall 
hereafter see, that the rains which fall within the basin of the Mississippi, 
are chiefly derived from the G-ulf of Mexico ; and thus the river is but the 
return to that reservoir of what had been given out. That portion of its water 
which flows from the surface, is not from rains alone, for nearly all the sub- 
ordinate rivers, which unite in forming the main trunk, originate in latitudes 
or at elevations above the sea, in which deep snows annually fall ; and hence 
the spring floods are composed largely of snow water. 

Within the basin of the Mississippi, we have, as was shown in Chapter 7, 
almost every kind of geological formation; and thus our springs and smaller 
streams throw into the river all the saline ingredients which water, as it 
flows among, or cuts through, various strata, is capable of dissolving. Of 
the whole, bicarbonate of lime and muriate of soda are undoubtedly the 
most abundant; but the former, from mere exposure and agitation, is in part 
decomposed and deposited before it reaches the Delta. The latter, however, 
continues in solution, and even increases in quantity, as the current advances ; 
as Red River and the Arkansas, especially the former, afford, when low, a 
water so impregnated with salt as sometimes to impart a brackish taste.* 

2. The suspension of inorganic matter is immensely beyond its solution; 
and this ao-ain, from the variety of our mineral strata, may be as diversified 
as that of any other river. In centuries indefinitely past (the diluvial 
period), when mighty torrents traversed the continent from north to south, 
they no doubt rolled before them a great amount of solid matter in fragments 
too large to be suspended ; and strata of pebble stones and gravel, in all 
probability, lie deeply buried up in the Delta ; but at present, solid mineral 
matters are transported to it by suspension only. These are chiefly alumina 
or clay, and silicious and calcareous sand, very finely comminuted. Of 
these, and other suspended mineral matters, it is only the most finely pow- 
dered that reach the Delta, the coarser being deposited by the way ; and 
hence, in descending the river from any point above, we observe a regular 
decrease of the larger debris of rocks, and a corresponding, proportional in- 



* Darby's View of the United States, p. 317. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 71 

crease of the smaller ; — the highest degree of comminution being seen in 
those portions of the Delta -which project farthest into the Gulf. Of the 
clays thus carried down, some are blue, others yellow, and others red. The 
last is chiefly from the river which bears that name. Those furnished by 
the Ohio, are always of some shade of yellow; those from the Missouri, 
are bluish. 

3. The vegetable kingdom contributes largely to the mass of trans- 
ported materials. 

a. The forests on every tributary send down trees, and the Mississippi is 
perpetually uprooting the groves of cotton wood, and other trees ; for the 
growth of which, it had not only deposited the soil, but sown the seed. In 
its progress, this driftwood becomes gradually stripped of its bark and 
branches, and all its soluble parts dissolve in the water. Much of it is 
deposited by the way, and much is towed to the shore after it reaches the 
Delta ; yet not a little is deposited in the salt marshes of the Balize, or 
floated off on the surface of the Gulf. 

b. The autumnal contribution of forest leaves and luxuriant annual plants, 
is very great; and from their levity, many of them reach the Delta; having 
in their progress given out to the water all their soluble elements. 

c. The drainings of swamps and marshes, holding in solution whatever 
the water has found to dissolve, must not be overlooked. 

4. The animal kingdom throws in a liberal contribution. Every tributary 
deep enough to float a carcase, is from time to time required to bear it off; 
and many animals of various sizes, which have perished on their banks, are 
uplifted by their floods, and borne away to the common trough. Still fur- 
ther, most of the trees and plants, whether green or in decay, which find 
their way into the river, take with them the worms and insects in which 
they abound. 

5. All our cities and larger towns are on the Mississippi and its great 
tributaries. Their population cannot fall far short of a million ; and the 
ordinary dependence of the whole is on their rivers, to receive the contents of 
the private and public sewers, and the drains from all establishments of in- 
dustry. Thus a civic contribution — organic and inorganic, soluble and 
insoluble — is perpetually going forward. 

6. The recrements from more than four hundred steamers, and twice or 
thrice as many flat boats, make an element of impurity not to be passed un- 
noticed ; nor should we overlook the discharge into the river of the ashes, 
abounding in saline ingredients, which are produced by the daily combustion 
of many thousand cords of wood. 

7. Finally : The water of the Mississippi abounds in microscopic infu- 
soria. This was first announced, I think, by Professor Bailey, of the United 
States Military Academy, in February, 1845.* In a specimen of water 



* Proceedings of the .Boston Society of Natural History. 



72 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

taken from the river opposite St. Louis, lie detected no less than twenty 
species, all living and active, a part of them soft, and a part with hard, 
silicious shells. Most of the species were in great numbers. 

II. Such are the elements, organic and inorganic, living and dead, with 
which the Mississippi becomes freighted in its transit down the Interior Val- 
ley. The catalogue is rather startling ; but before we decide against the 
purity of its waters, we must recollect a few facts. First. Their immense 
volume. Second. The subsidence in their eddies of a great deal of matter* 
which cannot, from its weight, be borne up without a rapid current. Third. 
The disintegrating and decomposing power of water, and the readiness with 
which gases, the product of decomposition, escape from running streams. 
Fourth. The fact, that when the river is low, and the heat of the latter part 
of summer in the south is great, the proportion of foreign ingredients is 
much less, than during the floods of spring and summer. 

In a series of experiments, by Professor Riddell, continued from the 25th 
of May, when the river was within two feet of its greatest altitude at New 
Orleans, until the 10th of August, when it was but eighteen inches above low 
water mark, the proportion of suspended matter gradually lessened to one- 
third. At the beginning, the heat of the river was seventy-three degrees — 
at the end, eighty-three degrees. Thus, the maximum of both atmospheric 
and river heat in the Delta, coincides with the minimum of river impurity, 
If this fact have no bearing on the question of salubrity, when the water is 
used as a beverage, its connection with the production of gases is obvious, 
and well fitted to show, that in the season when fevers — ascribed to the 
presence of gases — are prevalent in the Delta, the material supplied by the 
river for their development, is greatly reduced, by diminution in both the 
volume of water, and the proportion of foreign ingredients. 

III. The salubrity of the Mississippi water, or that of the Missouri, 
which imparts the character of turbiclness, is not an open question. From 
St. Louis to New Orleans, the testimony of the population on its banks, 
and of those who spend a great part of their lives upon it as watermen, is 
unequivocally in its favor. Many persons drink it before its suspended 
materials have subsided, and seem to prefer it to that which has been ren- 
dered transparent by time or art. That it produces some effects on the sys- 
tem, which transparent water, from wells and springs, and our other rivers, 
does not, is an established popular opinion. It is even regarded by many 
persons as being, to a certain extent, medicinal, and especially adapted to 
the cure of chronic functional disorders of the stomach, bowels, and liver — 
an opinion in which I am disposed to concur. That its daily use averts 
some forms of disease, may be admitted as probable ; but precise observa- 
tions on all these points are wanting; and I shall dismiss the subject with 
the presentation of two facts, in which, 1 trust, the reader will take a 
pleasant interest. First : Professor Bailey, after observing its numerous 
shoals of microscopic animalcules, expresses the opinion, that they are 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 73 

sufficiently abundant to render the water somewhat nutritious. Second : In 
his Letters on Louisiana, written in the year 1751, Captain Boissu informs us, 
that the Mississippi water has the property of contributing to the "fecondite 
des femmesf" 



SECTION VI. 

GEOLOGICAL AGE, DEPTH, GROWTH, STRUCTURE, AND CHEMICAL 
COMPOSITION OF THE DELTA. 

The Delta, from its bottom up, is, of course, a newer formation than the 
marine deposits which are seen along its northern border above Baton 
Rouge; such deposits having been formed before the Mississippi existed, or 
the continent was raised from the sea. But of the actual age of the Delta, 
on the scale of ordinary chronology, nothing is known. Before the banks of 
the river were surmounted with levees, every year spread new deposits over 
their surface, and over the Delta generally; and had the ratio of annual 
growth been then noted, and could the depth of the reservoir thus filled up 
be ascertained, the problem of time might be solved. In the absence of such 
data, recourse has been had to the quantity of silt annually brought down 
by the river, and an assumed depth of the basin filled up ; relying for the 
latter, on soundings in the Gulf beyond the line of river deposits. But to 
give even approximative exactness to this method, the river above the Bayou 
Atchafalaya should be gauged at every stage of water, and the velocity of 
the current determined for every elevation ; this being done, and the propor- 
tions of silt correspondingly ascertained, an important part of the data for a 
computation would be obtained. The depth of the bay which has been 
filled would, however, still remain a desideratum ; and the question, whether, 
in the period which immediately succeeded the elevation of the continent, the 
ratio of filling up was not much higher than at the present time, would 
require to be answered. When the great currents, to which reference has 
been repeatedly made, swept over the Interior Valley from north to south, 
the filling up of the long arm of the Gulf, which penetrated the continent 
as it is now penetrated by a similar arm from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 
doubtless went on with great rapidity. To this end, the loose tertiary and 
cretaceous deposits on both sides of the ancient estuary, no doubt contributed 
a full share. 

Happily the question of the rate at which the Delta has been deposited, is 
not of importance to the medical geologist ; but he is interested in knowing 
the amount and composition of the suspended matter of the river, and, also 
the composition of the mud of the Delta itself. 

In the month of April, 1838, Mr. Stein, at New Orleans, found the 
proportion of suspended matter to be TT Vo m hulk, or about T ^ in weight. 

In the year 1844, the river being at a mean bight, I took up from near 



74 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

its middle, on the 31st of March, a bottle of water, eight hundred and sixty 
miles above New Orleans ; on the 3d of April, another, four hundred miles 
lower down ; and on the 10th, a third, opposite the city. These bottles 
remained closely corked until the 15th of May, when they were opened at 
the laboratory of Professor Riddell. On being uncorked, each emitted a 
sulphurous smell. By evaporation, we ascertained that the proportion of silt, 
by weight, of the first, was TT Vo — °f tne second, y^o — of the third, 
__?__ ; seeming to indicate a regular decrease on descending the river. 

But the most important, and, indeed, the only series of experiments, are 
those made by Professor Riddell, from the 25th of May to the 13th of 
August, 1846.* They show, First, That while the river continues at the 
same night, the quantity of silt may vary. Thus, for the first month after 
he began to experiment, the river being within three feet of high water 
mark, it did not vary more than a foot; and yet the amount of sediment 
varied to the extent of a third, and even a half. This is, no doubt, attribu- 
table to the predominance at different times of the water of different 
tributary rivers; and nearly connected with this is the fact, that in the 
summer, after the river has fallen to the mean hight of the year, the pro- 
portion of silt may be even greater than before. Thus, on the 3d of July, 
when, by gradual subsidence, the hight was only five feet seven inches 
above the lowest stage which occurred during his experiments, the quantity 
of silt was greater than at any previous period, even when the river was 
three feet nine inches higher. Second. His table also proves that, in the 
latter part of July, and thence forward, when the stage of low water is 
rapidly approaching, the proportion of silt is signally reduced, becoming at 
length not more than one-third of what it was in the period of high water. 
Third. As an average of all his experiments he obtained yy^g-, by weight, 
of solid matter. 

Let us turn to the composition of the silt while suspended in the river, and 
after its deposit in the Delta. This, of course, must be forever varying in 
quality, as we have seen it varies in quantity. Thus when several tributaries 
are swollen at the same time, the suspended matters will be different from 
those poured into the great trough by the freshet of any one of them ; and again, 
each will supply a silt of a kind varying in some respects from every other. 

In the month of June, 1844, when the river, at St. Louis, about twelve 
hundred miles from its mouth, was of mean hight and rising, I took up a 
quantity of water at a distance from the shore, the sediment of which was 
analyzed by Doctor C. H. Raymond, a skillful practical chemist, of Cincinnati, 
who obtained from one hundred parts the following results — 



* Com. Rev. of the South West, Vol. II, p. 435. 



TART I.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



Silica, 48.00 

Alumina, - - - - - . - - - 18.50 

Oxide of iron, - 14.00 

Carbonate of lime, - 8.00 

Phosphates of alumina and iron, - 1.00 

Vegetable mold, or geine. ----- 3.00 

Undecomposed organic matter, - 7.50 



</ 



* 100.00 



Desirous of knowing what elements were dissolved in the same water, I 
desired Dr. Kaymond to analyze a portion of that which had passed through 
the filter; which he did, and obtained the following results, from one hundred 
parts — 



Sulphate of soda, with a trace of the chlorides of lime and magnesia, 
Organic matter, with a trace of silica, - 



67.55 
32.45 

100.00 



We may, I suppose, assume that this organic matter, with traces of silica, 
consisted largely of the tribes of microscopic animalcules, discovered by 
Professor Bailey. ^ 

"We are indebted to Professor Riddell for analysis of the mud of the 
Delta, at New Orleans. It was taken from the river's bank, and after being 
dried by a heat of two hundred and twelve degrees Fahrenheit, gave the 
following results — 



Silica, - 74.15 

Alumina, - 9.14 

Oxide of iron, - 4.56 

Lime, - 2 08 

Magnesia, - 1.52 

Manganese, - - - 0.04 
Potassa, amount not determined, 

Soda, " " 



Phosphoric acid, 
Sulphuric acid, 
Carbonic acid, 
Chlorine, - 
Water, 

Organic matter, 
Loss, - 



0.44 
0.07 
0.74 
0-01 
3.12 
3.10 
1.03 



Total 100.00 



The silt obtained in these and all other experiments of a like kind, is the 
chief material of which the Delta is composed, at least in its more recent and 
superficial parts ; but there is imbedded in it whatever solid matters may 
have been floated down and lodged in the estuary; which, of course, are 
chiefly the trunks and branches of trees and the bones of animals. More- 
over, as the sea was always present, resisting, as it were, the encroachments 
of the land, we may suppose that marine exuviae are present to a greater or 
less degree. 

The well-water obtained in such a heterogeneous deposit, cannot, of 



* Note, by Dr. Raymond.— In this analysis all the precipitates were dried to 212° 
Fahrenheit; at this temperature the alumina, oxide of iron, and carbonate of lime 
would retain water equal to about one-half of their weight. 



76 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

course, be very pure. Professor Riddell* has examined that afforded in 
the month of September, when the river was low, by a well, ten feet deep, in 
New Orleans. Under evaporation, it left a residium of solid matter equal to 
a twelve hundredth part, by weight, of the water employed ; but, in the 
month of December, the proportion was augmented to a ten hundred and nine- 
ty-fourth. This residue was of an olive color, and imparted a sharp taste. 
Examined with the microscope, nearly one-fourth appeared to consist of 
organized matters, such as the sporules, or germs of algse, and animalcules 
with their ova. The mineral ingredient proved to be — 

Bicarbonate of lime, 

Bicarbonate of iron, 

Muriate of lime, 

Muriate of magnesia, 

Muriate of soda. 
Being within six miles of Lake Pontchartrain, this well had perhaps been 
reached by percolation from that body of salt water, and was not, therefore, 
a fair representative of the wells of the Delta generally; nevertheless, they 
must everywhere afford water abounding in impurities. 

Wherever examination can be made, as along the river and in some exca- 
vations by art, it is seen that these materials have been deposited in hori- 
zontal layers. I may refer to two perforations as instructive in regard to 
the geological structure and composition of the Delta. First. Professor 
Biddell informs us, on the authority of M. W. Hoffman, Esq., that north of 
New Orleans, near Lake Pontchartrain, in the year 1828, Mr. Harvey Elkins 
bored to the depth of two hundred and seven feet. Thirty feet below the 
surface, fragments of Indian pottery were brought up ; and part of a deer's 
horn, recent shells, and bones of land animals, were occasionally raised. The 
stratum in which the boring was stopped, consisted of a hard, blue silicious 
clay. Brackish water, with volumes of some kind of gas, arose. f 

Second. In the year 1844, 1 visited two gas tanks, each sixty feet in diam- 
eter, and sixteen feet deep, recently sunk in the back part of the city ; and 
received from the intelligent superintendent, Doctor Rogers, an account of what 
was met with in excavating them. At first, they encountered soil and soft 
river mud ; then, harder laminated blue alluvion ; then, deep-black mold, resting 
on wet, bluish quicksand, so moveable that they could not proceed further. 
On this the brick walls of the tanks were laid, and the sinking under their 
weight was so unequal as to produce curves in the ranges of brick, which, of 
course, were at first horizontal. A pile of brick laid in the center of one 
tank, caused the center of the adjacent tank to bulge up. The roots, and 
bases or stumps, of no less than four successive growths of trees, apparently 
cypress, were found standing at different elevations. The first had a diam- 



* Hist. Notice of New Orleans, 1840. f Com. Rev. of the S. W 



tart i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 77 

eter of two feet six inches; the second, of six feet; the third, of four feet; 
and the fourth, of twelve feet at a short distance up, with a base of twenty- 
eight feet for the roots. It was imbedded in a soft, deep-black mold. "When 
cut with the spade, much of this wood resembled cheese in texture, but hard- 
ened on drying. This statement was confirmed by Mr. Kelvy, who con- 
ducted the excavation. At the depths of seven and sixteen feet, burnt wood 
was met with. No shells, or bones of land animals, or fish, were observed ; 
but in a tank previously excavated, at the depth of sixteen feet, the skeleton 
of a man was found. The cranium lay between the roots of a tree, and 
was in tolerable preservation, but most of the other bones crumbled on ex- 
posure. A small 05 ilium, which I saw, indicated the male sex. A low and 
narrow forehead, moderate facial angle, and prominent, widely separated 
cheek bones, seemed to prove it of the same race with our present Indians. 
No charcoal, ashes, or ornaments of any kind, were found around it. In the 
bottoms of the tanks there was a constant boiliug up of brackish water, vary- 
ing in temperature in different fountains, from eighty to eighty-two degrees — 
the observation being made on the 3d of May. As this temperature ap- 
proached much nearer to that of Lake Pontchartrain than the Mississippi, it 
showed, not less than the brackish taste of the water, the subterranean influ- 
ence of the Lake, although at the distance of four or five miles from its 
margin. 

On examining this water in the Laboratory of Professor Riddell, we found 
in it a liberal quantity of muriate of soda, with some muriate of magnesia, 
and a trace of muriate of lime ; no sulphuric acid or iron was present. Along 
with the water there was a constant evolution of gas, which proved to be 
carburetted hydrogen. 

In these excavations, no fragments of rock or rolled pebbles were encoun- 
tered; and none art found in the banks of the river, or on the surface 
generally. 

The coarse sands of the Missouri, found also in the Mississippi for many 
hundred miles below the junction of those rivers, are not met with here, as 
only the very finest can be suspended long enough to reach the Delta. Nev- 
ertheless, it is more silicious than a casual inspection would lead us to 
suppose. 



SECTION VII. 

VEGETATION. 

I. The native tree and shrub vegetation of the Delta is composed of such 
species as delight in a warm, rich, and wet soil. None are so aquatic as to 
flourish in deep water, but many grow in swamps which are never dry. The 
Liquidambar everywhere abounds. The Cypress, equally abundant, enjoys 
the unenviable distinction of giving its name to every swamp ; but is, at the 



78 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

same time, endowed beyond every other tree with a garniture of the long moss, 
which is to be met with everywhere as we ascend the river, until we pass 
beyond the Delta, up to the latitude of thirty-three degrees thirty minutes. 
The Live Oak ( Quercus virens"), prefering the sandier and dryer soils, is 
found from the shores of the Gulf to the thirty-third degree of latitude. 
The Magnolia grandifiora shows the same preference, and is found in 
nearly the same latitudes. The Sassafras grows to great dimensions. 
The Pecan ( Carya olivafomiis) shows, by the size and excellence of 
its fruit, that this locality is more congenial to it than that of Illinois. 
The single-seeded Honey Locust (Gleditsckia monosperma) to a great degree 
replaces the Gleditschia triacanthos ; the Celtis crassifolia represents the Hack- 
berry ( Celtis occidentalism ; while the two Buckeyes of the interior {JEsadus), 
the Papaw (Anona), and the Sugar Maple are wanting. The Cotton Tree 
and Sycamore, less conspicuous than in the interior, nearly disappear in the 
southern part of the Delta ; but on the other hand, the Elder ( Sambucus ), 
which is without an erect trunk in the colder climates, here becomes a small 
tree; and the Bignonia radicans (Trumpet flower), and Smilax laurifolia, 
climb to the greatest hight. The native Cane ( Miegia macrospermcC) rises 
to a gigantic hight where deep and prolonged inundations do not occur; 
The Chamwrops serrulata, or Fan-Palm, called Palmetto by the people, the 
Sabal adansoni, or small Fan-Palm, and Black Willows ( Salix} of a large 
size, take its place. As we descend the narrow cape which projects into the 
Gulf and sinks nearly to its level, most of the trees which have been named 
disappear, leaving the last three in undiminished vigor. Down to the lowest 
extremity of this tongue of new land, tufts of Mistletoe ( Viscum album ), 
seen as far north as the fortieth degree, continue to show themselves ; and 
remind the voyager of the upland forests of the interior, when no other 
familiar object meets his eye. v ; 

The plan of this work does not permit, or demand, a more extended notice 
of the native Sylva of this region ; and I shall conclude with the remark, 
that the great current which transports and deposits the soil of the continent 
in the Gulf, also brings down the seeds of the forest trees generally. Many 
perish in the heat and moisture of the new locality, but many others germi- 
nate and flourish ; and thus the catalogue common to the two regions might 
be much augmented, if this were an occasion which required it. 

II. In further illustration of the climatic and topographical condition of 
the Delta, it may be proper to notice a few of its cultivated exotics. Its first 
staple was Rice, which is still cultivated above and below Fort Jackson, mid- 
way between New Orleans and the Balize. Indigo was once successfully 
cultivated, but is now neglected. Cotton flourished well, but has been 
almost superseded by Sugar Cane, the northern limit of which is about 
thirty degrees thirty minutes. The Peach tree grows and bears luxuriantly, 
but the Apple finds the soil and climate too warm for the growth and ripe- 
ning of its fruit. The Orange bears the open air as far north as the Sugar 



part ii] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 71) 

Cane, but at that point is liable to be destroyed by the frost, and its fruit is 
sour: on the neck of land below New Orleans, the climate is more congenial 
to it, and the fruit is sweet. The Fig tree attains to its greatest Light, and 
bears a delicious fruit. The Grapes of the interior do not succeed; and 
"Wheat cannot be cultivated. 



SECTION VIII. 

SALUTARY INFLUENCE OF THE JUSSIEUA GRANDIFLORA. 

The Delta, from the latitude of New Orleans down to the Gulf, and west 
of the city, to its termination on the further side of Bayou Teche, has much 
uniformity of physical character. It abounds in lakes, from Barataria near 
the city, to Chetimaches beyond the Atchafalaya; and is traversed by a 
great number of small bayous, in addition to the larger enumerated in the 
first Section of this Chapter. It includes the fine and flourishing settlements 
of the La Fourche, the Teche, and the Attakapas, all of which appear to be 
as little affected with autumnal or yellow fever as the Mississippi coast above 
the city. Doctor Cartwright, of Natchez,* has ascribed this exemption to 
the influence of a plant, the name of which stands at the head of this Sec- 
tion. I propose to transcribe so much of this paper as will present his views, 
and thereb}^ promote further inquiry. After a brief topographical outline, 
he proceeds : — 

" Nearly the whole surface of many of the bayous, and a considerable 
surface of many of the lakes, in all that part of Louisiana below thirty 
degrees of latitude, are covered, in a greater or less degree, with the Jussieua 
grandiflora, the plant which possesses hygienic or health-preserving proper- 
ties. Besides the Jussieua grandiflora, I observe a considerable number of 
other aquatic plants, both phasnogamous as well as cryptogamous. Among 
the aquatic plants were the Callitriche aquatica, or water star grass ; the 
Lemma minor, or Dutch meat; the Riccia natans, or floating liverwort ; the 
Nympka ccendia, with its broad leaves: the Isnardiapalustris, with its grass- 
like leaves; besides the Rafflesia arnoldia ; Lemnochozris humboltii ; the 
Hydrocotyle vulgaris ; and a few others. On the bays, the Fucus natans, or 
gulf weed, was very common. Nearly all the aquatic plants, with the excep- 
tion of the Jussieua grandiflora, the Lemna minor, and the Fucus natans, 
had more or less attachments to the soil by means of roots. The Fucas 
natans was only found in salt water. The Lemna minor is a very small and 
insignificant plant. The Jussieua grandiflora, however, is exclusively aquatic. 
It is a large flowering plant, which grows three or four feet above the surface 
jf the water, and gives the water on which it grows the fallacious appear- 

* Western Journal of Medicine and Surgery (Louisville), Vol. I, p. 428. 



80 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ance of a natural meadow. The root is several feet in length; is jointed; 
about half an inch in diameter ; lies horizontally on the water, but an inch 
or two below its surface. Each joint sends up the culm or stem of the plant ; 
and around each joint of the root, at the foot of the stem, are a great number 
of radicles, or hair-like roots, some of which float on the surface of the 
water, and others dip down toward the bottom, or fasten themselves to old 
logs. These radicles, or little roots, often have adhering to them an inky 
kind of paste or substance, which is collected from the water, and no doubt 
constitutes the nourishment or proper aliment of the plant to which they 
belong. The roots, radicles and radicle leaves of the Jussieua grandiflora, 
form such a dense covering to the water, as to constitute a bridge sufficiently 
strong to enable snakes and grasshoppers to cross over the stagnant pools in 
which it grows. I traveled forty miles in a canoe through bayous and lakes 
which were almost entirely covered by the Jussieua grandiflora, intermixed 
with a number of other aquatic plants. I was often unable to see any water 
at all, except in the track made by the canoe. Although very frail, and 
easily pushed aside or broken, this floating plant afforded considerable 
resistance to the progress of the canoe. On the wide bays and lakes, the 
winds often detach large masses of this and other aquatic plants, which being 
driven about by the waves, and one detachment forced upon another, consti- 
tute what are called floating islands — which are often strong enough to bear 
the weight of a man in a recumbent posture. The Jussieua grandiflora, 
together with the other aquatic plants mentioned, we not only found on the 
lakes, bays and bayous, but they constitute the substratum of that singular 
and nondescript species of savannah called the prairie tremblant. These 
prairies are constituted, in the first instance, of a vast assemblage of aquatic 
plants. On this vegetable stratum, intermixed with the debris of their vege- 
table substances, a number of grasses and terrestrial plants, like parisites, 
fasten themselves and grow. The whole is formed into a complete vegetable 
matress, strong enough to support a man in a crawling position, but not 
sufficiently firm to enable him to walk upright. It is also too firm to admit 
the passage of a canoe. When the foot is placed upon it, the whole mass 
trembles ; hence the French name prairie tremblant, and the English name 
shaking prairie. It is said, that if a hole is cut in it, fish may be caught 
with a hook and line. 

" The facts on which I rest the hygienic, or health -preserving properties of 
the Jussieua grandiflora are — 

" First. That it purifies all stagnant water in which it grows. 

" Second. The remarkable exemption of the inhabitants of that section of 
Louisiana from malarious or miasmatic diseases. 

" 1. The water on which the Jussieua grandiflora grows, differs essentially 
from other water, similarly circumstanced, where this plant does not grow. 
Although I visited the country in which the plant is indigenous during a 
very dry and hot season, in the month of June, I found the stagnant 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 81 

water of the lakes and bayous inhabited by this plant, as pure to the sight, 
taste, and smell, as if it had just fallen from the clouds. Near the Gulf of 
Mexico, however, the water of the bayous was impregnated with salt. The 
water also of Bayou Black, although fresh, had a darkish appearance — owing 
to a chemical affinity between some ferruginous matter in the soil, and the 
oak trees and leaves which had fallen into the water. The water of Bayou 
Black, although of a dark color, was free from any disagreeable taste or 
smell. It contained no green scum, and was considered to be equally as good 
and palatable as cistern water, except near the Gulf, where the water is 
impregnated with salt. The inhabitants who reside on the margins of the 
stagnant lakes and bayous of that part of Louisiana, drink no other kind of 
water. 

"I could discover no other cause for the remarkable purity of the stagnant 
water in the lagoons, swamps, lakes, and bayous of lower Louisiana, than the 
aquatic plant under consideration. 

" North of the region where the Jussieua grandiflora flourishes, there is 
the same kind of alluvial soil, formed by depositions of the identical rivers 
which form the soil of Lower Louisiana ; yet stagnant water, in hot weather, 
becomes exceedingly impure, beyond the limits in which the plant under 
consideration is found. The soil, therefore, cannot occasion the purity of the 
water of Lower Louisiana, because the same kind of soil, a little further north, 
has not the same effect. Nor can the purity of the water be owing to the salt 
or sea water ; because the water is equally pure, wherever the aquatic plant 
grows, whether in salt water or fresh. 

" I think it may be fairly inferred, therefore, that the aquatic plant known 
by botanists under the name of Jussieua grandiflora, consumes or feeds upon 
those substances which in other situations corrupt and vitiate stagnant 
waters in a warm climate. 

" 2. The remarkable health and longevity of the inhabitants, and their 
exemption from malarious and miasmatic diseases. The fact, that the region 
of country in which this aquatic plant abounds is exceedingly healthy, can be 
established beyond cavil or dispute. It nevertheless contains more stagnant 
water and swamps, than any other inhabited district of the same extent in 
the United States. 

" The country immediately north of the line bounding the growth of the 
floating plant (which is about the thirtieth degree of north latitude), like that 
south of the thirtieth, is alluvial, contains lakes, swamps, and stagnant 
waters — is covered with nearly the same vegetable productions; but its 
atmosphere is evidently insalubrious, its stagnant waters impure, its inhab- 
itants sickly, and human life of short duration ; while the country of the 
aquatic plant, immediately south of it, contains a wholesome atmosphere, 
pure water, healthy, and long-lived inhabitants. It may be supposed that this 
country is too new and too thinly inhabited to enable us to form any correct 
estimation of the health and longevity of its inhabitants. Such a supposition is 



82 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

erroneous. Although a considerable part of the region abounding in the 
aquatic plant is uncultivated and almost uninhabited, yet a very considerable 
portion of this territory has been settled nearly a century. A large colony 
from Nova Scotia emigrated to it before the revolutionary war. Some of 
the settlements south of New Orleans contain more free white inhabitants to 
the square mile, than the oldest and most populous settlement in Penn- 
sylvania. 

" It may be said that the inhabitants are the descendants of French and 
Spanish, and consequently no just comparison can be drawn between them 
and the descendants of the English. It is true that a large portion of the 
inhabitants are of French extraction. A large settlement of them on the 
La Fourche, within this region, were born north of the United States, in the 
cold latitude of Canada. Colonel Sparks, an intelligent planter, who resides 
on Bayou La Fourche, in the midst of the colony which emigrated from Nova 
Scotia more than half a century ago, informed me, in 1831, that a great 
number of the emigrants were still living. He took me to a number of their 
houses, and his statements were confirmed by the inhabitants themselves. I 
saw more than a sufficient number of gray heads, and healthy looking 
children, to remove all skepticism in reference to the health and longevity of 
its inhabitants. Besides the French population, this particular section of 
country has spread through it a number of Italians, Spanish, Dutch, German, 
Irish, English, and Scotch. It also contains emigrants from almost every 
state in the Union. The negro population is also considerable, and is 
remarkably healthy and long-lived. It contains more negroes over one 
hundred years of age, than five New England states put together, including 
the whole population, white and black. The population of this land of 
aquatic plants, owes its origin to so many different nations, that it is not 
uncommon for the Creoles, or natives of the country, even when uneducated, 
to speak with great ease three or four different languages. If it were true, 
which it is not, that the French people are exempt from miasmatic diseases, 
such as bilious, remittent, and intermittent fevers, it would prove nothing ; 
because the Germans, Spanish, Italians, Scotch, Irish, and English, together 
with the negroes and emigrants from the states north of Louisiana, are all, 
in this laud of aquatic plants, singularly exempt from such diseases. But 
neither the French nor any other race of people are thus exempt, when 
they cross the line which terminates the growth of the floating plant. It is, 
therefore, a fair inference, that this plant, by consuming the impurities of the 
• stagnant waters, prevents the generation of miasmata, and thus acts as a 
prophylactic against bilious fevers, and other miasmatic diseases. 

"I am aware, that the inhabitants of the country themselves attribute 
their peculiar healthfulness to the influence of sea breezes. Out of the re- 
gion of the floating plant, sea breezes, however refreshing and beneficial to 
some constitutions, have not been found to exert a prophylactic power in 
preventing miasmatic diseases. It is not probable that the sea breezes 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 83 

would do more good for the sea-coast of Louisiana, than for the sea-coast of 
Georgia, Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. 

" In the summer of 1831, I traveled extensively through Lower Louisiana, 
and am fully convinced, from what I saw and heard, that the particular dis- 
trict of country in which the floating plant abounds is preeminently healthy, 
while those sections of the State, similarly situated, but where the aquatic 
plant was not found, are grievously afflicted with malarious diseases. 

" I visited, among others, the plantation of M. Rochelle, on a small bayou, 
near Berwick's Bay. The dwelling-houses stood on the high ground about 
a quarter of a mile from the bayou. The space between the bayou and the 
houses was occupied by a swamp, through which a canal had been cut to 
afford access to the high ground or bluff, on which the dwellings stood. M. 
Rochelle, a few years previously, had the trees covering the swamp in front 
of the houses cut down, in order to gain a better view of the bayou, and 
obtain a freer circulation of air. As I passed up the canal or ditch, through 
the swamp, I perceived, on each side, the decaying timber lying in the water, 
which was entirely stagnant. In many places the water was not sufficient to 
cover the ground. On ascending the bluff and looking around, I ascertained, 
that besides a swamp of a quarter of a mile in width, and three miles in 
length, in front of the plantation, there was an immense swamp in the rear, 
running back to a praine tremblant ; and on the lower side of the planta- 
tion was another bayou of stagnant water, and on the upper side a thick 
forest and cane-brake. I thought, at the time, that if the country contained 
a sickly spot, this was one. The Jussieua grandiflora, however, grew in 
profusion in all the waters around, whether these waters were in the bayous, 
or in the swamps ; and whether they had communication with the bayous, or 
were isolated stagnant pools, they were found to be pure and transparent — 
free from any offensive taste or smell. 

" M. Rochelle had fifty-three negroes living on this plantation, and his 
white family consisted of about a dozen persons. He informed me, that him- 
self, and all the family, white and black, except the younger children, were 
natives of Rockingham county, Virginia — that he had resided on the plan- 
tation with this large family nine years, during which time no death had 
occurred, either among the whites or blacks, young or old — that there had 
not been more than three or four cases of sickness during any year — that 
these cases were slight, and required little or no medical treatment. His 
neighbors confirmed this statement, and gave nearly as good an account of 
themselves. The negroes with whom I met all looked healthy, happy, 
and contented. 

" The next evening I put up at a house containing about twenty white 
persons and no negroes. The patriarch of the family was a Kentuckian by 
birth. He married a Spanish woman, who, dying, left him a widower with 
several children. He afterward married a French widow with two or three 
children, whose former husband was a German. The children by the last 



84 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

marriage as well as by the former marriages, together with a few aunts and 
other relatives, swelled the whole family to about twenty. No less than four 
languages, English, Spanish, German, and French, were spoken by the same 
family, living under the same roof. I got two of the sons of the old gentle- 
man by his first wife, to take me in a canoe up Bayou Black. They were 
with me several days, and, as they spoke four languages, were of great use 
in enabling me to collect information respecting this country, inhabited by 
the floating plant and polyglot people. 

" If I have been misinformed in reference to the health of this section of 
the country, there also are great numbers, in and about this city, deceived in 
this respect equally with myself. Numbers of people, in and about Natchez, 
have visited this region of country ; some have removed to it ; a few have 
been living in it for years. All with whom I have conversed, concur in the 
same opinion of its healthfulness. It is true, they differ in regard to the 
cctuses of its singular salubrity ; some ascribing it to the proximity of the sea, 
and the sea breezes ; others, to the large open prairies on its western border, 
in and near that part of it called Attakapas, without recollecting, that the 
inhabitants of Terrebonne and La Fourche, who reside very remotely from 
these large prairies, and secluded from them by intervening forests, are 
equally, if not more healthy than those living near them." 

Apart from the conclusions of Doctor Cartwright, this extract will be re- 
garded as valuable, from the information it communicates on the topography of 
that region, and the composition of its society, not less than its general salu- 
brity. Of its exemption from autumnal fever, I am disposed to think, how- 
ever, that Doctor Cartwright speaks in language rather too unqualified ; 
though no stronger, doubtless, than the facts given him by the people during 
his visit demanded of him. When at New Orleans, in the spring of 1846, 
I met with Doctor Walter Brashear, an aged and highly intelligent physi- 
cian, formerly of Kentucky, but long resident on the Lower Atchafalaya, in 
the midst of the Jussieua, who informed me, that intermittent and remittent 
fevers prevail annually in that region, but on the whole, are mild — less 
fatal, indeed, than in Kentucky. 

On the hypothesis of Doctor Cartwright, without either adopting or re- 
jecting it, the following remarks may be made: 

1. The ' coasts,' as they are called, or banks of the Mississippi, from New 
Orleans to the outlets of Bayou La Fourche and Bayou Plaquemine, 
( lying nearly north of the region where the Jussieua is supposed to destroy 
the cause of autumnal fever), are equally exempt from that disease, and 
equally abound in aged Creoles, although there are no lakes and no Jussieua; 
but the river is on one side, and cypress swamps are on the other. I was 
prevented from visiting the district where the Jussieua grows, but traveled 
on the coasts. 

2. If we examine the locality which the Jussieua overspreads by the 
facts furnished by Darby, Cartwright, and others, we do not find that it 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 85 

abounds in those elements to which malaria is generally ascribed. Lakes, 
in themselves, are certainly not of that kind. The bayous, these writers in- 
form us, are natural canals, several feet deep, in which the tides of the Gulf 
daily librate. The central belts between them, called shaking prairies, are 
lakes bridged over with matted plants ; for fish may be caught by perforating 
their trembling crusts. The narrow zone of palmetto swamp, which skirts the 
shaking prairie, is nearly destitute of annual vegetation ; and the leaves of 
that shrub are perennial and most difficult of decomposition. Then comes 
the narrow tract of cypress swamp, densely overshadowed, and equally devoid 
of herbaceous vegetation. To this succeeds the belt of cane-brake and de- 
ciduous forest trees, so dense that a bird cannot fly through, nor a sunbeam 
reach the surface, which of course can sustain no succulent annual plants ; 
then a belt of live oak, a quarter of a mile in breadth ; and lastly, the nar- 
row zone of long-cultivated, arable land, terminating in the lake or bayou. 
Compared with the other varieties, the tillable portions do not make a third ; 
and they are no longer subject to the inundations of the Mississippi, which 
for ages could not have thrown upon them, by its overflowings, any great 
amount of organic matter ; as most of it, in so long a voyage, is either depos- 
ited above, or decomposed, or so comminuted, that it remains suspended 
until the inundation gradually sinks into the Gulf. Thus, a priori, we 
should not expect to see as much autumnal fever in that region, as in those 
further up the river. 

3. Dr. Cartwright ascribes the transparency of the lakes in which the 
Jusseiua floats, to the action of that plant ; but may we not, as plausibly, 
say, that it prefers clear to turbid waters ? With these facts before us, we 
should, I think, regard the preventive power of the Jussieua as an open 
question. 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

CHAPTER V. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



LOCALITIES IN AND AROUND THE DELTA OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 



SECTION I. 

MILITARY POSTS. 

I. Fort Livingston. — On the marine border of the Delta ( PI. F), 
three quarters of a degree directly south of New Orleans, near the mouth of 
Bayou La Fourche, and at the junction of Barataria Bay with the Gulf, lies 
the island of Grand Terre. Rising about two feet above the highest tides 
of the Gulf, it has a surface of dark sand, covered with grass, overshadowed 
with small live oaks. There is sufficient soil for the successful cultivation of 
melons, and other garden vegetables. From the middle of May to the mid- 
dle of August, there are land and sea breezes ; but the former often fail, and 
the latter not unfrequently continue all night. For the remainder of the 
year the winds are variable. In the year 1844, I received the foregoing 
facts from Captain Barnard, of the United States Corps of Engineers, who 
had been stationed for four years on the island, engaged in the erection of a 
Fort. The mean population through that period was fifty, of which four- 
fifths were negroes. Of the whites, many were directly from the northern 
states. Captain Barnard was unable to recollect a single case of intermit- 
tent fever at that Post during the four years, and but one of remittent fever ; 
the subject of which arrived with the disease upon him. The same was true 
of yellow fever; not a case of which had occurred, notwithstanding the usual 
intercourse with New Orleans, through Lake Barataria, had been kept up 
while the fever was epidemic in that city. Winter diseases he declared to 
be unknown. 

II. Fort Pike. — The Island of-Petites Coquilles, of which the north side 
is the site of Fort Pike, lies between Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne, 
thirty-five miles north-cast of New Orleans. Its area is seven by twelve 
miles ; its elevation over the Gulf, two feet. Small shells, with an inter- 
mixture of argillaceous deposits, brought down by Pearl River, make up its 
composition. It is intersected with numerous bayous of salt or brackish 
water ; and all the marshes near or upon it contain water of the same kind. 
The soil is fertile. In the summer, the prevailing wind is from the south- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 87 

east, and consequently from off the Gulf. Although so near to New Orleans, 
Fort Pike has constantly remained exempt from yellow fever; and autumnal 
fever is far from being prevalent, the ratio of intermittents being nineteen, 
and of remittents seven per cent.* 

III. Fort Wood. — This Post is distant but seven miles from the last. 
Its site is on the south side of the pass or channel called Chef Menteur, one 
of the connecting straits between the two lakes. In its rear there are 
marshes and cypress swamps, such as cover the isthmus between the lakes and 
the Mississippi, which are annually replenished with fresh water. Com- 
pared with Fort Pike, this Post is decidedly insalubrious. It has been in- 
vaded by yellow fever, and the ratio of autumnal fever is high; that of the 
intermittent form being seventy-six, and of the remittent twenty-seven. 

The remarkable difference in autumnal salubrity between these contigu- 
ous Posts, is ascribed to the existence of salt marshes near Fort Pike, and 
fresh-water marshes near Fort Wood.f 

IV. Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson. — These Posts are on oppo- 
site sides of the Mississippi, about seventy miles below New Orleans. The 
former, built long since by the French, was abandoned in 1831, for the lat- 
ter ; which stands on the right bank of the river. Situated only thirty miles 
from the mouth of the Mississippi, these Posts are on the newest land of the 
continent. The cypress swamps here almost react the river ; the banks of 
which, composed of fine silt and vegetable remains, are so low, that a rise of 
three feet produces an inundation. They generally remain covered with 
water from March to June; and when the water subsides, it leaves a new 
layer of mud and organic matter, which, under the action of a powerful sun, 
sends up an offensive odor. A strong wind from the Gulf, even when the 
river is low, may retard its waters, and produce a deluge, followed by a simi- 
lar stench. 

St. Philip was always a sickly station; the same is true of Jackson. 
Autumnal fever prevails for six months after the fall of the river in June. 
The ratio of intermittents is one hundred and fourteen, that of remittents 
fifteen per cent. ; and these ratios would have been higher still, if the troops 
had not, at the coming on of the sickly season for two years, been removed to 
Posts higher up the river. Malignant cases, however, were not numerous, but 
relapses incessant. | Yellow fever does not seem to have prevailed here. 

The Rice lands of the Delta, are the narrow banks of the Mississippi, 
near, but chiefly above, Fort Jackson. They are cultivated mainly by whites, 
who, as Doctor Randall informed me, are not particularly unhealthy ; and 
Mr. Loer, who resides in their midst, assured me, that he found his locality 
healthier than the one he had left in Ohio. Low levees, which terminate 



* Med. Stat. U. S. A., p. 270. f Ibid, p. 275. 

; Ibid, p. 279. Dr. B. Randall, U. S. A., MSS.jsen. me. 



88 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

about Fort Jackson, restrain the river above that Post. The peninsula here 
is so narrow, that the Gulf, especially on the east or left side, is almost con- 
stantly in view. 



SECTION II. 

THE BALIZE, AND MARINE EXTREMITY OF THE DELTA. 

I. Topography and Scenery. — We have come, at length, to the most 
remarkable spot of the continent. In reaching it from the north, as, for 
example, from the sources of the Mississippi, we travel successively, first, 
on primitive, unstratified, crystalline formations ; second, on ancient, stratified, 
semi- crystalline rocks, the whole purely mineral, and as destitute of organic 
forms as of organic matter; third, on old secondary rocks, imbedding, in 
the fossil state, the habitations of marine animals only, and they of species 
long since extinct; fourth, on formations composed in part of the remains 
of gigantic tropical plants, though lying in the temperate zone; fifth, on 
deposits containing fossil marine forms, bearing some resemblance to those 
found in the existing seas; sixth, on deposits enveloping various animal 
remains, both of land and sea, most of which have living archetypes; 
seventh, on tracts so recent as to entomb only existing species of animals 
and plants; which brings us into the locality which has been announced 
where the work of land making is in actual progress, and we are shown the 
process of building up a continent from the bottom of the sea. To the 
medical geologist and topographer, such a locality cannot be destitute of in- 
terest; as it affords an opportunity — the only one within the limits of our 
Great Valley — of contemplating the relations, in a hot climate, between the 
newest land and the first forms of vegetable and animal life which over- 
spread it ; together with its effects, on the health of the first human inhabi- 
tants by which it is peopled. 

The Mississippi advances into the Gulf by extending its own trough; to 
which end, the very resistance of the sea is made to contribute; for its 
waves roll back the sediment which has been carried out, and press it against 
the growing extremity of the trough, as the weaver's beam drives up the 
thread ; and thus a bar is formed. Through this bar, the river continues to 
cut its way ; leaving, on either side, the refluent silt, as the beginning of new 
banks, which are, therefore, at first submarine. In this natural masonry, 
the drift-wood of the river performs an important part. Becoming entangled 
and fixed, the silt collects around, and is condensed by it; — thus giving us 
the prototype of our brush-dams across the alluvial streams of the interior. 
Hence, before the bank has yet been raised above the surface of the Gulf, its 
place may be discovered by the projecting limbs of trees, which serve in- 
stead of buoys to indicate the channel. 

Like a skillful architect, the Mississippi lays a broad and deep foundation 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 89 

on which to extend its aqueduct. When the waters escape from the termi- 
nal extremities of the different Passes, they spread through a semicircle 
until the currents are arrested; and thus diffuse their sediment over a 
broad surface, having less and less to throw down, the further they advance 
from the axis of diffusion. By sounding on a line drawn from this axis, the 
water is found to deepen at the rate of a fathom for every mile ;* which 
shows the ratio of inclination of the alluvial plain beneath the level of the 
sea. The annual floods of the river occasion a long-continued inundation of 
its banks; during which, deposits are made upon them; and thus the work 
of extension and that of elevation, proceed simultaneously. From the 
great altitude of the mountains in which the Missouri River originates, and 
the loose texture of the broad plain over which it flows, there can be no 
limits to the advancement of the bed and banks of the Mississippi, until it 
traverses the Gulf of Mexico and unites its right bank with the peninsula of 
Central America — forming a salt lake on the west ; or pours its waters into 
the Caribbean Sea between Yucatan and Cuba, or mingles them with the 
Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits. 

But let us return to the present time, and contemplate the existing con- 
dition of this advancing extremity of the Delta. For fifty miles before we 
reach the Gulf, small passes or channels are seen on each side of the river, 
through which its waters escape, in liberal quantities, during every flood ; and 
thus give lateral extension to the great submarine platform. As we descend, 
these lateral currents multiply, and may be produced at any point, by a little 
excavation through the low and soft banks. Many of them are navigated by 
the boats of oystermen and fishermen ; who thus make their way by short 
cuts to the salt water. One, just below Fort Jackson, begun by art, was 
soon widened and deepened by the river, so as to permit the egress to the 
Gulf of much larger vessels. After the river has divided into three great 
Passes, South West, South, and North East, the side bayous still show them- 
selves. The banks are here so low, that it is difficult to find ground on 
which to build ; and as they are often overflowed by waves from the Gulf, 
not less than by floods in the river, the scattered habitations, all constructed 
of wood, are elevated on blocks. They are, however, continually sinking ; for 
beneath the partially hardened silt, there is a soft mud, into which, after per- 
forating the crust, a pole may without difficulty be sunk to any depth, unless 
arrested by buried drift-wood. 

As we descend the Mississippi towards its division into great Passes, con- 
stituting the apex of what may conveniently be called the Balize Delta, tree 
after tree disappears. Immediately below Fort Jackson, the species become 
few, and the individuals are sparse and of reduced size. The cypress and 
liquidambar fail; but an ash, the sycamore, the one-seeded honey locust, 



* Med. Stat., U. S. A., p. 270. 



90 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the thick-leaved hackberry, and the cotton tree, still show themselves, with 
now and then a live oak. Luxuriant tufts of mistletoe are occasionally seen, 
and festoons of long moss are not wanting, though less profuse than higher 
up the river. The grove is at last reduced to palmettos, arborescent elders, 
and gigantic black willows ; the last of which venture further into the waters 
than all the rest, and finally come to be nearly the sole representatives of 
the forest. But in passing beyond the limit of the woods, we do not leave 
the vegetable kingdom, for the eye rests on boundless fields of reed-grass 
(Phragmites communis), the culms of which rise to the hight of fifteen or 
twenty feet, and in appearance replace the cane-brakes, which luxuriate on the 
higher banks of the river, but cannot flourish with their roots steeped in 
brackish water. From the upper deck of his steamer the traveler here sees 
the grand system of natural canals, into which the Mississippi finally divides ; 
and contrasts the color of their turbid waters, with the greenish tint of those 
with which they are about to mingle. Each canal has its winding vista, and 
when buried too deep in the distant jungle to be seen, its banks are indicated 
by ranges of willow trees. Between the principal Passes, there are shallow 
ponds of brackish water, with mud bottoms ; but salt marshes, too soft in 
most places to be passed over by men or cattle, constitute the greater part of 
the surface. In the more fluid parts of these marshes, we find the reed-grass 
less abundant ; but the Typha latifoUa, Scirpus lacustris, and other aquatic 
plants, become more numerous. 

Of animals, herons and other wading birds, wild geese, gulls, eagles, and 
the purple grakle, are common; the banks of the bayous are perforated by 
millions of the fiddler crab, with one large and one small claw ; now and 
then a porpoise ascends the stream by successive vaultings, which carry his 
back above the surface; an otter sports or dives along the banks; and 
alligators, in multitudes, lurk in the jungle which overhangs them. 

II. G-eology. As in the general Delta, so in the subordinate or Balize Delta, 
there are three great geological elements — silt, drift-wood, and the remains of 
plants and animals which grow upon it. The amount of drift-wood is much 
less than is generally supposed. Arrested by the tides, it lodges in the 
recesses of the bayous, where it becomes fixed by silt, and willows soon 
take root upon it ; while that which lies in the brackish water is bored in all 
directions by the teredo navalis. Gradually penetrated with silt, it becomes 
semi-fossilized, and ultimately constitutes an integral part of the formation. 
As most of the plants growing on the spot are gramineous, with culms con- 
taining silex, their decomposition is slow, and undecomposed beds no doubt 
exist beneath the surface at every depth. To these remains must be added 
those of the testacea, which inhabit all the inlets and little bays, which are 
filled with the waters of the Gulf. Finally, these waters penetrate the Balize 
Delta, and impregnate the whole formation with common salt ; which effloresces 
whenever the surface dries. Thus immersed in weak brine, the organic 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 91 

matter, either resting on the surface or buried "beneath, may have its decom- 
position protracted and essentially modified. 

The bars are ridges formed as already intimated, by the conflict of the 
moving waters of the Gulf and river. They advance gradually into the 
former; which contends, but still recedes. The ratio of this advancement 
has not been accurately ascertained. Mr. McCullough tells us, * that while 
he resided, for five years, near the bar of the South West Pass, it advanced 
into the Gulf a quarter of a mile. Mr. Vanderslice, an observing and 
reliable pilot at the Balize, informed me that the bar of the North East 
Pass had advanced nearly half a mile in eleven years. These data would 
give five miles in one hundred years. Other data have both augmented and 
diminished this ratio. No doubt, different bars (and even the same at 
different periods) are pushed forward at varying ratios, according to the 
quantity of water directed against and over them. Thus, at the present time, 
very little flows in the South Pass, compared with the South West, and its 
advance, we may presume, is correspondingly less. A channel, made by 
dredging transversely through the middle of the bar in the North East Pass, 
was soon filled up by the subsidence into it of the soft, un supported avails of 
the ridge left after the dredging. 

Portions of the bars present, at times, a sort of intumescence, or bulging 
up, which, after a while, disappears. The first notice of this movement, which 
I recollect to have seen, was by Mr. William McCullough, in 1837. When 
at the Balize, six years afterwards, I made this phenomenon the subject of 
inquiry, and from the late Captain Taylor, boarding officer of the port, Mr. 
Vanderslice and other respectable pilots, I obtained the following facts. 

1. A sloop was lost on a breaker near the entrance of the North East 
Pass. The water was merely deep enough to cover her. After having been 
almost a year out of sight, she began to reappear, and in the course of an equal 
length of time, even her lowest timbers were three or four feet out of water. 
The area on which she rested was estimated at an acre and a half. While 
on her way up, the waves tore off her planks, washed out the silt, and 
exposed her ballast, much of which was taken out. In the course of another 
year, both the bank and schooner had disappeared. 

2. A vessel grounded near or in the same Pass, and to lighten her, the 
ballast, consisting of bricks, was thrown overboard, in water eight or nine 
feet deep. In less than a twelve month, the bricks appeared above the sur- 
face, resting on a mud bank. Many of them were brought into the Balize. 
Nut long afterwards, those left behind, with the bank on which they rested, 
sunk gradually below the surface, but not to their former depth ; for the 
water has since been shoaler over that spot than before. 

3. At the same Pass, a ship from Liverpool, having as ballast, curb- 
stones, for use in New Orleans, required to be lightened ; which was done by 

* Documents, p. 77. 



92 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

throwing them overboard, in water fifteen or sixteen feet deep. In a little 
more than a year, they began to show themselves above the water, and the 
bank on which they rested, continued rising, until its surface, to the extent 
of half an acre, was five or six feet out of water. In a few months it began 
to subside, and at length disappeared. But the water is not so deep at that 
spot as before. 

4. A vessel called the Condor, after losing her anchor in water nearly 
eighteen feet deep, was herself sunk in still deeper water. In the ensuing 
year the anchor was raised until it was only three feet beneath the surface, 
but nothing was seen of the ship. 

These various masses of mud, became so hard under exposure to the sun, 
that men could walk upon them. They disappeared either by sinking or by 
the action of the waves ; but we come now to examine others which have 
remained permanently above the surface of the Gulf. 

In various places along the marginal line of this long, alluvial cape, are islets, 
the present elevation of which above the Gulf could not have been the result 
of deposits from the river. Mr. McGullough mentions one near the South 
West Pass, which was twelve feet above the surface of the Gulf and had 
received the name of Gibraltar. Another, at the same Pass, on which he 
resided, was eight feet high ; but subsequently had sunk to four. 

At the mouth of the Pass a la Loutre, I visited one, the highest points of 
which were only three or four feet above the water, which was shoal all 
around it to the extent of many acres. Its surface was firm, but not dry; 
for the spray of the Gulf, and, to some extent, the waves, dashed over it, 
and had manifestly reduced its altitude. Great numbers of water-fowl made 
it a place of resort. By the action of the rains and waves, the surface was 
cut into miniature river channels, inlets, and bays, sometimes filled with 
water, and at others empty. The surface was a stiff, blue clay, fragments of 
which, rolled by the currents, had become smooth and molded into spheroidal, 
oval, or reniform masses, resembling the rolled pebbles of the interior of the 
continent. The whole structure of the island, as seen where channels had 
been cut in it, was stratified or lamellar, with a dip or inclination to the 
north. It did not contain either fragments of rock or fossil wood. 

In front of the Balize Bayou, a brancli of the North-East Pass, lie two 
islands of deeper interest than the last, though evidently of the same class. 
They are separated from each other by a narrow strait or creek. Their 
lower portions are overflowed by high tides ; but their more elevated points 
are seven or eight feet above the mean surface of the Gulf. 

The eastern, and, at present, smaller of these islands, sustains the action 
of the waves, which are evidently truncating it at the water level, thus crea- 
ting a wide, soft beach, and a glacis or bluff bank, several feet high. In 
this bank, and also in the ravines of the beach, a distinct stratification is 
everywhere presented, with a dip, as well as I could determine, to the east, 
and a line of bearing from south to north. On its beach, the tide being off, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 93 

I found a feeble spring, the water of which was as strong as brine, while 
that of the adjoining Gulf, diluted by the river, was only brackish. Along 
with the water there was an escape of gas, and from it a deposit of sand 
and oxide of iron. The temperature of this spring, eighteen inches below 
the orifice, was, on the 4th of March, 1843, sixty-four degrees, Fahren- 
heit ; that of the beach, at the same depth, fifty-six degrees ; which, from 
the season of the year, may be taken as the winter heat of the ground 
at the edge of the Gulf, where the marine and river influences are blended. 
No fossil wood or pebbles were to be seen on this beach, or in the adjacent 
bank. 

The other, larger and more elevated island, is, as I have said, separated 
from the one just described by a narrow bayou. Its structure is the same 
with that. Scattered over its surface, there are several salt springs, all ap- 
parently of one character. Each has a sort of crater, lined with a glazing of 
oxide of iron, deposited by the water as it flows out. In some of these cra- 
ters the water was at rest, while it was flowing out of others. From the 
latter, there was an extrication of gas, but none from the former. In some 
obsolete fountains, there was an escape of gas without any water berng visi- 
ble. Around the whole, there were broad deposits of sand, which were 
deepest at the craters, and declined in all directions.* This inundation of 
sand, analogous to a deluge of lava, by mingling with the argillaceous surface 
of the island, has given it a high degree of fertility. I sunk a pole sixteen 
feet into the largest of these craters, without meeting with any obstruction. 
The temperature at that depth was sixty-five degrees. By raising over this 
orifice a mud cone, the sides of which were thicker than the summit, water 
and gas were made to burst from the latter ; but when the gas was con- 
ducted through the sides below, the water ceased to flow from above, although 
it was prevented from escaping through the lower orifice. This experiment, 
together with the stagnation of the water in every crater from which there 
was at the time no escape of gas, shows conclusively, that it is to the evolu- 
tion and escape of gas we should ascribe the fountains, and to them the 
ejection of sand. The water of the spring on which the experiments were 
made, was noted at the time as being intensely salt ; — it was, in fact, undi- 
luted sea water. It tarnished silver when laid in the issuing current, and 
the gas burned with a sulphurous smell, and hence must be regarded as sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, — the same gas that is evolved with the water of many 
of the ' salines,' or brine springs of the interior of the continent. 

It appears from all that has been said, that there is beneath the ultimate 
or Balize Delta, a focus of gaseous evolution, and that the upward pressure 
of the gas, is most probably the cause of the strange insular upheavings 
of that quarter, some of which subside, while others, sustained below, 



* Mr. McCullough has described the same at the South West Pass. — Documents, 
d. 78. 



94 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

remain until washed away by the waves. On the chemical actions by which 
the gas is developed, I shall offer no speculation. Of the depth at which 
they take place, nothing, I suppose, can with certainty be determined. It 
may be either within or beneath the alluvial deposits. The limited area of 
the tuberosities, would seem to indicate the former; and still, if the gas were 
generated below the bed of silt, it might, perhaps, permeate it in such a 
manner as, at last, to produce but limited upheavings. I did not learn that 
earthquakes had at any time been generated by it. To the medical etiolo- 
gist, the important fact is the constant escape, over the area of the lower 
Delta, of so great a quantity of sulphuretted hydrogen. I say great, because 
there is no reason to believe that the discharge is limited to the elevated 
spots : it probably goes on throughout the whole savanna, and the adjoining 
parts of the Gulf.* 

In conclusion, I must recur to the surface and productions of the last de- 
scribed island. The origin and character of its soil have been already indica- 
ted. The greatest difference between it and the surrounding alluvion, consists 
in the presence of sand in one, and its absence from the other. Both are 
supplied with salt and fresh water; — that of the island receiving the former 
from springs, the latter from the clouds ; while the alluvion is, alternately, or 
conjointly, inundated by the river and the Gulf; hence, both are muriatic, 
while one is dry and the other swampy. The vegetation harmonizes with 
these conditions. The aquatic and sub-aquatic grasses of the swamps are 
absent from the island, which offers in their stead the Myrica carolinensis, 
or candleberry myrtle; the Rubus trivialis, or dew berry; the Solidago 
sempervirens, or golden rod ; the Sallcornia herbacea, or glass wort ; and the 
Salsola soda, or saltwort — the two latter having a saline taste. Garden 
vegetables are also cultivated on the island by the fishermen ; and peach, 
cherry, quince, and fig trees, planted in former times by the Spaniards, are 
now growing wild. 

Such is an outline of the geology, topography, and hydrology of the Balize 
Delta. If I have introduced some things not strictly relevant to medical 
etiology, it was because of its singular and remarkable character; constitu- 
ting it one of the most interesting of all the localities of the Great Interior 
Valley. In accordance with this impression, I propose to depart still further 
from the method pursued in describing other places, and give some account 
of the people and diseases of this locality. 

III. Inhabitants. — At the end of the Pass a la Loutre, there are no 
inhabitants: at that of the South Pass, there is a lighthouse to warn navi- 
gators of a neighboring reef: at the termination of the South West Pass, 
through which all the larger vessels enter and depart, there is a lighthouse, 
and houses for a boarding ofiicer, with eight or ten pilots, some of whom 

* Although I have spoken of this as sulphuretted hydrogen, on the strength of the 
experiments mentioned, it may perhaps be carburetted hydrogen. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 95 

have families: at the bar of the North East Pass there is a lighthouse: all 
the other habitations (an occasional fisherman's lmt excepted), are at, or 
rather, constitute — 

The Balize.* — Two or three miles above the bar of the North East 
Pass, a deep and tranquil bayou, resembling a broad canal, turns directly to 
the south, and reaches the Gulf at the distance of two miles, on either side 
of the two islands which have been described. On the right bank of this 
bayou, just below its efflux, stands the village of Balize, in N. Lat. 29° 7' 
15", and W. Lon. 89° 4' 36". It consists of small buildings erected on 
blocks, with a single narrow and serpentine street or promenade, which fol- 
lows the curves of the bayou, and has an elevation of but a foot or two 
above its waters. At the distance of one hundred or one hundred and fifty 
feet from the bank on which this street meanders, is the edge of an impene- 
trable reed-grass swamp. Low as the bank still is, it has been raised, as 
have many of the little garden spots in front of the buildings, with soil from 
the opposite side of the bayou. The new ground beneath is, however, so 
soft, that the increased weight tends to sink the street; rendering new 
additions necessary, from time to time, to keep the street and yards dry. 
Occasionally, under high south-east winds, the site of the whole village is 
inundated. When a spot is first reclaimed and planted, it produces badly ; 
but as the ground is stirred and the rains wash out the salt, it undergoes 
amelioration, and yields the ordinary garden vegetables of the south in good 
perfection; while the peach, and many southern flowering shrubs flourish 
equally well. 

Its People. — The population of the Balize is about two hundred and fifty; 
consisting almost entirely of pilots, about forty in number, with their fam- 
ilies, a few artisans required by their vocation, a teacher, a physician, and a 
number of slaves. Many of them have resided on the spot for twenty or 
twenty-five years. A few families occupy the opposite bank of the bayou. 
Until within the last ten or twelve years, there were but few females ; now, 
nearly all the pilots have wives. Thus there is a population sufficiently 
numerous and diversified to test the salubrity of this remarkable spot ; — 
the legitimate object of this extended article. 

My inquiries on this head were not limited to Doctor Henry Van Antwerp, 
the salaried physician of the Pilot's Association, who had resided there for 
three years and a half; nor to the late Captain Taylor, the boarding officer, 
who had lived at the place sixteen years; but extended to many of the 
pilots and their wives, on whose intelligence and respectability I could rely. 
In giving the results obtained, I propose, in view of the unique condition 
and character of this locality, not to limit myself to the diseases mentioned 



* Corrupted from Valiza, Spanish, a beacon. On this spot the first signal for indi- 
cating the entrance into the Mississippi River was erected. The present lighthouse is 
two miles further down the North-east Pass. 



96 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

under other topographical heads; but to relate the substance of all I could 
collect. 

Their Modes of Living. — Before commencing, it will be proper, however, 
to say a few words on the pursuits and modes of living of the people. The 
duties of the pilots call for great exposure, as a number of them are at all 
times cruising off the bar, in open boats. Formerly they were extremely 
intemperate, but in latter years, their habits have improved; still, the im- 
provement is more in reference to the abuse than the use of ardent spirits. 
In summer a liberal quantity of claret is consumed. Tea and coffee are in 
general use, and the latter is frequently drunk on rising in the morning. 
Culinary vegetables are not abundant, and animal food is the staple of the 
diet of the whole population, being eaten three times a day. It consists 
chiefly of salted meats, fresh pork, beef, poultry, fish, and oysters. 

Their Diseases. — The prevailing disease at the Balize, and the South 
West Pass, is intermittent fever, generally of the tertian type, and mild in 
its character, with a tendency in the patients to relapse. Doctor Van Ant- 
werp had seen only two malignant cases. Some immigrants have lived there 
several years before they sickened. Mrs. Anderson, who had resided there 
longer than any other individual, thought the disease much less frequent than 
formerly. Doctor Van Antwerp had noticed a considerable number of dis- 
eased spleens, but very little neuralgia or dropsy, consequent on the fever. 
Remittents appear to be decidedly rare, and the same is true of yellow fever, 
notwithstanding almost every vessel from Havana and Vera Cruz enters 
through this Pass, and is visited by the pilot and boarding officer. Doctor 
Van Antwerp arrived in October, 1839, when the fever was extensively 
prevalent around the shores of the Grulf, including, of course, New Orleans ; 
and in 1841 and 1842, it was prevalent in that city and some other places; 
still he had seen only four cases ; one of which occurred in a person from 
New Orleans ; two others seemed to have originated in the village, and the 
fourth occurred in an oysterman, who declared he had not been at New Or- 
leans. These cases occurred in different years. Eruptive fevers are exceed- 
ingly uncommon, and chronic cutaneous disorders seldom show themselves. 
The itch is said to lose its contagiousness, and at length cease. The sum- 
mer gastro-intestinal affections, such as cholera morbus, cholera infantum, 
and dysentery, especially the two former, are unfrequent. Pulmonary in- 
flammations of all kinds are quite as uncommon. Doctor Van Antwerp was 
induced to remove from the state of New York to the Balize, on account of 
his liability to pulmonary catarrh, which his residence at the latter place has 
nearly removed. Croup is almost unknown. Of nervous diseases, convul- 
sions of children are more frequent than all the rest. Doctor Van Antwerp 
had seen nine cases, five of which proved fatal. The number of children 
among whom they occurred, was about forty — the time, three and a half 
years. The children who suffered, were not, as it is termed in the nursery, 
"within the month." Another disease of frequent occurrence is rheuma- 



PL VI 




Faceptf? 



///'. Whiting U.SJI 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 97 

tism, which is generally subacute or chronic, and falls especially on the pilots 
who are greatly exposed. Consumption is said to be rare. Captain Taylor, 
who had resided there sixteen years, could recollect but three cases, and the 
patients had all arrived there with the disease in its forming stage. Never- 
theless, his wife, who many years before had left the state of New York, was 
evidently falling into that disease, and two of his children, born at the 
Balize, had strumous swellings and abscesses of the neck. 

The negroes of the Balize are fed on nearly the same food with the whites, 
but lodged in damper situations near the ground; nevertheless, they enjoy 
still better health than their masters. Almost their only disease is mild 
intermittent fever, to which, moreover, they are less liable than the whites. 
They average fifty in number, and during three and a half years there had 
been but two deaths. 

It results from this rapid sketch, that no new disease has been developed 
in this locality ; that several appear to be less prevalent here than in the 
interior ; and that autumnal fever is not as malignant as we find it in many 
extensive districts of country several degrees further north. 



SECTION III. 

NEW ORLEANS. 

I. Position and Plan. — The City of New Orleans (PL VI) stands on 
the left bank of the Mississippi River, in N. Lat. 29° 57' 23", and W. Lon. 
89° 59' 4". * After having, from its sources, pursued nearly a south course, 
the river, as we have seen, while traversing the Delta, turns to the east, and 
then to the south-east, until it reaches the Grulf. It is thus brought near, 
and parallel to, the southern coast of Lake Pontchartrain, so as to form a 
kind of Isthmus, formerly called the Island of Orleans ; which at the nar- 
rowest point is not more than five miles in width. When opposite the middle 
of that lake it makes a horse-shoe bend by the south, and then flows off in its 
general course. Around the lower part of this bend, on the left bank, we 
have the site of the City. 

By examining its plat (PL VI) it will be seen that the center consists of 
the old or original town, having the form of a parallelogram; one end of 
which rests upon the river, while its sides, and the streets parallel to them, 
stretch from the bank in a northern direction. This portion is now called 
the First Municipality. Immediately below, the river having a south-easterly 
direction, lies that extension of the old town, which now constitutes the Third 
Municipality, the streets in which run from the river, to the north, and north 
north-east. Above the original town, and consequently within the horse- 



* It will be convenient, and cannot lead to any practical error in a work of this kind 
to speak of this city as having the latitude of thirty, and longitude of ninety degrees. 



98 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

shoe bend, is the Second Municipality, with streets running north-west, from 
the river. Adjoining this Municipality, on the south-west, and near the 
bottom of the horse -shoe bend, is the faubourg or city of La Fayette; above 
which, on the river bank, are two or three projected villages ; after which, as 
we rise out of the concavity, to the north-west, we come to the town of 
Carrolton; the streets of which run north north-east. Thus the line 
of coast, from the western limit of Carrolton to the eastern boundary of the 
Third Municipality, is at least twelve miles ; and public or private enterprise, 
in anticipation of the future, has already sought to give the great commercial 
metropolis of the Mexican or Southern Basin, that extension. This, however, 
will appear the less remarkable, when we recollect, that the spread of the 
city back from the river cannot be effected without great labor and expense. 
At present, a line of three miles, the center of which shall be the adjacent 
angles of the First and Second Municipalities, will cover those portions of 
the city which are of most interest to the physician. 

The right bank of the river, is not without its attempted towns. Oppo- 
site La Fayette, are Cosmopolite and Gretna; across the river from the 
First and Second Municipalities, lies MacDonoughville ; and facing the Third 
Municipality, stands Algiers ; all of which are but inconsiderable places. 

From the dome of the St. Charles Hotel, standing near the center of the 
city, the periscope presents many germinal villages, which suggest to the 
mind a true idea of the vast relations of this spot with the interior ; the 
inhabitants of which, in augmenting numbers, must forever continue to visit 
ISew Orleans, and thus maintain the interest of the medical profession, in all 
that relates to its diseases. 

II. Lakes and Swamps. — Directly north of the city, at the rectilinear 
distance of seven miles from the bottom of the horse-shoe bend, and about 
four and a half from each of its extremities, lies the southern coast of Lake 
Pontchartrain. To the east, at the distance of twenty miles, is the coast of 
Lake Borgne. At the same distance, to the south-east, is the small Lake 
Lery ; at double the distance, Chandeleur Bay. On the opposite side of the 
river, to the south-west and south, are Des Allemands, Ouacha, Petite, 
Hermitage, and Bonde Lakes, with Barataria and Bastion Bays, varying in 
distance by straight lines from ten to thirty or forty miles from the city. 

Thus New Orleans is nearly surrounded by lakes and bays ; to the west 
only are they absent ; and there the river in some degree supplies their place, 
by meandering from west to east for seventy or eighty miles. Even this, 
however, presents an inadequate idea of the extent of watery surface ; for 
in every direction from the city, unless when we travel on the ' coast,' or 
river bank, we encounter cypress swamps, terminating, either at the shores 
of a lake, or in grassy savannas too wet to be traveled over. Before levees 
were raised upon the banks, the whole region was annually overflowed ; but 
during nine months of the year, a strip on each side, varying from a few 
yards to a mile in width, was dry on the surface, yet abounded in water 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 99 

underneath. At New Orleans, as everywhere along the lower Mississippi, 
this strip was highest next the river, and not only the overflowings of the 
stream when swollen, but the rains, took a direction from the river, and 
replenished the swamps and smaller lakes. The elevation of the bank on 
which the city stands was but a few feet above the surface of Lake Pontchar- 
train, and Lake Borgne. 

III. Bayous. — These lakes are, and must forever remain, the reservoirs 
into which the swamps around New Orleans discharge their superfluous wa- 
ters. The draining is effected by natural canals or bayous, which I proceed 
to enumerate. 

1. To the north-west of the city, there are two or three, which run from 
the swamp into Lake Pontchartrain ; one of which is called Bayou Chapi- 
toulas. They do not exert much, if any, influence on the city. 

2. Bayou Metairie. — Further west, and nearly equidistant between the 
sources of these bayous and the river bank, is the beginning of the Bayou 
Metairie. Its course is eastward, until it joins the larger bayou, to be men- 
tioned next. The Metairie is cut by the new ship canal from Pontchartrain 
to Julia street, in the Second Municipality, and now, of course, discharges its 
waters into that trough. Along this bayou, there is considerable redeemed 
land, and a good road. 

3. The Bayou St. John. — Of all the bayous between the left bank of 
the river and the lakes, this confers on the city the most important benefits. 
Originating, by several branches, in the Second Municipality, about two 
miles from the river, it traverses the First Municipality, and thence makes its 
way directly north, to Pontchartrain. Its waters, of course, flow with a 
feeble current, but are deep enough for sloop navigation. 

4. Bayou Sauvage or Gentilly. — Its origin is near the dividing line be- 
tween the First and Third Municipalities, about two miles from the river. 
At first, its course is nearly north, but it bends to the north-east, and finally 
discharges its waters into the Pass called Chef Menteur, one of the connect- 
ing straits between Pontchartrain and Borgne. Along this bayou, there is 
also a road, and borders of arable land. 

5. Bayou Bienvenu, which originates in the eastern part of the Third 
Municipality and flows to the east. 

6. Bayou Mazunt. — It rises a little further down the river, and flows 
nearly in the same direction. 

7. Bayou Mercier, which begins still further down, and runs to the 
north-east. 

The last three bayous unite, and under the common name of Mazunt, flow 
into Lake Borgne. 

Thus we see that the declivity between the left bank of the river and the 
lakes, has numerous swamp-bayous or natural canals, which constitute the 
basis of a hydraulic system, by which a large portion, if not the whole tract, 
might, by human labor properly directed, be drained and dried. 



100 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

IV. Dikes. — But, without ditching, nothing of substantial value can be ac- 
complished ; for, although the fall from the river to the lakes is about twelve 
feet, much of it is near the former, and the declivity gets less and less as we 
recede from the river. Hence the water, after it has sunk to a certain level, 
will not flow off from the swamp, without receiving an impulse from the hand 
of art. When intersecting or confluent ditches are dug, and a common trunk 
is made to open into one of the bayous, the water gradually drains into it ; 
not only off, but from beneath, the surface, down to the level of that which 
is in the ditches. In this manner the waters of the swamps are collected 
into the dikes which are dug through them ; but the inclination is too little 
to impart much current, and hence, to the full effect of emptying the marshes, 
it has been found necessary to establish a current from their ditches into the 
bayous. This is done by the paddle-wheels already described in speaking of 
the Delta generally. The only bayou, however, into which the waters have 
yet been driven, is St. Johns. 

V. Canals. — In 1776, Baron de Carondelet, Spanish Governor of Lou- 
isiana, finished the sloop canal, which still bears his name. Its length is a 
mile and a half. One end terminates in the Bayou St. John; the other, 
within half a mile of the river, where there is a basin ; which was dug in 
what had, up to the time of its excavation, in 1796, been a public cemetery. 
The whole is within the old city, now called the First Municipality. Ac- 
cording to Dr. Thomas,* the yellow fever which occurred in the autumn of 
that year, was the first which had visited the city; but I have learned from 
one of the oldest and most respectable Anglo-American citizens, Richard 
Belph, Esq., that it occurred, he himself being a patient, in 1791. The 
effect of this canal was to promote the drying of that part of the swamp 
through which it passed. 

The New Orleans Canal was excavated many years afterwards. It extends 
from a basin at the end of Julia Street, in the Second Municipality, to Lake 
Pontchartrain, a distance, following its banks, of nearly six miles. The ex- 
cavation of this canal through a cypress swamp, was at the expense, as I 
have been assured by Dr. Meux and Dr. Barton, of several hundred lives. 
The work was continued through summer and autumn, and the laborers 
were chiefly immigrant Irishmen. They did not, however, perish of yellow 
fever, but of intermittents and remittents. As the water in this canal, is on 
a level with that of Lake Pontchartrain, ditches for draining the back part 
of the Municipality, and, indeed, the whole swamp between it and the lake, 
may be conducted into it. 

VI. Street Currents. — The rains that fall on the city plat, which in- 
clines from the river, must, of course, take the direction of the swamps. As 
far as the gutters are paved, the water flows with sufficient velocity to carry 

* Essai sur la Fievre Jaune D'Amerique. 1823, p. 70. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 101 

forward much of the filth thrown in them; but where they are unpaved, most of 
it is left behind, the superincumbent water slowly draining off, and leaving semi- 
fluid deposits of mud. Many of the cross streets, moreover, have so little 
fall, that their gutters, except immediately after copious rains, present a 
very foul aspect. For several months in the year, however, — that is, from 
winter to midsummer, — the gutters of every street running from the river, 
might be washed out by a lively stream ; for, throughout that period, the 
river is high enough to discharge its waters into them through depressions or 
tunnels in the levee. In the old city, now First Municipality, many of the 
gutters are subjected to this purification ; and the whole should be brought 
under the same influence. With such a hydraulic system, the city might 
have its filth successfully transported to the swamp, or even to the bayous 
and canals which open into the lake, which would be much better. 

VII. Inundations. — To whatever extent a system of ditching may be 
carried, the isthmus between the city and the lakes will forever remain liable 
to occasional inundations. 

1st. Heavy rains, when they happen to coincide with a defective or sus- 
pended action of the machinery which propels the water from the inain dike 
into the bayou, will occasion partial inundations ; an instance of which I 
witnessed in the spring of 1846, when riding through the northern part of 
the First Municipality, with Dr. Meux. 

2d. A crevice in the levee above the city, at any point below Bayou Man- 
chac, may produce a much more extended inundation; such as occurred in 
the year 1816. As the water, which was three or four feet deep, drained off 
rapidly into the lakes, it was supposed to carry with it a great deal of filth, 
and seemed to have had a salutary effect on the health of the city.* 

3d. Under strong winds from the north and north-east, the waters of Lake 
Pontchartrain may be thrown into the swamp to the depth of several feet, 
and even come into the thickly settled parts of the city ; an event which has 
happened more than once. Against this kind of deluge, there can be no 
protection ; and it should not, perhaps, in reference to the health of the city, 
be regretted; as it occurs upon a surface, which, under any degree of ditch- 
ing, is likely to remain inordinately moist ; and the recession of the water 
can scarcely fail to carry off a large amount of filth. 

VIII. Forests. — To practice ditching, it is necessary to destroy the for- 
ests which overshadow the swamp ; but this should not be done until the 
ditching can be commenced ; as an exposure of the surface to the rays of the 
sun, must, of necessity, quicken the decomposition of organic matter. 

IX. Fevers of the Swamp. — The inhabitants of the suburbs of the 
city, who live adjacent to, or within, the swamp, but seldom affected by 



* Rapport Publie au nom de la Societe Medicale de la Nouvelle Orleans, Sur la 
Fievre Jaune, 1819, p. 50. 



102 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

yellow fever, are liable to intermittent and remittent fever; but cases of 
great malignity are not particularly common. These fevers sometimes reach 
the center of the city, but such invasions are not annual. 

We must now transfer ourselves from the swamp, to the river side of 
the city. 

X. The Batture. — For a great length of time, the Mississippi, during 
its annual floods, has been depositing silt in front of the city ; thus raising, 
and widening its bank in the direction of the opposite side. This new allu- 
vial formation has received the name of Batture. The efficient cause of its 
deposition, is an eddy, or counter current, which exists from some point in 
the Third, to a point in the Second Municipality, and the momentum of 
which is sufficient to turn the sterns of steamboats which lie at the wharves 
up stream — that is, in the opposite direction from that in which the general 
current of the river would place them. As long as the cause of this eddy 
continues, the growth of the Batture will, of course, go on, and be accompa- 
nied, as it is, with some encroachment of the river on the opposite bank. 
Large portions of the new alluvial plain have been built upon, but a wide mar- 
gin remains uncovered with houses, and presents the appearance of a common, 
which even the mighty commerce of the interior, can but partially overspread 
with the products of the soil. Portions of the outer edge have been raised, 
by art, above high water mark ; while others are covered with planks sup- 
ported by props, constituting docks, which are extended so far out that 
steamboats can lie at their terminations. 

XI. City Filth along the Biver. — The streets adjacent to the river for 
three miles, are compactly built up, and from the dwelling houses, taverns, 
drinking houses, warehouses, market-houses, oyster- sheds, sugar- wharves, and 
cotton-presses, a vast quantity of filth, and organic recrements, find their 
way into the water's edge ; and although a portion may be wafted off, much 
is deposited on the subaqueous batture, and, with the fall of the river, sub- 
jected to solar influence. * In three visits to New Orleans, I ascertained, 
by personal inspection, that the condition of things described by Br. Pieor- 
nell, in 1823, still continued without much abatement, twenty years after- 
wards. Within that time, the police had, it is true, been greatly improved ; 
but the population had also greatly increased, with an inevitable augmenta- 
tion of foul and corrupting offals. 

XII. Boats and Shipping. — The last head gives a very inadequate idea 
of the amount of filth thrown into the river opposite the city. Its commerce 
during six months of the year, is too great to be estimated by those who 
have not seen it. Three classes of vessels carry it on — flat boats, or arks, 
steamboats, and ships. 



* Des Considerations Hygieniques sur la Nouvelle Orleans. By J. M. Picornell,p. 19, 
1823. — Essay on the subject of Quarantine Laws. By W. P. Hort, M. D., New Orleans 
Medical Journal, Vol. II, p. 1. 



part I.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 103 

The first lie chiefly opposite La Fayette, and further up the river to Car- 
rolton. Their number is immense, and various kinds of filth, with damaged 
cargoes, are thrown from them, into the very margin of the river, whence 
they are but partially floated off. When the boats are sold, and those who 
descended the river have left them, they often lie, for a long time, attached 
to the bank, or half sunken, and contain accumulations of foul and putrifying 
matters exposed to the rays of the summer's sun. 

The steam boats lie chiefly in front of the center of the city, divided 
between the adjacent portions of the First and Second Municipalities. Their 
freight is cotton, sugar, and produce and provisions of all sorts. The number 
of persons on board of each, while lying at the wharf, cannot be less than fifty ; 
and the laborers occupied near the water's edge, might be counted by thou- 
sands. Thus the amount of filth and feculence which falls upon this part of 
the batture, during spring and the early part of summer, is very great. 

The ships, not anchored in the stream, but attached to the docks, are 
found in two different places, in front of the Second and Third Municipali- 
ties — the steamers intervening. Nearly every ship, in reaching the port of 
New Orleans, has sailed within or very near the tropics, and arrives, of 
course, with its hold in a filthy state. The work of debarkation and purifi- 
cation is conducted where they lie ; and consequently, they contribute a full 
proportion to the foul accumulations over which they ride. * 

From the various sources which have been indicated, after making ample 
allowance for what is floated off by the current, there must be annually 
deposited with the river silt, upon the sloping margin of the Batture, for 
three miles in front of the city, a deep and foul stratum of organic recre- 
ments; which, on the subsidence of the river, from July to November, is 
exposed to the burning sun of the thirtieth degree of latitude. If there be 
any gases, noxious or innoxious, developed during that period, a portion of 
them may be absorbed by the river, but the greater part must be wafted into 
the city; for the prevailing winds are between south-east and south-west. 

XIII. Fevers of the River Side. — For the purpose of comparing this 
side of the city with that adjacent to the swamps, I will remark, that this is 
the locality of yellow fever, as the other is of autumnal intermittent, and 
remittent. The latter, however, occur here also ; but many of the cases are 
in persons from the interior, who arrive with the semina of the fevers in their 
systems and become patients, either in the boats which bring them down, or 
in the watermen's boarding houses. 

XIV. Condition of the City. — The streets in general are of moderate 
width ; a few are broad, but a greater number narrow, using those terms as one 
familiar with the towns of the interior is likely to employ them. For a long 
period of time but few of them were paved ; latterly, however, that important 
improvement has been advancing with commendable rapidity. The stones 



*Dr. Hort. 



104 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are brought from the Eastern States and Europe, as ballast, by ships engaged 
in the cotton trade. 

The squares are generally small, and consequently their central parts 
are much covered over with back buildings. The houses are very unequal 
and unlike each other; the old French and Spanish domicils being mostly of 
wood, one or two stories high, and faced or surrounded with verandahs. 
In the old or First Municipality, there are, however, many three story 
brick, as in the American or Second Municipality there are many frame 
houses, built after the fashions which prevail in the interior. Arrangements 
for warming and drying are, in many houses, defective and inadequate : and 
the invalid from the upper country, who may have been accustomed to lodge 
in dry and warm rooms, will probably find himself placed, in winter and 
early spring, in a chamber which, to his feelings, will prove both cool and 
damp. The diet of the inhabitants approaches too near to that of the peo- 
ple of the United States generally, to justify the opinion, that any peculiarity 
of constitution or diseases which may exist, depends upon it. Vegetables of 
various kinds are abundant; and if butcher's meat is less used, the animal 
element is made up by fish, eggs, bacon, and oysters. Coffee is in universal 
use, and taken by multitudes before breakfast. Claret is drunk copiously, 
and generally throughout most of the year; but ardent spirits are likewise 
used with great liberality. Formerly, well-water, the composition of which 
has been already given, was extensively used; but since the year 1886, there 
has been a liberal supply of river-water, pumped up from a point above the 
ship and steamboat wharves, into a reservoir with partitions, so that the de- 
posit of sediment is going on in some, while the water is flowing off from 
other compartments. 

XV. Composition of Society. — The settlement of New Orleans was be- 
gun by the French in the year 1718. From the beginning, African slaves 
made a part of the population. Settlements were soon made both above and 
below the town. Five years after its foundations were laid, a company of 
G-ermans, who had left Europe for the purpose of settling on the Arkansas, 
were disappointed in their object, and established themselves on what was 
therefore called the German coast, from thirty to forty miles above the town, 
whence many of their descendants became mingled with its population. 
Meanwhile, immigrants from France continued to arrive, and while a portion 
remained in New Orleans, others settled on the coast above and below the 
town; and on the banks of the Bayous La Fourche and Teche. In 1754, 
a body of French from Nova Scotia, then called Acadia, having left that 
province in consequence of its conquest by England, migrated to Louisiana, 
and settled partly in New Orleans, but chiefly on that part of the river bank 
above the German settlement, which has since been called the Acadian 
coast. In 1763, Louisiana was ceded by France to Spain, but the latter did 
not obtain possession until 1769, fifty-one years after the settlement of New 
Orleans. An immigration of Spaniards now took place, but not, I think, to 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 105 

such an amount as materially to affect the composition of society. The 
Spanish domination continued thirty-two years, and terminated by a restora- 
tion of the colony to France. Two years afterward, it was sold to the 
United States, and possession taken on the 30th of November, 1803. 
Up to that time, there had been but little Anglo-American immigra- 
tion, and the population did not much exceed eight thousand. Since the 
transfer, forty-five years have elapsed, and the permanent population has 
risen, including transient persons, to more than one hundred and thirty 
thousand. This rapid increase has been chiefly from the United States ; but 
England and Ireland have contributed a liberal number. 

From this narrative we see, that the white population of the city consists 
of mixed masses of French, Spaniards, Americans, Irish, and Germans, with 
stragglers from England, Scotland, and Italy. There have been many inter- 
marriages, but still the distinctive physiological characters, especially of the 
French and Americans, are well maintained. The Creoles are the natives, 
of French or Spanish parents. The negroes make a larger element of the 
population than either of the sub -varieties which have been mentioned; espe- 
cially when we include with them the mixed races ; which, under thehiame of 
mulattoes, quadroons, and griffes, are exceedingly numerous. 



SECTION IV. 

SMALLER TOWNS WITHIN THE DELTA. 

I. Milneburg. — I do not know that even the people of this place are 
familiar with its name, which I copy from Springbett and Pilie's excellent map 
of New Orleans and its environs. It designates the port and village on 
Lake Pontchartrain (PL VI), where the railroad from the Third Munici- 
pality of New Orleans terminates, at the distance of six miles from the 
Mississippi River. In crossing the isthmus on that road, we see, that the 
whole was once a cypress swamp, though much of it has been redeemed by 
cutting down the forest and ditching the ground. Still, for two miles before 
reaching the Lake, the road lies through a swamp, which imperceptibly grad- 
uates into the Lake. Thus there is, or rather was, a broad margin of cypress 
forest, on which even the low tides of the lake ebbed and flowed, and over 
which the winds from the north or north-east, impel its waters. The lake is 
literally without any restraining banks, and its margin is so shallow, that a 
long wooden dock is necessary for communication with the sloops and 
steamers which frequent the port. The houses of the village are generally 
built on blocks, or earthen foundations, which have been thrown up to raise 
them above the waves. On this broad tidal beach, remote from any deep 
water, every kind of impurity is but rolled backward and forward; and 
taking the locality as a whole, it may be said to abound in filth, while a dark 
swamp lies immediately in its rear. 



106 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Of the prevalence of autumnal fever at this locality, compared with other 
places in the Delta, I am not informed. It has been affected with yellow 
fever; and it is in reference to the history of that disease that an account of 
its topography becomes necessary. 

II. Franklin. — The Teche {PL F), one of the most beautiful bayous 
of the Delta, and the principal river of the Attakapas Country, has on its 
banks three small towns, which require to be mentioned. The lowest is 
Franklin, on the right bank of the bayou, in N. Lat. 29° 45', at the head of 
low water steamboat navigation. Its population is four or five hundred. Its 
site, which rises above the highest freshets of the bayou, has in its rear the 
usual cypress swamps. Autumnal fever, as I learned from Doctor Hornsby, 
now of Plaquemine, occurs every autumn, both in the village and on the 
banks of the bayou above and below; but in general without any extraordi- 
nary violence. Yellow fever has invaded it, once or oftener. 

III. New Iberia is situated higher up the Teche ( PL V), on the same 
side with Franklin, at the very margin of the Delta. It stands, in fact, on 
the extreme margin of the high plains of Opelousas, about twenty feet 
above the surface of the bayou.* Its latitude is 30° N. Like Franklin, it 
is subject to autumnal fever, and has also been reached by yellow fever, 
when that disease was epidemic in New Orleans. " 

TV. St. Martinsville ( PL V), is the highest town up the Teche, be- 
ing in Lat. 30° 10' N. Its site is on the right bank, and is too elevated to 
be overflowed by the greatest floods of the bayou ; but so level, that the 
rains do not drain off, and the surface becomes extremely soft in wet weather f 
At a distance from the bayou, there are the usual cypress swamps. St. 
Martinsville, like the towns below, is subject to mild, endemial, autumnal 
fever, and has likewise experienced visitations of yellow fever. 

Y. Thibodeatjx. — We pass from the Teche to the Bayou La Fourche, 
which leaves the Mississippi on the right hand side, one hundred and eighty- 
four miles from the Gulf of Mexico. The highly cultivated borders of the 
La Fourche, protected by levees, are limited in the rear by swamps. On one 
of these belts, about forty miles down the bayou, stands the village of Thibo- 
deaux, which in its medical topography presents nothing peculiar, and 
would not demand a notice, but that it has suffered one or more invasions of 
yellow fever. 

VI. Donaldsonville. — This beautiful and comparatively new town, is 
built on the right bank of the Mississippi, in N. Lat. 30°, immediately be- 
low the efflux of the bayou which has just been described. Its site is more 
elevated than many others within the Delta, and does not, therefore, suffer 
inundation from any but the greatest floods of the Mississippi. In cleanli- 
ness, as well as dryness, it may be ranked with the best localities of the 



* Darby: Emigrant's Guide. t Ibid. 



fart i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 107 

Delta; and the swamp in its rear, to the south, docs not approach it as 
closely as the same kind of surface approaches New Orleans, and many other 
towns of this region. Autumnal fever prevails here, as in the surrounding 
localities, and sometimes assumes a malignant type. Yellow fever has made 
it a few visitations, but none were of a violent character. 

VII. Plaquemine is a respectable and well-built town, of the smaller 
size, situated thirty-five miles above Donaldsonville, on the right side of the 
Mississippi, immediately below the efflux of Bayou Plaquemine. Its site is 
dry, but the bayou winds closely round it, and there are, of course, cypress 
swamps in its rear. It suffers moderately from autumnal fever, and has 
experienced a few, but not very serious, invasions of yellow fever. 

VIII. Angle of the Delta. — This extends from the Bayou Plaque- 
mine to the mouth of Red River, a distance of more than one hundred 
miles, and includes the important parishes of West Baton Rouge, Point 
Coupee, and the eastern part of Avoyelles, all in the state of Louisiana. 
The Mississippi, through nearly the whole length of this angle, flows close 
to its left bank, which is a continued tertiary bluff. The right bank is 
raised by a levee, which, however, does not afford full protection from over- 
flows; for the bends in the river are here of the most remarkable kind; and 
consequently, from the retardation of the current, the levees are apt to give 
way ; moreover, the banks of the Bayou Atchafalaya, which flows through 
the western part of the angle, are so low, that in the annual rise of the 
Mississippi they are deeply overflowed. Thus the settlements in this bottom 
are chiefly on the river bank, with a levee in front, and swamps, which gener- 
ally dry up in autumn, and bayous, ponds, and lakes, in the rear. This por- 
tion of the Delta was settled by the French at an early period; and all the 
arable land has long been subjected to the action of the plow, and other 
agricultural implements, with full exposure to the rains and sun. Cotton, 
the former staple, has largely given place to sugar. The population of this 
region is entirely rural. There is not, I believe, a single town ; but at the 
distance of fifty-five miles above Plaquemine, there is a public steamboat 
landing called "Waterloo. 

From all that I have been able to learn, autumnal fever in this portion of 
the Delta is generally mild and not remarkably prevalent. Doctor Thomas 
Beaumont, who resided, when I saw him, on the tertiary plateau, several 
miles from the Delta, in the parish of East Baton Rouge, assured me, that 
malignant cases of autumnal fever were decidedly more frequent and fatal 
where he then lived, than in the Delta from which he had removed ; and 
Doctor McKelvey, of St. Francisville, informed me on the authority of Doctor 
G. W. Smith, who had practiced his profession on the Point Coupee coast, 
and also on the opposite bluffs in West Feliciana, that the fevers of autumn 
were milder in the former than in the latter locality. We must now ascend 
to the bluffs. 



108 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION V. 

TOWNS ON THE BLUFFS OF THE DELTA. 

Every locality described in the preceding Sections of this Chapter, lies 
within the Delta, has an alluvial surface, and rises but a few feet above the 
river. Having traveled over the whole of that peculiar region, we must now 
ascend to the towns which have been built upon its bluffs, beginning with its 
right hand, or south-western side. The bank or bluff which constitutes the 
boundary of the upper part of the Delta in that direction, rises thirty or 
forty feet above the river and its bayous ; and stretching off as a plain, on 
which there are many extensive prairies, constitutes the Opelousas Country. 
I am informed by Professor Forshey, of Vidalia, that this plain is a bed of 
diluvium or drift, having in its rear a higher tertiary formation, covered with 
pine forest. 

I. Opelousas. — The position of this town, and its distance, (about five 
miles), from the navigable bayous of the Delta, may be seen in PL V. In 
the absence of any later description, I shall transcribe from Darby, * the 
following topographical notice : 

" The neighborhood of Opelousas church is a kind of table land, from 
which the waters flow as from a common center. Without reference to a 
good map, it is very difficult to explain the very complicated structure of this 
country. The water-courses are interwoven into each other, with an intri- 
cacy that demands much attention to comprehend with precision. Three 
miles north-west of Opelousas church, there is, surrounded by prairie, a body 
of woods two miles long, and a half a mile wide. This isolated forest is not 
unaptly called Isle au L'Anglais. The denomination of island is not unap- 
propriate when applied to a copse standing in a sea of grass. 

" From the east side of this island, flow the head waters of the Mer- 
mentau. The source of the river is an extensive, low, wet plain. The water 
gradually collects into a single channel, which passes to the southward, within 
less than a mile of Opelousas church ; and continuing that course about 
three miles, divides ; one part running eastward into Bayou Bourbee, con- 
tributes to form the Vermillion ; the other runs south-west, into Bayou 
Plaquemine Brulee, and finally into the Mermentau Biver. 

" Three miles north of Opelousas court-house, the drains of the prairie are 
connected; part of the water flows north, into Bayou Grand Louis, and the 
other, south, forming the head of Bayou Bourbee." 

Of the prevalence of autumnal fever at Opelousas, I cannot speak with 
any certainty, and have been led to introduce a notice of its topography, 
because it has suffered from yellow fever. 

II. Baton Rouge. — That portion of the Delta which lies above Bayou 
Plaquemine, on the west, and Bayou Iberville or Manchac, on the east, has 



* Emigrant's Guide, 1818. 



part ].] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 109 

been already designated as its angle. The plains of Opelousas, as we have 
just seen, constitute its boundary in the former direction; in the latter it is 
terminated by the tertiary formation, which stretches westwardly from Mobile 
Bay, and reaches the Delta, a short distance above the Bayou Iberville, 
not far below Baton Rouge. It is common to speak of the site of this town 
as the first high land, on which the eye rests in ascending the Mississippi ; 
which here, instead of keeping out in the middle of the Delta, presses hard 
upon the bluffs. When the observer, standing upon the bluffs, looks off to 
the west, he sees, on the opposite side of the river, a low, wet, and level 
bottom, with its levee, and belt of cultivated ground graduating into cypress 
swamps, which extend, with the interruptions occasioned by the Atchafalaya 
and other streams of the Delta, quite across to the terrace of Opelousas. From 
this broad paludal surface, every westerly wind transports to the bluffs 
whatever exhalations may arise. But we must fix our attention upon the 
town. 

Baton Rouge, standing on the bluff which has been described, in N. Lat. 
30° 36' and-W. Lon. 91° 33', is distant from New Orleans one hundred and 
forty miles — from the Balize two hundred and forty-four. The elevation of 
its site is about twenty-two feet above high water-mark of the river ; but 
such is the close approximation of the land and water surfaces to the same 
level throughout the Delta, that he who has sojourned upon it for awhile, 
will, on approaching this bluff, regard it as much higher than it really is. * 
The town plat is free from ponds and marshes ; but I observed, in a short 
excursion on the plain behind it, that the rain water does not readily sink 
into the ground, and is retained on the surface by its levelness. To the 
south, down the river, there is a narrow, cultivated bottom, .some portions 
of which are overflowed in times of high water. To the north, and adjoining 
the town, there is a small tributary, up which the waters of the Mississippi 
are backed, when the river is high ; but Doctor R. F. Harney, U. S. A., 
assured me, that the silt then deposited is washed away, by the copious rains 
which, in summer, follow on the subsidence of the freshet. Up the river, 
the nearest swamp is fifteen miles, f 

When visiting Baton Rouge, in 1844, I was informed by Doctor French, 
who had resided there more than thirty years, and also by Doctor Harney, 
who had been stationed there for the greater part of a quarter of a century, 
that, in reference to intermittent and remittent fever, Baton Rouge cannot 
be regarded as unhealthy ; and, as far as the people of the town are con- 



* I have been told, that horses reared in the lower part of the Delta, and always accus- 
tomed to a level surface, have shown great awkwardness and some difficulty, in attempt- 
ing to ascend the bluffs, when brought to them, as they occasionally have been ; a fact 
which strongly illustrates the flatness of that surface, and one of its physiological 
effects. 

t Med. Stat. U. S. A. p. 253. 



HO THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

cerned, I know of no facts which contradict their assertions. It has several 
times, however, been visited by yellow fever. 

Military Post. — In the year 1819, the Government began the erection of 
barracks on the bluff, adjoining and above the town, and for the first six 
years, the soldiery suffered more from sickness than at any other post in the 
United States; which, of course, was charged upon the local situation. 
Doctor Harney, however, ascribes their sickness and mortality to the follow- 
ing causes: First. They were recruits from the north. Second. They 
were extremely intemperate. Third. For the purpose of building barracks, 
they were obliged to fell trees in a cypress swamp, fifteen miles above the 
town ; in doing which they were greatly exposed to the direct action of the 
sun and rains.* In latter years, as Doctor Harney assured me, the soldiers 
are much healthier. The army returns, for seven years, between 1829 and 
1839, give for intermittent fever a ratio of fifty-one per cent., and for remit- 
tents of thirty per cent. These ratios, Doctor Forry, the editor, remarks, 
are not beyond those of some other posts, but the proportion of fatal cases 
was greater than at any other; the remittents often assuming a most malig- 
nant type. 

Baton Rouge was settled almost as far back as New Orleans ; and until 
the cession of Louisiana to the United States, in 1803, its population was 
chiefly French and Spanish. Soon afterward, emigrants from the United 
States began to flock thither, and to other places in that region ; but Spain 
kept possession of the whole until 1810, alleging that it was a part of 
West Florida. f At present, although it has a mixed population, the American 
greatly predominates over all the rest. The town, as we have seen, is the 
site of a permanent military post ; the penitentiary of the state has been 
erected here ; and lately the legislature of Louisiana has fixed upon it as 
the future capital of the state. Thus, although not a commercial town, its 
military, civil, and political importance, entitles it to the attention of the 
medical historian. 

III. Port Hudson. — This inconsiderable village, with a population of 
eighty or one hundred, situated twenty-five miles above Baton Bouge, is a 
landing place for East Feliciana and other parishes of that part of Louisiana. 
From Doctor Beaumont I have learned, that it stands on a high bluff, at the 
foot of which the river flows. Just above the village, there is an extensive 
swamp between the bluff and river, and below some smaller swamps and 
ponds. It experiences an annual visitation of autumnal fever, like other 
places in the South ; but the chief reason for introducing a notice of it here, 
is, that it has repeatedly suffered from yellow fever. 

IV. Bayou Sara, and St. Francisville. — These adjoining towns are 



* Medical Statistics, U. S. A. 

f Pitkin's Stat. Views of tjie United States, p. 17. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. HI 

situated ten miles above Port Hudson, in the parish of West Feliciana. The 
former stands on a bottom of moderate width ; the latter, immediately behind 
it, on a tertiary bluff, about eighty feet in hight. The site of Bayou Sara is 
elevated, in front, above high water-mark of the river; its back part is liable 
to partial inundation when the river is swollen. The water then makes its 
way upon this portion of the town by two routes. On the west, the alluvial 
plain, about half a mile in width, sinks into a cypress swamp, up which the 
spring floods of the Mississippi creep upon the town plat. To the east, is 
the creek called Bayou Sara, out of which the back water of the river flows 
upon the same portions of the, town site. Immediately above this bayou, 
there is a low cotton-wood bottom, which is annually overflowed to the depth 
of several feet. Bayou Sara is a landing place of considerable business ; be- 
ing the terminus of a railroad to Woodville, in the state of Mississippi. 

St. Francisville lies to the north north-east of Bayou Sara. The dry, 
loamy terrace on which it stands, abounds in grey sand; in which, to the east 
and west of the town, are deep ravines. The wet bottom or swamp below 
Bayou Sara, lies to the south-east of St. Francisville ; and the inundated 
cotton -wood bottom already mentioned, to its north-west. Thus its south- 
east and south-west winds pass over swamps. In its rear, there are branches 
of the Bayou Sara, and another stream called Anderson's Creek, flowing in 
ravines ; beyond which, the country attains a higher elevation, and is some- 
what broken. 

Both these towns are liable to autumnal fever, from which the upper seems 
to have suffered more than the lower ; and both have experienced epidemic 
invasions of yellow fever. 



SECTION VI. 

AN EARLY VOYAGE UP THE MISSISSIPPI. 
With the preceding Section, our survey of the Delta of the Mississippi and 
its banks was finished. From the Balize to the mouth of Bed Biver, we 
found ourselves in the midst of a highly cultivated region, and a numerous 
population ; we saw the river and its great bayous restrained by artificial 
embankments ; the cypress with its long moss superseded by the orange, fig, 
and various flowering shrubs ; the natural cane-brakes replaced by fields of 
sugar-cane ; swamps and marshes drained by the labors of art ; and the very 
drift-wood arrested in its descent to the Gulf, and converted into fuel for the 
propulsion of steamboats, almost as numerous as the floating trees. We are 
now about to ascend the river, and observe the hygienic condition of its 
bluffs and bottoms, above the Delta; but before departing, I propose to offer, 
as an interlude, some extracts from the narrative of an early voyage, from 
New Orleans to the Arkansas river. It was performed by the Jesuit Father 
Du Poisson, one hundred and twenty years ago/and consequently but nine years 



112 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

after the first settlement of the city. The reading of it will not only relieve 
the tedium of topographical description ; but, by showing the condition of 
the river and its banks, while in a state of nature, will enable us to estimate 
more fully the transformations which civilization has effected. 

VOYAGE OF DU POISSON.* 

" We embarked on the 25th of May, 1727, the Fathers Souel and Dumas 
with myself, under the direction of the good man Simon. The Fathers de 
G-uienne and le Petit, being obliged in a few days to take a different route ; 
the former, as you know, to the Alibamons, and the latter to the Chasses. 
Our baggage and that of our boatmen occupied a space, which filled up our 
two boats to more than a foot above the sides. We were perched up on a 
heap of chests and packages, without being able even to change our position, 
and it had already been prophesied to us that we could not go far with this 
equipage. In ascending the Mississippi we coasted along by the shore in 
consequence of the force of the current. We had scarcely lost sight of New 
Orleans, when a projecting branch which had not been noticed by our helms- 
man, caught in a chest, overturned it, caused it to make a somerset upon a 
young man who was near, and rudely struck Father Souel. Fortunately it 
broke in this first effort, or both the chest and the young man would have 
been in the river. This accident decided us, when we arrived at Chapitou- 
las, about three leagues distance from New Orleans, to dispatch some one 
to Father de Beaubois, to ask him for a much larger boat. 

" During all this time we were among old acquaintances. The barbarous 
name which the country bears, shows that it has been in other times inhab- 
ited by savages, and at present they apply this title to five grants which are 
along the Mississippi. M. Dubreuil, a Parisian, received us into his. The 
next three belong to three Canadian brothers, who came into the country to 
settle, with nothing but the clothes on their back and the stick in their 
hand, but who have more advanced their fortunes than the grantees in 
France, who have sent out millions to establish their grants, which at the 
present time are for the most part ruined. The fifth belongs to M. de Koli, 
a Swiss by birth, Seigneur of the Manor of Livry, near Paris, one of the 
most honorable men that can be found. He had come over in the same 
ship with us, to see for himself the condition of his grant, for which he had 
fitted out ships, and subjected himself to endless expenses. There are in 
each of these grants at least sixty negroes, who cultivate Indian corn, rice 
indigo, and tobacco. These are the parts of the colony which are most 
flourishing. I now am speaking to you of a grant ; I shall also have occa- 
sion presently to speak of a plantation and a settlement. You perhaps do 
not know what all these are ; have patience then to read the explanation. 



* Early Jesuit Missions in North America : Trans, by the Rev. W. J. Kip; Part II, 
p. 232—252. 



tart i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 113 

" They call a Grant a certain extent of territory granted by the India Com- 
pany to one person alone, or to many who have formed together a partner- 
ship to clear the lands and make them valuable. These were the persons, 
who in the days of the great Mississippi bubble * were called the Counts 
and the Marquises of Mississippi. Thus the grantees are the aristocracy of 
this country. The greater part have never left France, but have equipped 
ships filled with directors, stewards, storekeepers, clerks, workmen of different 
trades, provisions and goods of all kinds. Their business was, to penetrate 
into the woods, to build their cabins there, to make choice of lands, and to 
burn the canes and trees. These beginnings seemed too hard to people not 
accustomed to such kind of labor; the directors and their subalterns for the 
most part amused themselves in places where there were some French already 
settled ; there they consumed their provisions, and the work was scarcely 
commenced before the grant was entirely ruined. The workman badly paid, 
or badly fed, refused to labor, or else seized on his own pay, and the stores 
were plundered. Was not all this perfectly French? But this was in part 
the obstacle which has prevented the country from being settled, as it should 
have been, after the prodigious expense which has been lavished upon- it. 

" They call a Plantation a smaller portion of land granted by the com- 
pany. A man with his wife, or his associate, clears a small section, builds 
him a house with four forked sticks, which he covers with bark, plants some 
corn and rice for his food; another year he raises more provisions, and 
begins a plantation" of tobacco, and if finally he attains to the possession of 
three or four negroes, behold the extent to which he can reach. This is 
what they call a plantation and a planter. But how many are as wretched 
as when they commenced ? 

" They call a Settlement, a section in which there are many plantations not 
far distant from each other, forming a kind of village. 

"Besides these grantees and planters, there are also in this country, people 
who have no other business than that of vagabondizing. First, "Women and 
girls taken from the hospitals of Paris, from Salpetriere, or from other places 
of equally good reputation, who find the laws of marriage too strict, and the 
care of a single household too troublesome. Voyages of four hundred leagues 
present nothing to terrify these heroines ; I have met with two of them, 
whose adventures would furnish materials for a romance. Second, The voya- 
gers ; these are for the most part young people sent for some reason to the 
Mississippi by their parents or by justice, and who, finding it too low to dig the 
earth, prefer engaging themselves as rowers, and wandering about from one 
shore to the other. Third, The hunters ; these at the end of the summer 
ascend the Mississippi to the distance of two or three hundred leagues to the 
buffalo country; they dry in the sun the flesh on the ribs of the buffaloes, 

* Of Law, the Scotch financier in Paris. 



114 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

salt the rest, and also make bear's oil. Towards spring they descend, and 
thus furnish provisions to the Colony. The country which extends from 
New Orleans even to this place, renders this business necessary, because it is 
not sufficiently inhabited, or enough cleared to raise cattle there. At the 
distance of only thirty leagues from here they begin to find the buffaloes, 
and they are in herds on the prairies or by the rivers. During the past year 
a Canadian came down to New Orleans with four hundred and eighty tongues 
of buffaloes he had killed during his winter campaign with the aid of only 
one associate. 

" We left the Chapitoulas on the 29th. Although we had sent for a much 
larger boat, and in spite of the new stowing which our people made, we 
were almost as much crowded as before. We had but two leagues to make 
that day, to reach Burnt Canes, the residence of M. de Benac, director of the 
grant of M. d' Artagnan, where we were to sleep. He received us in a very 
friendly manner, and regaled us with a carp from the waters of the Missis- 
sippi, which weighed thirty-five pounds. The Burnt Canes is the name 
given to two or three grants along the Mississippi ; the place is very much 
like the Chapitoulas, while the situation appears to me to be more beautiful. 

" The next day we advanced six leagues, which is about as much as they 
can ever accomplish in ascending the river, and we slept, or rather encamped, 
at the Germans.* These are the quarters assigned to the lingering remnant 
of that company of Germans who had died of misery, some at the East, and 
some on arriving in Louisiana. Great poverty is visible in their dwellings. 
It is here properly that we begin to learn what it is to voyage on the Mis- 
sissippi ; and I am going to give you a little idea of it, so that I shall not be 
obliged to repeat the same thing every day. 

" We had set out at the season of the heavy floods, when the river had 
risen more than forty feet above its ordinary level, and as almost all the 
country is composed of low lands, it was of course inundated. Thus we were 
exposed to the difficulty of not finding cabanage, that is to say, ground on 
which to do our cooking and to sleep. When we could find it we slept in 
this way. If the ground was still muddy, as was the case when the water 
began to subside, they commenced by making a couch of branches, that the 
matress might not rest on the mud. Then they spread upon the earth a 
skin, or a matress, and clothes, if they had them. They bent three or four 
canes into a semicircle, both ends of which they fixed in the earth, and placed 
them at proper distances from each other, according to the length of the 
matress ; on these they fasten three others crosswise, and then spread over 
this slight framework the baire, that is, a large cloth, the ends of which they 
fold under the matress with great care. It is under these tombs, where we 
are stifled with heat, that we are obliged to sleep. The first thing we do on 



German Coast. 



fart i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 115 

reaching land, is to arrange our bccire with all diligence, for otherwise the 
musketoes do not permit us to use it. If one could sleep in the open air, 
he could enjoy the coolness of the night, and would be too happy. 

" There is much more cause of complaint when no cabanage can be found. 
Then they tie the boat to a tree. If they can find a raft of trees, they do 
their cooking on top of it, but if not, we go to sleep without supper, or rather 
we neither sup at all nor sleep at all, since we are resting in the same situa- 
tion in which we were during the day, with the addition of being exposed 
through the whole night to the fury of the musketoes. By the way, what 
is here called a raft is a collection of floating trees which the flood has up- 
rooted : the current continually sweeping them down, they are finally arrested 
by some tree whose root is in the ground, or by a neck of land, and there 
accumulate one upon the other, and form enormous piles. We have found 
some which would furnish the whole of your good city of Tours with wood 
for three winters. These places are difficult and dangerous to pass. It is 
necessary to sail close to these rafts ; the current there is rapid, and if it 
dashes the boat against the floating trees, it disappears at once, and is swal- 
lowed up in the waters under the raft. w 

" It was also the season of the most excessive heats, which increased each 
day. During the whole voyage we had but a single entire day of cloudy 
weather, always the burning sun upon our heads, without being able even to 
use over our boats a small awning which might afford us a little shade. Be- 
sides, the hight of the trees and the denseness of the woods, which through 
all the route, are on both banks of the river, did not permit us to feel the 
least breath of wind. Although the river is a half league in breadth, the 
breeze does not make itself felt except in the middle of the stream ; and it is 
necessary to cross it, to catch the slightest breath of air. We drew up, 
without cessation, the water of the Mississippi through reeds, to quench our 
thirst, and although it is very turbid, we experienced no ill effect. Another 
refreshment we had, was from the grapes hanging almost everywhere from 
the trees ; and we snatched them in passing, or gathered them when we 
landed. There are in this country, at least among the Akensas, two kinds 
of grapes, of which the one ripens in summer, and the other in autumn. 
They are of the same species ; the grapes themselves are very small, and 
they afford a juice which is very thick. There is also another kind, the 
cluster of which has but three grapes, which are as large as the damask 
plum. Our Indians call them asi, contai: raisin, prune. 

" Our stock of provisions consisted of biscuit, batter which was salt and very 
rancid, rice, corn, and peas. The biscuit gave out when we were a little 
above Natchez. Our butter was gone when we were only ten or twelve 
leagues distant from New Orleans ; we therefore fed on the peas, and after- 
wards on the rice, which did not fail until our arrival at this place. The 
seasoning consisted of salt, bear's oil, and a particularly good appetite. The 
most ordinary food of this country, almost the only food of many persons, 



116 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and above all of the voyagers, is the gru. They bruise the corn to remove 
the outer skin, boil it for a long time in water, the French sometimes sea- 
soning it with oil, and this constitutes the gru. The Indians pound the corn 
very fine, cook it sometimes with fat, but oftener with water only, and this 
is the sagamite. The gru, indeed, is used instead of bread ; a spoonful of 
gru and a small piece of meat are taken together. 

" But the greatest torment, in comparison with which all the rest would 
be but sport, which passes all belief, and has never been imagined in France, 
still less actually experienced, is that of the musketoes — the cruel perse- 
cution of the musketoes- The plague of Egypt, I think, was not more 
cruel — "I will send swarms of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and 
upon thy people, and into thy houses ; and the houses of the Egyptians shall 
be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they are." They 
have here the /rape d'abord, and also the hrulots. The latter is a species of 
very small gnat, whose sting is so sharp, or rather so burning, that it seems 
as if a spark of fire had fallen on the spot. There are also the moustiqites, 
which are like the bridots, with the exception that they are much smaller, so 
that one can with difficulty see them ; their attacks are particularly directed 
against the eyes. There are also the guepes, and the thon ; in one word, 
there are omne genus muscarum. 

"But none of these others are worthy to be mentioned with the muske- 
toes. This little insect has caused more swearing since the French have 
been in Mississippi, than had previously taken place in all the rest of the 
world. Whatever else may happen, a swarm of these musketoes embark in 
the morning with the voyager. When they pass among the willows or near 
the canes, as very often takes place, a new swarm fastens with fury on the 
boat, and never quits it. It is necessary to keep the handkerchief in con- 
tinual exercise, and this scarcely frightens them. They make a short circuit, 
and return immediately to the attack. The arms become weary much sooner 
than they do. When we land to take dinner, which is between ten o'clock 
and two or three, there is an entire army to be combatted. We make a 
boucane, that is, a great fire, which we stifle afterwards with green branches. 
But it is necessary for us to place ourselves in the very thickest of the 
smoke, if we wish to escape the persecution, and I do not know which is 
worse, the remedy or the evil. After dinner we wish to take a short nap at 
the foot of a tree, but that is absolutely impossible; the time allotted to 
repose is passed in contending with the musketoes. We embark again in 
their company, and at sunset, on landing, it is necessary immediately to run 
to cut canes, wood, and green branches, to make the balre, the fire for cook- 
ing, and the boucane. There, it is each one for himself; but it is not one 
army, but many armies which we have to combat, for that time of day be- 
longs to the musketoes. One is perfectly eaten and devoured. They get 
into the mouth, the nostrils, and the ears ; the face, the hands, the body are 
all covered ; their sting penetrates the dress, and leaves a red mark on the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 117 

flesh, which swells on those who are not as yet inured to their bite. ChicagoD, 
to enable some of his nation to comprehend what a multitude of French he had 
seen, told them, that he had beheld " as many in the great village " (at 
Paris) "as there were boughs on the trees, and musketoes in the woods" 
After having supped in haste, we are impatient to bury ourselves under the 
halve, although we know that we go there to be stifled with the heat. With 
what address, with what skill does each one glide under his baire! But they 
always find that some have entered with them, and one or two are sufficient 
to insure a miserable night. 

" Such are the inconveniences of a voyage on the Mississippi. And yet 
how many voyagers endure them all for the prospect of a gain even the most 
moderate ! There was in a boat which ascended at the same time with our 
own, one of those heroines of whom I have already spoken, who was going 
to rejoin her hero. She did nothing but chatter, laugh, and sing. And if for 
a little temporal benefit, if even for crime itself, one can endure a voyage like 
this, should men fear it who are appointed to labor for the salvation of souls ! 

"I return to my journal. On the 31st, we made seven leagues, vln the 
evening, no cabanage. Water and biscuit for supper — slept in the boat — 
devoured by the musketoes through the night. Note. — This was the Vigil 
of Whitsunday, a fast-day. 

"The 1st of June we arrived at Oumas, a French plantation, where we 
found enough ground not overflowed to erect our cabins. We remained there 
during the next day to give rest to our crew. In the evening, Father Dumas 
and I embarked in a boat which during the night was to go the same dis- 
tance we should otherwise have to accomplish on the next day. By this 
means we avoided the intense heat. 

" On the 3d, we arrived, early in the morning indeed, at Bayagoulas (the 
destroyed nation), at the house of M. du Buisson, director of the grant of 
Messieurs Paris. Here we found some beds, which we had almost forgotten 
how to use, and during the morning took that repose which the musketoes 
had not permitted us to gain during the night. M. du Buisson omitted 
nothing which could add to our comfort, and regaled us with a wild turkey. 
(This is in every respect like the domestic turkey, except that the taste is 
finer.) The grant appeared to us well arranged and in a good condition. 
It would have been worth still more if it had always had as good a director. 
Our people arrived in the evening, and the next day we left the Bayagoulas, 
charmed with the pleasant manners and civilities of M. du Buisson. 

" In the evening we arrived at a spot above the Manchat? a branch of the 
Mississippi which empties into the Lake Maurepas ; no ground for cooking, 
— no cabanage — millions of musketoes during the night. Second Note. 
This was a fast-day ; the waters began to fall, which gave us reason to hope 
that we should not be obliged to sleep much more in the boat. 



* Bayou Iberville. 



118 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book x. 

" On the 4th we slept at Baton Rouge. This place receives its name from 
a tree painted red by the Indians, and which serves as a boundary for the 
hunting grounds of the nations who are above and below. We saw there 
the remains of a French plantation, abandoned on account of the deer, the 
rabbits, the wild-cats, and the bears, which ravaged everything. Four of 
our people went on a hunting expedition, and returned next day without any 
other game than an owl. 

" On the 7th we dined at the grant of M. Mezieres : it has the air of a 
plantation which is just commencing. We saw there one hovel, some 
negroes, and a single laborer, who did us neither good nor ill. We cabined 
for the night at Point Coupee, before the house of a planter, who received 
us with great attention. The rain detained us there next morning, and per- 
mitted us during the whole day to make but a single league, as far as the 
residence of another planter. His house, which was constructed from four 
forked sticks, gave us, for better and for worse, a shelter from a frightful 
storm. How much need have these poor people of consolation, both spiritual 
and temporal ! 

" On the 9th we had scarcely embarked when there came from the woods 
a most execrable odor. They told us that it proceeded from an animal close 
on shore, which they called bete puante and which spreads this disagreeable 
smell everywhere about it. We cabined for the night at the Little Tonicas, 
in the canes ; during the winter they set them on fire, but during the sum- 
mer it is necessary to cut them to be able to cabin there. The Indian vil- 
lage is up the country; from thence to the Great Tonicas it is ten or twelve 
leagues by the Mississippi ; but by land there is nothing but a mere neck 
which separates the two villages. Formerly they made a portage, crossing 
the land. They still call this passage the portage of the Cross. The river 
had penetrated this point, and inundated it entirely during these great 
floods, and it was this place that we had to cross the next day, that is to 
say, a distance of two leagues, to avoid the ten leagues which it would be 
necessary to go if we continued our route by the Mississippi. We accord- 
ingly took an Indian at the Little Tonicas to act as our guide. 

"On the 10th we entered these woods, this sea, this torrent, for it is all 
these at once. Our guide, whose language none of us understood, addressed 
us by signs ; one interpreted these in one way, and another in a different 
way, so that we did everything at hazard. However, when a person has 
entered these woods, it is necessary to go on or perish ; for if he allows him- 
self to get into the current for the purpose of returning, the rapid stream 
will certainly dash the boat against a tree, which will break it into a thou- 
sand pieces. If it had not been for that, we should have retired from such 
an evil undertaking immediately, as soon as we saw ourselves embarked in it. 
It was necessary unceasingly to turn about the boat in a zigzag course to 
prevent the bows from striking against the trees; and we often found it 
wedged between two trees which did not give it sufficient space to pass, con- 



?art i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 119 

trary to the expectation of those who steered it. Now there was a torrent 
of which the entrance was almost closed by a raft, or perhaps by two trees 
of great length and enormous thickness, prostrated across the two banks of 
the current, and which rendered it more impetuous ; now, the entrance would 
be entirely barred by a single tree, and it was necessary to change our direc- 
tion at the risk of finding the same obstacle a moment afterward or of not 
finding sufficient water, but instead of it, mud and brambles. Then, it be- 
came necessary to push on the boat by main strength. Often one of our 
people was obliged to spring into the water even to his neck, to go and make 
fast the boat to a tree which extended out, so that if the strength of the cur- 
rent should exceed that of the oars, and cause the boat to recede, it might 
not dash itself against a tree. Our own boat ran the greatest risk ; it began 
to fill in a current which had forced it back, and we saw in a moment that 
it was going to sink. The strength of the oars saved us, and by good for- 
tune there happened not to be at that place either raft or uprooted trees. 
After having passed another, which only left a space the size of the boat, it 
remained for a moment immovable between the strength of the current and 
that of the oars ; we did not know whether it was going to advance or be 
driven back, that is to say, for a moment we were vibrating between life and 
death ; for if the oars had yielded to the strength of the current, we should 
have gone back to be dashed against a large tree which almost entirely 
barred the current. Our people in the other boat, who had passed before us, 
waited in a sad and mournful silence, and uttered a loud cry of joy when 
they saw us out of danger. I should never end if I were to recount to you 
all the toils of this day. The passage is well named the passage of the Cross, 
and a voyager who knows what it is, and does not decline attempting it, even 
if he should escape its dangers, merits a place in a madhouse. And by this 
side cut they abridge the voyage but a very short day's sail. The Lord 
saved our lives, and we at last reached the end and succeeded in accomplish- 
ing these two fatal leagues. 

" "We arrived then at four or five in the evening at the Great Tonicas. 
The chief of this nation came to the bank of the river to receive us, grasped 
our hands, embraced us, spread out a mat and some skins before the cabin, 
and invited us to sleep there. Then he presented us with a large plate of 
blackberries, and a manne (that is, a basket) of green beans. It was truly 
a feast for us ; for the passage of the Cross had not permitted us to stop for 
dinner. 

" On the 11th we passed the night for the last time in the boat. On the 
12th we cabined at Ecors Manes, and on the 13th at Natchez. We immedi- 
ately made our visit to the Reverend Father Philibert, a Capuchin, who is 
the Cure\ He is a man of good sense, who was not frightened at seeing us, 
as his brethren had been at New Orleans ; in other respects, he is a man of 
worth and very zealous. We afterward descended to the bank of the river 
to make there our baires. 



120 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

" The French settlement at Natchez has become very important. They 
raise there a great deal of tobacco, which is esteemed the best in the 
country. 

" We left Natchez on the 17th, and embarked, the Father Dumas and 
myself, in a boat which went out on a hunting expedition. Our people had 
not yet prepared their provisions, that is to say, they had not purchased and 
pounded their corn. 

" As the flats now began to be seen, we found there the eggs of the turtle, 
which were a new feast for us. These eggs are a little larger than pigeon's 
eggs, and are found in the sand of the flats, where the sun hatches them. 
The tracks which the turtles leave, enable us to discover the places where 
they have concealed their eggs. They are found in great quantities, and 
are made into omelettes, which are much relished by people who are accus- 
tomed to eat nothing but gru. 

" They reckon the distance from New Orleans to Natchez at nearly a hun- 
dred leagues, and from Natchez to Yatous* at forty. We made this second 
passage without any other adventure, except that during one night we were 
overtaken by a violent storm, accompanied with thunder and lightning. You 
may judge whether a person is well protected from the rain under the cover- 
ing of a single cloth. The next day an Indian who was ascending the river 
with us went on shore for the purpose of hunting. We continued our route, 
but had scarcely gone half a league when he appeared on the bank with a 
deer on his shoulders. We therefore cabined on the first flat we came to, 
for the purpose of drying our clothes and making a great feast. These re- 
pasts, which take place after a good chase, are perfectly savage in the way 
they are conducted, though nothing can be more pleasant. The animal is in 
pieces in a moment ; nothing is lost ; our voyagers place it on the fire or in the 
pot, each one according to his taste ; their fingers and some little sticks sup- 
ply the place of all kinds of utensils for cooking and for the table. To see 
them covered only with a cloth round the loins, more athletic, more browned 
than the Indians themselves, stretched out on the sand or squatting down 
like monkeys, and eating what they hold in their hands, one can scarcely 
know whether it is a troop of gypsies, or of people who are assisting at a 
witch festival. 

" On the 23d we arrived at Yatons, a French post within two leagues of 
the mouth of the river of that name, which empties into the Mississippi. 
There is an officer with the title of Commander, together with a dozen sol- 
diers, and three or four planters. The grant of M. le Blanc was at this 
place, but it has gone to ruin like the others. The ground is elevated by 
mounds; little of it is cleared, and the air is, they say, unwholesome. The 
Commander, in honor of our arrival, fired off all the artillery of the fort, 
which consists of two pieces of very small cannon. The fort is a barrack in 

f Yazoo River. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 121 

which the Commander lodges, surrounded by a single palisade, but 'well de- 
fended by the situation of the place. He received us in a very friendly way, 
and we cabined in his court-yard. 

" On the 26th we reembarked, the Father Dumas and myself. From 
Yatous to the Akensas they reckon the distance at sixty leagues. We ar- 
rived there on the 7th of July, without any other adventure than having 
made a great feast of bear's meat, which one of our people had procured in 
the chase. 

"After having walked about the eighth of a league, we arrived at the 
French dwellings. I was lodged in the house of the Company of the Indies, 
which was that of the Commander when he is here, and found with great 
satisfaction that I was at the end of these two hundred leagues which I had 
to accomplish. I would rather twice make the voyage which we had just 
finished on the sea at the same season, than to recommence this one. The 
Father Dumas was only in the middle of his route to go to the Illinois, and 
embarked again on the morning after his arrival ; from this place to the Illi- 
nois country he did not find a single habitation, but they scarcely ever failed 
to kill some buffaloes, which very well made amends to people who had 
nothing to live on but some gru. 

" I have now reached the end of my long and tedious narrative." 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE BOTTOMS AND BLUFFS OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI RIVER, ABOVE ITS DELTA. 

In continuing to ascend the Mississippi, or great synclinal axis of the 
Interior Valley, it will facilitate the study of its medical topography and 
hydrography to divide it into natural sections, the limits of which may, on 
the whole, be tolerably well defined. The following are the divisions which 
it will be convenient to make — 

The Tensas, or Concordia bottom, 

The Yazoo bottom, 

The St. Francis bottom, 

The American bottom, 

The Upper Mississippi. 



122 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 

SECTION I. 

THE TENSAS OR CONCORDIA BOTTOM. 

This Bottom, with but little modification of character, extends from the 
mouth of Red River to the diluvial bluffs, in the rear of the town of Helena, 
about ninety miles above the mouth of Arkansas River. It lies entirely on 
the western side of the Mississippi, and is about five hundred miles long. 
Its range of latitude is from thirty- one to thirty-four and a half degrees 
north. In general its lower half is wider than its upper, except where the 
Arkansas and White Rivers traverse the latter. 

Through its whole length, near the Mississippi, there are beautiful crescent- 
shaped lakes, the obsolete beds of large bayous or divisions of the river, if 
not of the whole stream. These, and many other lakes, lagoons, and exten- 
sive swamps, are, every spring and early summer, replenished with water ; 
for although levees have been thrown up, they never wholly prevent an inun- 
dation. There are, moreover, some other sources of supply, which must not 
be overlooked. First. Water escapes from the Arkansas River into this 
Bottom. Second. It is traversed by the Washita, which descends upon it 
from the highlands to the west, and often overflows its banks. Third. 
When the Mississippi is swollen, its waters flow up Red River, and then 
ascend Black River, the Washita, and other streams which originate in the 
Bottom, and thus effect an overflow of its southern portion. By the same out- 
let, when the great river subsides, a large portion of the diffused water is 
drained off. Thus the river Boeuff has its origin in the largest and most 
northern of the lakes, called Villemonts, an old river, and discharges its 
waters into the Washita. Further down we have the origins of the river 
Tensas, which, as it flows to the south, is reinforced from Lake Providence, 
Lake Joseph, Lake Concordia, Lake Lovelace, and many smaller lakes and 
streams, before it unites with the Washita. Near their junction, the outlet 
of Catahoola Lake, lying to the west, likewise enters the Washita, after 
which the common trunk, under the name of Black River, discharges its 
waters into Red River, thirty miles from the Mississippi. Thus, while none 
of the water which escapes laterally from the bed of the Mississippi, below 
the mouth of Red River, ever returns, but reaches the Gulf by new chan- 
nels which traverse the Delta ; that which leaves the Mississippi between 
Arkansas and Red Rivers, is restored to the parent stream through the 
latter ; after having inundated the Concordia Bottom. The levees designed 
for the protection of this Bottom, can never be as effective as those within 
the Delta. The range between high and low-water marks is much greater ; 
and hence, when the river is falling, the saturated banks, lashed by the 
waves produced by winds and steamboats, crumble in and carry with them 
portions of the levee. The materials of which the levee is formed are, 
moreover, less argillaceous and adhesive, and therefore more readily give 
way under the pressure of water. Thus, this long and otherwise exceed- 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 123 

ingly valuable tract of alluvion, is not likely to sustain a dense population, or 
to be relieved from the consequences, to health, of a yearly inundation. 

The eastern boundary of this Bottom is the Mississippi ; its western, as 
Professor Forshey informed me, is a diluvial terrace, beyond which rises a 
higher tertiary or cretaceous plain, covered with pine woods. That gentle- 
man has published a map of the long parish of Concordia, extending from 
the mouth of Red River to a point nearly opposite Vicksburg, which beauti- 
fully illustrates the hydrography of this Bottom, by displaying its labyrinth 
of lakes, bayous, and cypress swamps. A section of this map, opposite the 
city of Natchez, constitutes PL VII 

Nearly all the redeemed and habitable land of this Bottom is found along 
the Mississippi, the larger bayous, and the numerous crescentic lakes. The 
population is altogether rural, and the staple of agriculture, cotton. The 
few villages which are scattered here and there, are of limited population, 
and can scarcely be regarded as diversifying the condition or character of its 
inhabitants. 

In ascending the Mississippi from Red River, we have, first, Viclalia, oppo- 
site Natchez; then Columbia, sixty miles below the mouth of Arkansas River ; 
Napoleon, higher up ; and lastly, Helena, at the head of the Bottom, ninety 
miles above Red River. Of the first, something may be said when describing 
Natchez. The second is the largest of the whole, but I have not the mate- 
rials for a description. The last two are so inconsiderable in size as not to 
merit special notices, even if I could give them. 

Settled long since the Delta, the inhabitants of the Concordia Bottom are 
chiefly Americans ; and the plantations are much newer than those of the 
coast below. To this cause, in part, at least, it may be owing that, although 
further north, they are decidedly more liable to autumnal fever (including 
malignant cases) than the people of the Delta. The plantations which have 
been longest cultivated are the healthiest. The most salubrious are those on 
the margin of the Mississippi, and its obsolete beds, the crescentic lakes. 
Yellow fever, I believe, has never invaded these plantations. 



SECTION II. 

THE TENSAS BOTTOM CONTINUED — LOCALITIES ON ITS BLUFFS. 
Of the bluffs on the western side of the Tensas Bottom, I know too little 
to venture on a description ; which, however, is not particularly required, as 
their population is sparse ; but those on the eastern side, support several 
flourishing towns, which are of decided interest to the topographical etiologist. 
These bluffs, as we ascend the Mississippi from Bayou Sara, described on 
page 111, increase in hight until we reach Vicksburg, and are everywhere 
composed of loose tertiary deposits, which the river undermines and washes 
away. From their summits the Concordia Bottom presents a vast grove of 



124 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

cypress, liquidambar, and other forest trees, with a range of cotton fields on 
the right bank of the river. In describing their localities, I shall begin with 
that which lies furthest down the river. 

I. Fort Adams. — This village, as its name imports, was formerly a mili- 
tary post, but is now an important steamboat landing, with a population of 
three hundred souls. It stands seventy miles above Bayou Sara, and twelve 
above the mouth of Ked River. The Mississippi at this place approaches so 
near the bluffs, that many of the houses are built on its rugged declivity ; 
the rest being near the water's edge. Of the liability of this place to 
autumnal fever I cannot speak ; and have introduced this notice because it 
has suffered from yellow fever. 

II. Natchez. — No city in the Mexican or Southern Basin has had as many 
able medical historians as Natchez. Since Commissioner Andrew Ellicott 
sojourned there, through the summer of 1797, and made the first report on 
its diseases, * we have had Doctor Perlee, f Doctor Tooley, J Doctor Cart- 
wright, || Doctor Merrill, § and Doctor Monette, ^f who may be considered as 
having exhausted the subject. The causes of its having received so much 
attention are, its early settlement and former political and commercial distinc- 
tion, together with its frequent and fatal invasions by yellow fever. 

Natchez {PI. VII) is situated in N. Lat. 31° 33' 37", and W. Lon. 
91° 28' 22"- The elevation of its site, according to Mr. Nicollet, is two 
hundred and sixty four feet above the sea, and one hundred and seventy- 
eight above the river at low water ; which, consequently, is eighty- six feet 
above the Gulf of Mexico. In approaching Natchez the Mississippi flows 
nearly to the south, and when opposite turns to the west. The streets which 
rest upon the river, run to the south-east, and are intersected by others at 
right angles. The first of the latter class is not on the margin of the bluff, 
and thus there is, between that margin and the city plat, a promenade or nar- 
row commons. The terrace on which the city is built, consists of alternate lay- 
ers of tertiary sand and clay, with deposits of oceanic shells, the whole sur- 
mounted with a stratum of loamy marl, containing the debris of plants. 
Well-water cannot be obtained by digging into these strata, and hence, the 
water used by the inhabitants is, either, from the river, or out of cisterns 
filled during the rainy season.** The surface originally rugged, has, however, 
been leveled by art ; an enterprise which required a great deal of excavation 
and filling up. ft The country immediately around the city is high and deeply 
cut by ravines, which are destitute of water in dry weather, but convey tor- 



* Journal of Andrew Ellicott, late Commissioner, chapter 9, p. 4 to 288. 

t Phil. Jour. Med. Phys. Sci. Vol. Ill, p. 1. 

t Hist, of the Yellow Fever of Natchez in 1823. 

|| Arner. Med. Rec. Vol. IX. p. 1. § Phil. Jour. Vol. IX, p. 233. 

IT Essay on the Ep. Yel. Fev. of Natchez. 

** Doctor Cartwright. ft Doctor Merrill. 



PL. VII 




part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 125 

rents of water during the rainy season. * To the west of the city, one of 
these ravines, and a depression in the bluff from a slide into the bed of the 
river, were for many years receptacles for dead animals and offal of all sorts; 
and in a gully between them and the city, there was a collection of butch- 
eries, f The water which falls on the town plat, is chiefly collected into two 
bayous. One originates west of the town, the other to its south-east, and 
converging, they meet and flow off by a common channel to St. Catharine's 
Creek, a larger stream, which passes, by a south-west course, within three 
miles of the city, to the Mississippi river below. There are no alluvions 
along the bayous which drain the city plat, but they are or have been the 
receptacles of a great deal of filth. | 

Natchez in the Country, as the vicinity of the city is colloquially called, 
presents a highly cultivated and beautiful aspect, with here and there a small 
pond, sometimes the work of art, designed to supply stock water for the 
plantations. 

Xatchez under the Hill, the name given to the steam and flatboat landing, 
is a narrow and filthy slip of alluvion, which stretches for some distance 
along the base of the rugged bluff, in front of the city, and is liable to inun- 
dation in high floods. The population is compact but not numerous. ^ 

Vidalia. — Opposite to Natchez, in the Tensas Bottom, is the small and 
pleasant village of Vidalia, the seat of justice for the parish of Concordia in 
Louisiana. It consists of a single street lying immediately behind the levee. 
Opposite the middle of the village, the street and levee are near the river ; 
but above they recede from it, to keep on ground sufficiently high, and in front 
of them there is a depression of considerable extent, which is annually over- 
flowed. Three miles in its rear, is one extremity of the beautiful crescent 
lake, Concordia, which, protected by levees, is no longer filled to repletion by 
the river floods. Its banks are in a high state of cultivation. 

"Washington. — This town is six miles north-east of Natchez, and does not 
belong to the river bluffs; but having been visited by yellow fever, maybe de- 
scribed in connection with Natchez. Doctor Monette§ speaks of it, in 1827, 
as situated on an elevated undulating plain, well drained and dry, without 
swamps or stagnant water of any kind in its neighborhood. In 1844, I 
found this description correct; and I may add, that the spot on which 
it stands is tertiary, and identical in composition with the site of Natchez. 
The country around it is rolling and highly cultivated. The village, although 
one of the oldest in the state of Mississippi, is small and scatteringly built. 
Thus there are no topographical conditions in or around it, to prevent its 
being adequately washed by rains, and ventilated by winds. 

Diseases. — Both Natchez and Washington have been, and still are, subject 
to autumnal fever, which annually assumes an epidemic character, and is 



* Doctor Cartwright. f Doctor Tooley. { Doctor Cartwright. 

§ Western Med. and Phys. Journal (Cincinnati), Vol. I, p. 74. 



126 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

oftener fatal than in the bottom on the opposite side of the river : it is, how- 
ever, their liability to yellow fever, as already intimated, which gives to their 
topography its greatest interest. * 

History. — There are with Natchez and its vicinity, associations and recol- 
lections which tempt me to devote a paragraph to its annals. Here it was 
that the Natchez, the most civilized tribe of Indians in the Valley of the 
Mississippi, had their permanent residence ; and on or near the place where 
the city is bnilt, stood the Temple of the Sim, in which they maintained a 
perpetual fire — the object of their worship. On the spots where cotton is 
now planted, they cultivated maize, beans, pumpkins, and melons; com- 
pressed the occiputs of their children; 'paid their physicians in advance' — 
their medicines being ' small roots of different kinds, heads of owls, small par- 
cels of the hair of fallow-deer, the teeth of animals, and pebble stones.' * 
The first white man who went among them was St. Come, a French Catholic 
Missionary from Canada. Soon afterward, in March, 1700, they were visited 
by Iberville, from the French settlement on Biloxi Bay. He was kindly re- 
ceived by the Great Chief — who was Master of the Temple and Brother of 
the Sun. Iberville, delighted with the spot, projected a town, which he 
named Rosalie, — the first ever planned on the banks of the Mississippi. 
Thus Natchez was settled in the second year after the arrival of the French on 
the shores of Louisiana, and eighteen years before New Orleans. f On the 28th 
of November, 1728, the Indians massacred all the white men of the colony 
save two, (whom they purposely kept as prisoners), and a few others who 
escaped into the woods. They likewise destroyed all the children, amount- 
ing in the whole to two hundred; and distributing the women among the 
tribe, reduced them to servitude.! In the month of February, 1730, the 
French, assisted by the Choctaw Indians, in retaliation, either killed or dis- 
persed the whole tribe. Those who escaped, assembled on Red River, where 
they were made prisoners, and shipped to Hispaniola as slaves. || After this 
extermination, the spot was repeopled with French. In 1763, Louisiana 
passed from France to Spain, but the east bank of the river above the thirty- 
first degree of latitude, including Natchez, of course, was acknowledged by 
France to belong to Great Britain. In the same year, Spain ceded Florida 
to that power. For sixteen years after these cessions, Natchez was in pos- 
session of England, during which it received many adventurers from that 
country, and also from Ireland, Scotland, and the colonies, now United 
States. In 1769, the Spaniards took possession of it; and thus a Spanish 
element was added to the already heterogeneous population. In 1783, Great 
Britain relinquished Florida to Spain, the latter still retaining possession of 



* Father Le Petit: Early Jesuit Missions, part II, p. 280. 
\ Histoire de la Louisiane, Vol. I. Par C. Gayarre. 
% Father Le Petit, in the Early Jesuit Missions, part II, p. 285. 
|| Bancroft's History of the Col. of the U. S., Vol. Ill, p. 363. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 127 

Natchez. In 1795, however, she agreed by treaty to yield it to the United 
States, though she did not surrender it until 1798, immediately after which 
it began rapidly to acquire an American population, while mauy of the 
Spaniards simultaneously left it. * 

Thus we see, that Natchez and its vicinity are not newly settled places, in 
transitu from a state of nature to one of cultivation ; for large portions of 
their forest have been cut down, and the soil beneath broken up and tilled, for 
more than a century ; thus affording a favorable opportunity for comparing 
their diseases with those of neighboring places, which have been but lately 
redeemed from the wilderness ; and disclosing the influence of cultivation on 
the salubrity of soils of the same kind, in the same latitudes; while we learn 
that the population is a mixture of French, Spanish, English, Scotch, Irish, 
and Americans, — the last having come, at length, greatly to predominate 
over all the former. 

III. Rodney. — This village, forty miles above Natchez, on the same side 
of the river, in N. Lat. 31° 30', is built on the upper and northern extrem- 
ity of a narrow bottom, which widens to the south below the town, and at 
the same time becomes so low as to be overflowed when the river is in flood. 
Much of the bottom is wide enough for a single street only, with houses on 
each side ; but at its upper end a square is formed ; and the street on its 
southern side, starting from the river, passes up the deep bed of a rivulet. 
The water of this torrent, when swollen, passes through the village square, 
and under many of the houses ; but when not thus swollen it flows round the 
square to its north, and reaches the river through a deep and foul ravine 
immediately above the village. From February to July the water of the 
Mississippi stands in this chasm, which forms the boundary of the eastern 
and northern sides of the square, and prevents their being built upon to any 
considerable extent. The town was begun in the year 1823, and consists 
chiefly of wooden houses, many of which have their sills upon the ground 
and are destitute of cellars. The steamboat landing, situated opposite the 
lower part of the village, is considerably frequented, as Rodney is the port 
of a considerable region of country. Its population is about three hundred. 
It should be noted that although this place is ranked with the towns of the 
bluff, it stands upon a narrow bottom. Rodney suffers from autumnal fever 
in common with other towns along the Mississippi; and in 1843, it expe- 
perienced a severe visitation of yellow fever. 

Immediately above Rodney, there is a recess in the bluff, apparently from 
slides into the river. To the water in this recess, the early French voyagers 
gave the name of Petit Golfe. A village was begun here about the same 
time with Rodney, and acquired ten families ; but the malignity of its au- 
tumnal fever was so great, that it was abandoned for Rodney.f 

IV. Grand Gulf. — The town of Grand Gulf stands sixteen miles above 



Ellicott's Journal, p. 129. t J- A. Watkins, MSS. penes me. 



128 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Rodney, and a mile below the mouth of Big Black, a navigable tributary of the 
Mississippi- Between this embouchure and the town, there is a promontory 
of tertiary rocks, against which the Mississippi, flowing nearly to the east, 
impinges, and is thrown off to the south with a very strong current. This 
creates an eddy or counter-current in front of the town. The space between 
this promontory and the mouth of Big Black river, received from the 
French the name of Grand Golfe ; and hence, by a solecism, the name of 
the town. As the bluff stretches off to the south-east, and the river flows 
to the south south-west, the town is built in the angle formed by their 
divergence, on the head or upper end of a plain, which is above high water 
mark of the river, except in its greatest floods ; but which, as it widens, sinks 
lower, so as to become inundated even within sight of the town. A cypress 
swamp, in fact, commences there, and continues for six or seven miles down 
the Mississippi, to the mouth of Bayou Pierre. Thus, while the immediate 
and ample site of the town is dry, even during great floods, and is at all 
times one of the most pleasant on the lower Mississippi, the bottom to its 
south-west is uninhabitable, by reason of the annual overflows which spread 
upward from the mouth of the stream just mentioned. The exhalations 
from this paludal tract, are wafted by the prevalent south-west winds of 
summer and autumn directly over the town; but within its own borders 
there are fewer accumulations of decomposable, organic matter, than in most 
the towns on the lower Mississippi. Being an importing and exporting town of 
for a considerable tract of country, steamboats land here almost daily. 
Autumnal fever is an annual epidemic at this place ; but it has never suffered 
an invasion of yellow fever. 

Y. Vicksburg — is situated on the eastern side of the Mississippi river, 
about fifty miles above Grand Gulf, sixty-five above Natchez, and four hundred 
and fifteen from New Orleans, on what were formerly called the Walnut Hills, 
in N. Lat. 32° 24'. While the Spaniards had possession of the left bank of 
the river, they maintained at this place a fort called Noyales. * The city dates 
back no further than the year 1819. Its site, the most rugged on the lower 
Mississippi, is a group of tertiary hills rising about three hundred and fifty feet 
above the level of the sea. They were deeply cut into by ravines, which 
have been extensively filled up by the graduation of the streets — a work 
which was commenced in the latter part of the year 1836, and continued 
through 1837, and 1838 ; during which the leveling necessary to a railroad 
depot, and a track leading into the country, was executed. The stratum cut 
through in these excavations, in some places to the depth of fifty feet, was a 
yellowish, friable, tertiary loam. The quantity removed was greater, perhaps, 
than in any other town on the Mississippi River. Originally both the landing 
place and the business houses, were on the upper part of the narrow bottom ; 
but a better landing below, has transferred the business; and in 1844, I saw 

* Ellicott. 



part I.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 129 

many deserted and decaying houses, with the high waters of the river in 
and around them. The river shore, also, abounded in sunken, or abandoned 
and moldering flatboats; the whole tract, in short, was extremely foul. Im- 
mediately above this spot, to the north, is the begiuning of the overflowed 
bottom, through which Yazoo River makes its way into the Mississippi. 
On the opposite side of the latter, is the low Tensas Bottom, which has been 
described, and which is liable to annual submersion. The population of the 
city is between three and four thousand, the greater part of whom reside on 
the slopes or summits of the bluff. Vicksburg is liable to severe invasions 
of autumnal fever, and has several times been visited by yellow fever. 



SECTION II. 

THE YAZOO BOTTOM. 
I. This bottom, lying on the east side of the Mississippi, has its lower half (or 
two-thirds) opposite the upper half of the Tensas Bottom. In ascending the 
river from Vicksburg, where it may be said to commence, we sail north north- 
west, for nearly half its length, and then north north-east, for the remainder. 
The river bank, through the whole extent of this western boundary, is so low 
as to be overflowed wherever levees are not erected ; and there is but one village 
upon it — namely, Princeton, situated about one hundred miles above Vicks- 
burg. The eastern boundary is, in its curve, not unlike the western. It 
commences where the tertiary bluffs begin to recede from the river, just above 
Vicksburg, and ends when they return to it, a short distance below Memphis. 
These bluffs, in the southern part tertiary, in the northern cretaceous, every- 
where constitute the eastern limit of the bottom. Its widest portion lies 
between Marion, Carroll county, Mississippi, and Columbia, Chicot county, 
Arkansas, or a little higher up, and consequently near the latitude of the 
mouth of the Arkansas River. The diameter of the ellipse at this point 
cannot be less than sixty miles ; and when we extend the line to the west, 
across the Tensas Bottom to the terminal uplands of Arkansas, we have at 
least eighty miles as the breadth of the interval, or high water-trough of the 
Mississippi, in the latitude of thirty-three degrees thirty minutes. The 
hydrography of this bottom is more simple than that of the two over which 
we have traveled. Before levees were thrown up, the Mississippi, in every 
high flood, poured a sheet of water over its left bank upon this bottom ; and 
even in moderate swells, sent out several streams, which replenished its 
crescent lakes — Washington, Swan, Bolivar, Horse-Shoe, and Horn; from 
which lakes bayous flow off through the interior of the bottom. It also 
sends off bayous, especially from its upper part, which may be regarded as 
the true sources of some of its rivers. Through these bayous, the surface 
of the bottom generally, is still liable to inundation, while the levees along 
9 



130 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the bank of the Mississippi, and also those of the principal bayous, have 
redeemed many slips of land, which have been brought under cultivation. 
Nevertheless, the amount of population in this immense tract of interval 
land, is very little, compared with its area. 

The great, or rather the only river of the bottom is the Yazoo, which 
joins the Mississippi twelve miles above Yicksburg. In the upper part of 
the bottom several bayous flow out of the Mississippi, the largest of which, 
riot far below Helena, is called the Yazoo Pass. Its course is south-east 
across the bottom to the cretaceous bluffs, where it unites with the Talla- 
hatchee, which has descended from the adjacent uplands. The common 
trunk now turns to the south, and flows near the bluffs almost to the Missis- 
sippi. On its way many tributaries from the hills flow into it. On the 
other side it is, near its mouth, augmented by the Sun Flower. The origin 
of this large tributary, is nearly as far north as that of the Yazoo ; and, like 
the latter, it begins as a bayou of the Mississippi. In flowing on to the 
south it is reinforced by other bayous, directly from the great river, or indi- 
rectly from the crescent lakes. Its banks generally are overflowed during 
the freshets of the parent stream. It is the central stream of the bottom. Its 
junction with the Yazoo, is about sixty miles from the confluence of the latter 
with the Mississippi, near the village of Satartia. 

In the month of July, 1844, I ascended the Yazoo to the city of Yazoo, 
formerly called Manchester, a distance of one hundred miles; the Mississippi 
being at the time near its extreme hight. Soon after entering the Yazoo, 
we found ourselves in a crescent lake ; then succeeded a*vista through the 
trees, which was from one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty yards 
in width, and afforded almost the only indication of the bed of the river, so 
entirely were its banks submerged. Occasionally the bluffs were to be seen 
through the dense forest of cotton trees, sweet gum, pecan, black willow, 
sycamore, and cypress, the two latter, however, in reduced proportions. 
Cane-brakes now and then appeared. Climbing vines, such as the Rhus 
toxicodendron, Bignonia radicans, and a gigantic Smilax, overspread the limbs 
of the trees and bent them to the water, where their leaves floated like the 
foliage of aquatic plants. On every side the inundation was perfect, and, in 
fact, extended, with but little dry land, to the Mississippi, distant thirty or 
forty miles to the west. Such is the annual condition of this bottom in May, 
June, or July of every year. When the flood of the Mississippi sub- 
sides, this vast, temporary, and shallow lake is drained through the Yazoo ; 
and before the month of September, much of the surface becomes so dry as 
to shrink until fissures are produced in the new deposits. The physicians of 
Yicksburg informed me, that those who travel or work in this bottom in 
autumn, are subject to very malignant attacks, which they are accustomed to 
call the 'Yazoo swamp fever.' But Doctor Mills, of Yazoo City, who had 
practiced many years at Satartia on the bluffs, informed me that he found 
the fevers of the uplands as violent as those in the bottom. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 131 

Of the towns situated on this long line of cretaceous bluffs, most of which 
are new and far up the Yazoo, I can say nothing except of the 

II. City of Yazoo. — Its site, in N. Lat. 32° 40' is a gentle slope, which as- 
cends gradually from high water mark to the summit of the bluff, in an east- 
erly direction. Immediately across the river there are drowned lands. The 
city plat is dry, elevated, and beautiful ; but directly exposed to the western, 
south-western, and north-western winds, all of which traverse the bottom. 
The steamboat landing is much frequented, as this is the point to which the 
cotton of the back country is brought for exportation, and at which supplies 
for the same region are landed. « 

Autumnal fever prevails at l^azoo, but not be} r ond the degree of its preva- 
lence on the uplands in the rear of the town ; and although genuine and fatal 
cases of yellow fever have been introduced from the towns below, the disease 
has never spread. During the prevalence of that fever in Vicksburg, the 
intercourse with Yazoo has always been unrestricted, but the latter has 
never suffered a visitation. 



SECTION III. 

THE ST. FRANCIS BOTTOM. 

I. The St. Francis Bottom begins at the dividing waters between the 
mouths of White River and the River St. Francis, at a point not far below 
the town of Helena, and extends up the west side of the river, through four 
hundred miles of river distance, and more than three degrees of latitude, to 
the low hills, on which has been- built the new town of Commerce, thirty 
miles above the mouth of the Ohio River. Its principal river is the St. 
Francis, which, originating on the high lands of Missouri, in the rear of Ste. 
Genevieve, Cape Girardeau, and Commerce, enters the bottom near its head, 
and joins the Mississippi not far above the town of Helena, in the state of Ar- 
kansas. It has one large tributary, the Whitewater River, which flows for 
a considerable distance nearly parallel to it on its left or Mississippi side. 
When the Mississippi is in flood, an immense discharge of water takes place 
over its right bank into this bottom, to be returned by the St. Francis. 
Most of this bottom is a forest of cotton-wood, and other trees of the 
middle latitudes which delight in wet and fertile soils. It also has extensive 
cane-brakes. It seems almost unnecessary to say that such a bottom 
abounds in small lakes, lagoons, bayous, and extensive swamps, representa- 
tions of which may be seen in PI. VIII. The most extensive tracts of 
marsh are found along the middle portions of the St. Francis, on Whitewater 
River, and between them ; in many parts of which, the depth of water is too 
great for the growth of trees, which are replaced by aquatic grasses, and 
other herbaceous plants, which flourish in such localities. To the west, the 
bluffs which terminate this bottom, rise with considerable rapidity into the 



132 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book r. 

Ozark Mountains. These bluffs are but thinly peopled, and the general sur- 
face of the bottom has a population equally sparse. Even the right bank of 
the Mississippi has but scattered plantations, and few or no levees. But two 
villages on this bank are of sufficient importance to be mentioned. 

II. Helena, in latitude about 34° 20', is remarkable for presenting us with 
the first land higher than the river bank, which, in ascending the Mississippi 
from the Balize, a distance of more than eight hundred miles, is seen on 
its western side. The site of the town itself is higher than the banks above 
and below it ; while immediately back of it there are bluffs of consid- 
erable elevation. Whether they are the remains of an old diluvial deposit, 
or portions of the cretaceous formation, I am unable to state. 

III. New Madrid. — This village was a military post under the Spanish 
regime. It is situated eleven hundred and fifteen miles from the Balize, and 
one hundred below the mouth of the Ohio, in Lat. 36° 34' 30" N. and Lon. 
89° 27' 15" W. Its population is small ; yet it has claims on the consideration 
of the medical etiologist, as standing in the focus of the only series of earth- 
quakes, which have agitated the Interior Valley of North America, since its 
discovery. Beginning on the 16th of December, 1811, they continued for 
the next three years, during which time but few days passed in succession, 
without repeated vibrations at this place and its neighborhood. Those 
vibrations produced in the town and the surrounding region some remarkable 
topographical and hydrographical changes ; which, with an inquiry into the 
influence of the whole series of earthquakes on the health of the people, 
may perhaps constitute the subject of a distinct Section. 

The scattered inhabitants of the St. Francis Bottom are, of course, sub- 
ject to autumnal fevers, which often assume a malignant character; and 
returns of the intermittent form of the disease, throughout the succeeding 
winter and spring, are in many instances so frequent as to render emigration 
to some other point indispensable to recovery. As in the bottoms below, the 
people inhabiting the banks of the Mississippi are more healthy than those 
living on the streams and lakes of the interior. Yellow fever has never 
appeared either in Helena or New Madrid. 

Let us now cross the Mississippi, and examine its eastern shores. 
Beginning nearly opposite the lower part of the St. Francis Bottom, and 
ascending to the mouth of the Ohio River, we find a series of bluffs, which 
alternately approach to, and recede from, the Mississippi, with intervening 
bottom lands at the points of recession. 

The four lower of these bluffs lie in West Tennessee, and have received 
the name of Chickasaw, from the Indian tribe which once dwelt near or upon 
them. The three upper, called Mills' Point, the Chalk Banks, and the Iron 
Banks, arc in the western part of Kentucky. They all belong to the creta- 
ceous formation ; which, in its successive outcrops from the south, of course, 
presents at these bluffs, which lie progressively north of each other, some 



PLVIII 




part l] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 133 

strata not seen before. The only important town found on these bluffs 
I shall now describe. 

TV. Memphis. — The commercial metropolis of Tennessee ( PL VIII*), is 
built on the fourth or most southern Chickasaw bluff, at the distance of nine 
hundred miles from the Balize, in Lat. 35° 08' N, and Lon. 90° 06' W. Its 
elevation above the surface of the river at low water, is one hundred and 
seventy feet — over the Gulf of Mexico, four hundred. Its site is a 
bed of loam, belonging to the cretaceous formation. Unlike Vicksburg, 
Memphis occupies a gently undulating plain, on which there are some swales, 
but no ponds or swamps. Wells dug to the depth of from thirty to sixty 
feet, afford water which in most of them is very good, but in some, slightly sa- 
line and sulphurous. Immediately above the city, to the north, is the mouth 
of Wolf River, which has just before received the Loosahatchee, also from 
the north. The bottoms of this small river are wide, and subject to inunda- 
tion both from its own floods and those of the Mississippi; but, except at its 
mouth, they are too distant from the city to exert any influence on its health. 
They lie, moreover, to the north-east. At, and immediately below the mouth 
of Wolf River, opposite the town as it was originally built, the water, at its 
lowest depression ( which is forty-two feet from its greatest hight ), was for- 
merly deep enough for steamboats to land, and portions of the bluff some- 
times slid into the river ; but in 1 829, an eddy began to form, and deposits 
have been so rapidly made, that many acres are now, like the batture at New 
Orleans, above ordinary high water mark, and the steamboat wharf has of 
necessity been moved half a mile below ; causing an extension, and, in some 
degree, a transfer of the city in that direction. West of the town, on the 
opposite side of the river, is the St. Francis Bottom, of which a vertical 
section is given in PL VIII. 

Memphis deserves the attention of the medical historian on several 
accounts : 

1. For the last few years it has increased in population with unequaled 
rapidity, and promises to become a large city. Its population is exceedingly 
mixed, and thus presents a great variety of constitutions. 

2. It has been made, by the General Government, the site of a Navy Yard, 
which is situated at the mouth of Wolf River. 

3. The cretaceous bluffs on one side of the Mississippi, and the low allu- 
vial bottom on the other, afford to its physicians many opportunities for 
studying the comparative characters, prevalence, and type of autumnal fevers 
on the two kinds of surface. 

4. Its commerce with New Orleans is great, and steamboats make the 
upward voyage in four days, thus subjecting it to invasions of any and every 



* I am chiefly indebted to Doctor Shanks and Colonel Morrison of Memphis, and 
Doctor Borland of Arkansas, for the materials of this map, and the vertical section 
which it embraces. 



134 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

form of disease which may prevail in that city, and can be transmitted by 
boats. 

5. As its site is more exempt from topographical causes of fever than 
many other towns on the Mississippi, the question of the importation or local 
origin of any disease which may appear, is less complicated than elsewhere. 

6. Lastly: This is the highest point up the Mississippi, and the greatest 
elevation above the sea, at which yellow fever has yet occurred in the Interior 
Valley, and it has appeared here but once ; which was in the year 1828, 
when it prevailed as a mortal epidemic. 

V. Fort Pickering.— On the bluff, two miles below Memphis, is the site of 
old Fort Pickering; at which, attempts have been latterly made to build a 
town. Much of the tract is still covered with forest, and abounds in small 
shallow marshes or swales. Below it to the south there is a small stream, 
which enters the Mississippi on the south side of President's Island, which 
lies in sight of Fort Pickering. I was assured that this spot is more subject 
to autumnal fever than Memphis, even at the mouth of Wolf River. 

VI. Randolph. — This town is situated on the second Chickasaw Bluff, about 
seventy miles above Memphis. The bluff is. higher, and more uneven on its 
surface, than that of Memphis. Slides are apt to occur, and its escarpment 
is uncommonly rugged. W^hen visiting it, I observed the following strata, 
all belonging to the cretaceous formation. Beginning at the top, after a 
covering of soil, there is yellowish loam, becoming yellow ochre, with frag- 
ments of chert; at length growing foliaceous, and graduating into dark 
brown, shaly carbonaceous matter or lignite, underlaid with sand, and blue 
and yellow clay, mingled with shale. Slides of the bank prevented the ob- 
servation from being carried lower. The surface of the bluff, although, as I 
have said, more uneven than that of Memphis, is less cut up by ravines than 
the tertiary hills of Vicksburg; and from the argillaceous character of the 
upper stratum, the water which falls on it is apt to be retained in small 
swamps, the soil of which is rich and the vegetation luxuriant. Of its au- 
tumnal fevers, I cannot speak. 

Of the villages of Fulton, Mills' Point, and Columbus, on the bluffs above, 
I shall say nothing ; but pass on to the mouth of the Ohio River. Soon after 
leaving Columbus, on the Iron Banks, we reach the junction of the valley 
of the Ohio River with that of the Mississippi. In ascending the latter to 
the former, for twenty miles, the bottom constantly widens, and extends with 
a breadth of many miles, far up the Ohio. It is heavily timbered with cot- 
ton-wood and water-maple, and is so liable to inundation as to be in a great 
degree uninhabitable. Geologically, it lies on the subjacent carboniferous 
formation, immediately north of, or beyond the cretaceous strata. 

Above not lcsSj than below the Ohio, the bottom is wide and low, subject 
to overflows, and abounds in ponds and swamps. This, in fact, is the gene- 
ral character of the promontory above the junction of the Ohio and Missis- 
sippi ; and from their place of union to the rocky highlands of Illinois, the dis- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 135 

tance is ten or twelve miles. In continuing up the Mississippi, the bottom 
gradually narrows, at the same time becoming more elevated, and at length 
closes in upon the Mississippi about thirty miles above the Ohio, nearly op- 
posite the town of Commerce, or the head of the bottom on the western side 
of the river. A line drawn from that point on the Mississippi to a point 
twenty miles up the Ohio River, would have the highlands of Illinois on its 
north, and the bottom which has been described, on its south. The only 
spot within this low, paludal, and pondy tract, that merits the attention of the 
medical topographer, is Cairo, immediately above the junction of the two rivers. 

VII. Cairo. — The obvious value, to the steamboat navigation, of a town at 
the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, has led to expensive attempts at 
building one on the low cape, or peninsula, immediately above their conflu- 
ence. In its natural condition, this spot was subject, every spring, especi- 
ally when the two rivers were in flood at the same time, to an inundation, 
from one or two, to six or eight feet, according to the inequalities of the sur- 
face, and the night of the freshets. About the year 1838, a company of 
capitalists undertook to throw up levees on the banks of the two rivers, and 
another across the peninsula, so as to inclose a sort of triangular spacq, suf- 
ficient for a town and its environs. This enterprise has been ( imperfectly ) 
accomplished, and there is now a small, but not very flourishing village. A 
part of the plan was, to throw out the water which might fall within the in- 
closure, or percolate its banks while the rivers were high, by means of drains 
to the levee, and paddle-wheels similar to those employed for that purpose in 
the Delta of the Mississippi. In the year 1841, when I devoted a day to 
the study of the medical typography of this spot, a great number of Irish 
and German laborers were employed on the work ; and Doctor Cummings, the 
physician, who had spent two years among them, informed me, that they had 
suffered much from simple intermittent fever, into which they continued to 
relapse; but that malignant cases were not common. Whatever exemption 
from overflow the hand of labor may procure for the town plat, the drowned 
lands which surround it on every side, will forever subject it to autumnal fever. 

The distance of Cairo from the Balize, is twelve hundred and sixteen 
miles; its Lat. 37° 0' 25" N., and Lon. 89 ° 2' 30" W. Thus it stands 
seven degrees immediately north of New Orleans. The surface of rivers at 
low water opposite the town is between two hundred and ninety, and three 
hundred feet above the Gulf — that of the town plat is about forty more.* 

* Colonel Long ( First Expedit. ) had fixed, by estimation, on three hundred feet, 
for the low water level of the Mississippi and Ohio at their junction ; but Mr. Nicollet 
( Hydr. Basin ), from barumetical observations, afterwards placed it at three hundred 
and twenty-four feet. Two lines of leveling from Lake Erie to the Ohio River ( In- 
diana Reports) have, however, coincided in establishing three hundred and eleven feet, 
as its low water surface of that river opposite Evansville, two hundred miles from its 
mouth. Relying, as we ought, on these levelings, by which public works are con- 
structed, both Mr. Nicollet and Colonel Long have placed the mouth of the Ohio at 
too great an elevation. It cannot, in fact, exceed two hundred and ninety feet. 



136 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION IV. 

GENERAL REMARKS ON THE PRECEDING BOTTOMS. 

About thirty miles above Cairo, the St. Francis Bottom, as we have seen, 
is terminated by approximating rocky highlands. Beyond this point there is 
no other bottom at all comparable in width with those below. It may, in 
fact, be said that we have reached the vertex of the ancient estuary; whence 
it will be profitable to look back, for a moment, on the surface over which we 
have ascended. Three sections of this surface are represented in Pis. V, VII, 
VIII, and another (which illustrates the bottom above) may be found in 
PI. IX. By comparing these diagrams, it will be perceived that the same 
hydrographical system prevails in all, but becomes less and less complicated 
as we ascend the river. 

The area of this alluvial region, the most extensive in America, may be 
estimated, from the mouth of Bed Biver, in latitude thirty-one degrees, to 
the upper extremity of the St. Francis Bottom, in latitude thirty -seven 
degrees and a quarter, at about twenty thousand square miles. The distance 
on a straight line is about four hundred miles — by the river, upward of nine 
hundred. In running the whole distance, the river only once ( at Helena ) 
comes in sight of bluffs on the western side, but keeps near them on the 
east. They consist of two series ; the first extending from the Iron Banks 
below the Ohio Biver, to a point below Memphis — the second, from Vicksburg 
to a point below Baton Bouge. The upper are composed of cretaceous, the 
lower of tertiary deposits. Between these ranges of highlands, the river 
makes a western detour, and gives us the Yazoo Bottom on its eastern side. 
Why the stream, from the mouth of the Ohio to Baton Bouge, inclines so 
strongly to the eastern bluffs, cannot perhaps be told. 

The redemption from a watery dominion of this great alluvial region, in 
which the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Missouri, 
Kentucky* and Illinois participate, offers to the engineer and the physician, 
problems in which the public have a deep and varied interest. Without 
attempting their solution, I may venture the suggestion, that embankments 
alone will not answer, but that side channels, to relieve the main trunk, will 
be indispensable. The uppermost of these might be carried, from some point 
above the mouth of the Ohio, into Whitewater Biver, a branch of the St. 
Francis ; which river, thus augmented, would return the escaped water into 
the main trunk opposite the upper end of the Yazoo Bottom. Through that 
bottom one or more sluices might be made into the Yazoo Biver, which 
joins the Mississippi above Vicksburg opposite the Tensas Bottom. To 
obviate the effects of this restoration, other sluices might be made below 
the Arkansas, into the bayous that ultimately terminate in the Washita, 
which empties into Bed River. All the escaped water would thus, it is true, 
again be brought back into the main bed ; but relief might be given by widen- 
ing and deepening the bayous Atchafalaya, Plaquemine, Manchac, and La 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 137 

Fourche, which ultimately communicate with the Gulf. * "Without thus 
providing lateral and parallel channels, no system of embankments along the 
Mississippi, could, by possibility, be made strong and high enough to protect 
the bottoms from inundation. Of course the bauks of the auxiliary streams 
and sluices would require levees. In reflecting on the possibility of thus 
reclaiming this large tract, we must recollect that the fall from its upper 
extremity to the Gulf is more than three hundred feet ; and, of course, if arti- 
ficial channels of adequate capacity should be provided, no overflows would 
occur. It would aid in this work, however, in several places where the river 
makes detours and returns almost to the point of departure, to cut through 
the isthmus thus formed, whereby the length of the stream would be abridged, 
and the velocity of the current correspondingly increased. 

How long a period will elapse, before the population of the Interior Valley 
will be dense enough, to lead to the execution of such an extended system 
of protection from the floods of the Mississippi, and to the complete reclam- 
ation of the bottoms, cannot be predicted ; but whenever it shall be done, a 
signal increase of summer and autumnal salubrity must be the consequence ; 
and no portion of the Great Valley will then present more fertile soil^, and 
softer climates, or, taking the year throughout, more healthy residences, than 
the bottoms from the mouth of the Ohio to that of Red River. 



SECTION V. 

AMERICAN BOTTOM. 

I. Above the St. Francis Bottom, there are no large and continuous interval 
lands, until we approach the mouth of the Kaskaskia River, immediately 
above the village of Chester, which stands on carboniferous limestone, in the 
state of Illinois, about one hundred miles above Cairo. At this point we 
enter the American Bottom (PL IX). As this bottom ascends it gradually 
widens, until it attains, opposite St. Louis, the width of seven or eight miles. 
Its average width is about five miles. Its termination is at the bluffs of the 
town of Alton, twenty miles above St. Louis, and nearly opposite the mouth 
of Missouri River; making its length nearly one hundred miles. The imme- 
diate bank of the river is heavily wooded, but in the rear of this belt there 
is a great deal of prairie, abounding in sloughs, ponds, lakes, and bayous, 
which are replenished in spring, and partly dry up in summer and autumn. 
The inundation of this bottom is not, however, so deep and general as that of 
those below. 

In the American Bottom there are, or were, three or four French villages : 
Fort Chartres, Kaskaskia, Cahokia, and Prairie du Rocher; two of which 

* Darby's Louisiana. 



138 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are among the oldest; settlements in the Valley of the Mississippi. It does 
not appear that their inhabitants are, or have been, much affected with 
autumnal fever; but many of them are rather dwarfish and shriveled.* 
The Americans, who have settled in this locality, are sickly in summer and 
autumn. Doctor Farrer, of St. Louis, informed me, that in former years, he 
could distinguish, by their sallow complexion and languid aspect, the people 
of the American Bottom from those of the country back of the city. 

On the Illinois bluffs, east of the bottom, there is no spot worthy of no- 
tice. These bluffs consist of limestone, containing beds of coal. Their 
elevation is from six to seven hundred feet above the sea. A considerable 
portion of them is appropriated to the culture of the Ricinus communis ; 
and the manufacture of castor oil is prosecuted there and in St. Louis, to a 
greater extent than in any other part of the United States. On the Mis- 
souri side, we may pass by the old French town of Ste. Genevieve, with sev- 
eral newer American villages, all seated on, or at the foot of, the high bluffs 
of carboniferous limestone, which rise in some places like mural precipices, to 
the hight of eight hundred feet above the sea, and stop at 

II. Jefferson Barracks. — The bluff is here more depressed and of gentler 
ascent from the river. This post is in Lat. 38° 28' N. and Lon. 90° 08' W. 
The carboniferous limestone, which abounds in coal, like the bluffs on the 
opposite side of the river, is considerably fractured, and portions of it are 
changed from their horizontal position, apparently by an upheaving force. 
Thus the surface is uneven, and the rents and apertures of the strata favor 
the drainage of the surface. A great object of the G-overnment in establish- 
ing this post was, to have a healthy asylum for troops broken down by ser- 
vice in the hotter climates ; to which end it would be well adapted, but for 
the contiguity of the American Bottom on the opposite side of the river. 
According to Doctor De Camp, whenever, in August or September, the wind 
blows over the barracks from that bottom for a few days, intermittents 
break out among the troops ; while the people who live a mile or two from 
the river, in the woods, escape. The returns show a ratio of thirty-four per 
cent, per annum for intermittents, and of sixteen for remittents.f 

From the barracks to St. Louis the distance is twelve miles. The bluffs, 
consisting of the same limestone, continue low, and in most places rise gently 
from the river. Between the two places, stands the ancient French village 
of Carondelet, bearing to the American Bottom a relation similar to that of 
Jefferson Barracks ; but its native inhabitants do not seem to have suffered 
much from autumnal fever. Several miles higher up is the United States 
Arsenal, built on a gentle and rocky slope. 

III. St. Louis. — While New Orleans is the metropolis of the whole basin 
of the Mississippi, St. Louis is the emporium of the northern half of that basin. 
Destined to be forever the most important city on the banks of the Missis- 

* Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois. f Med. Stat. U. S. A. 



PL.IX. 



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: ; '•■•&??%*■■■* ' • • ■ <■" ^yw;;^ ^ B~^ , . 



3? L£ 



' J >h Scale I Milt to :; of ,u, Inch 

" ■ ■ r 



■BSS— — 



Xiffio by J. Wo 



Faeo IV). 



C. I. Fuller U.S.C.Engr. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 139 

sippi, above New Orleans, it may justly claim the attention of the medical 
etiologist. 

Its distance from the Balize is thirteen hundred and ninety miles — from 
New Orleans twelve hundred and eighty-six. Its Lat. is 38° 37' 28" N. ; 
its Lon. 90° 15' 39" W. Thus it stands 8" 40' 5" N. and 16' 35" W. of 
that city. The general course of the Mississippi is well shown by these 
numbers. In flowing twelve hundred and eighty-six miles, and traversing 
nearly nine degrees of latitude, its longitudes at those cities, vary less than 
three quarters of a degree. According to Nicollet,* the elevation of the 
river, at low water, opposite St. Louis, is three hundred and eighty-two feet 
above the Gulf, or three hundred and seventy-two above the surface at New 
Orleans. If this be correct, the fall in the Mississippi from the upper to the 
lower city, is three inches and forty-seven hundredths a mile; or eight inches 
and six tenths for each minute of latitude. 

The topography of St Louis and its environs, is so intelligibly represented 
in PI. IX, that a protracted description is not necessary. Its contiguity to 
the American Bottom, shows that it may be injuriously affected by the exha- 
lations of that tract, when easterly winds prevail. The immediate bank^ on 
that side — the bed of the river — Bloody Island opposite the upper part of the 
city — and Duncan's Island in front of the lower part, are little else than de- 
posits of sand with embedded drift-wood. The former island lies near the 
middle of the river ; but the latter is separated from the St. Louis shore by 
a narrow and shallow channel. This island, like others of the Mississippi, 
is extending up stream by deposits on its head, and has come to interfere 
with the harbor. Both islands are subject to inundation, but their limited 
areas and sandy surfaces, prevent the formation of ponds or marshes. The 
upper island is covered with young cotton-trees. 

The city is built in a gentle bend of the Mississippi, which flows nearly 
from north to south. Its site is a bed of carboniferous limestone, covered 
with deposits of loam ; which, though generally deep, are in many places so 
thin that the foundations of the houses rest on the solid rock. Above the 
city the rocks appear in low bluffs. Those portions of the city which lie 
farthest down the river are built on low ground, which in high floods are sub- 
ject to inundation. A bayou from the river on the west side of Duncan's 
Island passes through this tract, and is skirted by narrow marshes ; it is also 
traversed by a brook from the adjoining low bluffs. In the south-western 
part of the city lies Chouteau's Pond — a serpentine basin of water, supplied 
by a small stream, and having an outlet which passes across the southern 
portion of the plat, in a broad ravine, to the river on the west of Duncan's 
Island ; thus adding to the paludal character of that part of the city. The 
water of the pond is deep, and its margins well defined; but with the in- 
crease of popidation, it is becoming a receptacle for filth. 

* Hydrograph. Basin. 



140 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

In front of the city the beach or quay is narrow and paved. In the great 
flood of 1844, it was deeply inundated, and the first range of houses had 
their lower floors covered to the depth of several feet. From these houses 
the bank rises in a gentle and regular manner to the elevation of eighty feet 
above low water-mark, making it four hundred and sixty-two feet above the 
level of the sea.* In advancing into the country, in any western direction, 
from south round to north, we either continue on this, or gradually rise to a 
higher level. The rocks beneath are calcareous, with beds of coal. The 
general aspect of the surface is that of levelness, and some small portions 
incline to be swampy ; but, in general, the drainage is perfect, by means of 
the inequalities, the fissures, and the apertures of the subjacent rock. The 
soil is rich and argillaceous rather than sandy, and where not cultivated is 
covered with a thin growth of oak and hickory trees, with copses of hazel 
bushes. The rapid growth of the city has led, in latter years, to a great deal 
of leveling, and consequently to the exposure of much new surface to the 
action of the elements. 

The settlement of St. Louis was begun on the 15th of February, 1764; 
forty-six years after that of New Orleans ; and twenty-four years before that 
of Cincinnati. Its founder was Pierre Ligueste Laclede, assisted by two 
young Creoles, Auguste and Pierre Chouteau, all of New Orleans. A consid- 
erable French population soon collected there, chiefly from Fort Chartres, 
Kaskaskia, Cahokia, Vincennes, and other French villages east of the Mis- 
sissippi; a region which, in 1763, had been ceded by France to Great 
Britain. In 1768, the town, with Louisiana generally, passed into the hands 
of Spain, having been previously ceded to her by France. But the immi- 
gration of Spaniards was inconsiderable, and although the town continued 
under Spanish, rule up to 1803, the people were chiefly French. In that 
year, Louisiana was restored to France, and transferred, instanter. to the 
United States; whence it began to receive a new element of population. 
Within the last fifteen years, this population has increased at a remarkable 
ratio; and for five or six years past, there has been a great influx from Ger- 
many. Thus the present population consists of three kinds, the original 
French, the Anglo-American, and the German. 

From the earliest date of its settlement, St. Louis has been an emporium 
of the fur trade of the west and north; and the head quarters of the voya- 
geurs or engagees to be hereafter described. For the last twenty years, its 
steamboat trade has been immense ; and, of course, its port has abounded in 
watermen of a different class. Its manufacturing population has not yet 
become numerous. 

The inhabitants are supplied with river-water, which is received through a 
hydrant system, after depositing its silt in a reservoir. Situated only 
eighteen miles below the junction of the Missouri witli the Mississippi, and 
on the side through which the former enters, the water pumped up for the 

* Nicollet. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 141 

supply of the town is entirely from that river, which is well known to be the 
most turbid in the Great Interior Valley.* The deposit from a single gallon, 
which I took up when the river was above its mean hight, weighed one hun- 
dred and eighty grains. The greater part of this foreign matter is, however, 
thrown down before it leaves the reservoir. 

Compared with the American Bottom on the opposite side of the river, St. 
Louis is but little affected with autumnal fever; nor is it as liable as the 
country in its rear. The parts which suffer most are the southern suburbs, 
and the new extensions to the west. As in our other cities, the central por- 
tions are most exempt. 



SECTION VI. 

UPPER MISSISSIPPI. 
I. General Description. — From St. Louis to the mouth of the Missouri 
and the head of the American Bottom, which is found nearly opposite, the 
distance is eighteen miles. Here, what may be called the Lower Mississippi 
terminates, and the Upper commences. At this point it may be seen that the 
turbid waters which continue to the Balize, and even roil the margins of the 
Gulf of Mexico, flow out of the Missouri ; those of the Mississippi, above 
the junction, being transparent, and of a delicate, brownish tint. The sur- 
face of the river at this junction, when the water is lowest, is, according to 
Nicollet, three hundred and eighty-eight feet above the level of the Gulf. 
The broad alluvial bottoms are now at an end, and the carboniferous lime- 
stone bluffs are in sight at the same time, on both sides of the river. Boiling 
eddies, and crumbling banks, and bars, and islands composed of sand and trunks 
of trees bearing young groves of cotton-wood, ( destined soon to be swept 
away), are no longer seen; but, as we ascend, broad expansions of the river, 
with permanent islands, overshadowed down to the water's edge, with various 
trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants, meet the eye. Many of them, however, 
are liable to submersion during the spring freshets. For some distance up, 
the bottom lands are low, and, like some of the islands, are subject to inun- 
dation. At length, bowlders of various sizes, and terraces of diluvial sand, 
gravel, and pebbles, begin to show themselves in the rear of the alluvial bot- 
toms. As we advance, the distance between the opposing hills gets less, the 
bottoms become more elevated and habitable, and the gravel banks increase 
in number and hight. The hills, which for some distance were compara- 
tively low, begin now to rise into greater altitude. Part of them are wooded, 
and part display a surface of prairie. Where a tributary enters, the valley 

* From the mouth of the Missouri to a distance of, perhaps, three miles below St. 
Louis, the waters of that river do not mingle, to any noticeable extent, with those of the 
Mississippi ; but are clearly distinguishable by their color, and are found, at all points, 
on the western side of the river. 



142 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

is generally wider, and the bottoms above and below its moutli, are so 
depressed as be to overflowed. In some places there are gentle rapids for many 
miles, the river being expanded into shoal water, flowing over a rocky bed. 
Such is the Upper Mississippi, as I have seen it, to the mouth of Fever River, 
three hundred and eighty miles above the mouth of the Missouri, four 
hundred above St. Louis, and seventeen hundred from the junction of the 
Mississippi with the Gulf. The latitude of Fever River is about forty-two 
decrees thirty minutes north, or thirteen degrees thirty minutes north of the 
Balize. From this point to the Falls of St. Anthony, five hundred miles 
higher, a few villages and two military posts embrace nearly all the popula- 
tion; and as the medical topographer is interested in none but peopled 
countries, I shall not attempt a further delineation, but, returning to the 
embouchure of the Missouri, give some account of a few localities. 

II. Junction of the Rivers. — About twenty-five miles above their junc- 
tion, the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers approach within nine miles of each 
other ; whence they continue nearly parallel, in an eastern direction, until at 
length the Mississippi bends to the south, and receives the Missouri as a 
tributary. Along the Mississippi, the peninsular cape, above the junction, 
is, through its whole length, so low as to be subject to inundation. On the 
Missouri it has the same character for about twenty miles, up to the Mam- 
melles, which are high knobs, apparently belonging to a tertiary formation. 

The Bottom. — Most of the peninsular bottom is prairie, on the lower 
portions of which the river floods leave swamps, bayous, and lagoons. 
There are portions, however, which consist of diluvium, and are so elevated 
that even the great flood of 1844 did not overflow them. Its population is 
sparse, and subject to intermittent and remittent fevers ; which, as Doctor 
Twyman, and Doctor Thompson, and Doctor McCullough, of St. Charles, 
informed me, are sometimes of a malignant character. 

III. St. Charles. — Three miles above the Mammelles is the old French vil- 
lage of St. Charles, now (in population as well as jurisdiction) an American 
town. It stands on carboniferous limestone rocks, which rise gradually from the 
Missouri to the night of eighty or one hundred feet. The country around 
is dry, and of the same elevation. On the opposite or south side of the 
river there is a heavily timbered, rich bottom, two miles wide, which is liable 
to be inundated. Nearly surrounded by the localities which have been 
described, the people of St. Charles, although its site is of a healthy char- 
acter, are by no means exempt from autumnal fevers. We must now cross 
the Mississippi to the 

IV. Towns of Alton — Lower and Upper. — Not having visited these 
towns, nor met with a description of their medical topography, I would not 
mention them, but from the fact that, situated but a few miles above the mouth 
of the Missouri, it is predicted that they will grow into great commercial im- 
portance. Lower Alton is built on a rocky foundation between the river 
and the bluffs : Upper Alton is on the bluffs, two miles from the river. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 143 

country around is said to be free from marshes ; but the lower town is ex- 
posed to the exhalations from the peninsular bottom, on the opposite or 
western side of the Mississippi.* Of the degree in which they are infested 
with autumnal fever, compared with other towns on the Mississippi, I am not 
informed. 

V. Quixcr. — This town stands on the left bank of the river in the state of 
Illinois, a little below the fortieth degree of latitude. From Doctor Daniel 
Stahl,* I learn that its site is a diluvial terrace, eighty or one hundred feet 
above the river. Its composition is such that it greedily absorbs the rains 
which fall upon it, and favors the production of dust much more than mud. 
Well-water, with its usual saline impregnations, is in general use. The sur- 
face of the ground in the vicinity of the town, is elevated, rolling, and dry. 
An alluvial creek enters the Mississippi twelve miles above the town, and 
another nine miles below ; but neither approaches it so near as to exert upon 
its inhabitants any injurious influence. In the opposite direction the condi- 
tion is less favorable. Near the town, there are low, wooded islands, which 
are overflowed in spring, and left with ponds to be evaporated in summer and 
autumu : and on the further side of the river, in the state of Missouri, t|iere 
is a tract of bottom, subject to annual inundation, with its consequent ponds 
and marshes. The surface, generally, is prairie ; but on the river bank there 
is a grove of forest trees. These islands and the bottom lie to the west of 
Quincy, and the prevalent winds of summer and autumn pass over them ; 
but the intervening trees and river may be supposed to exert a protecting 
influence. 

Doctor Stahl has favored me with a history of the diseases in this town for 
the year 1842, from which it appears that no case of autumnal fever occurred 
in his practice until the latter part of September, and no new case appeared 
after a month from that time ; from which we may infer that the disease is 
not very formidable at this place. 

Quincy is a young town which has grown rapidly to a respectable size. 
The population is largely from New England and New York, with a few from 
Kentucky and other states. The European immigrants are principally Ger- 
man — a large element — with a considerable number from Ireland and Eng- 
land. Thus, like the other towns along the Mississippi, this embraces a 
variety of national temperaments and habits. 

VI. Burlixgtox. — Doctor John F. Henry has favored me with the princi- 
pal materials of the following notice of this locality. The city of Burlington, 
Iowa, stands on the west bank of the Mississippi river, two hundred and 
fifty miles above St. Louis, and a mile below the mouth of Flint River ; the 
latitude of which, according to Nicollet, is 40° 52' 56" N., and the elevation 
of the surface of the river, at low water, four hundred and eighty-six feet 



* Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois, 
t MS. penes me. 



144 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

above the G-ulf. The mouth of Flint River and the city are separated by 
bluffs, which here approach to the very shores of the Mississippi. Immedi- 
ately below them, a slip of bottom land, about two hundred yards in width, 
begins and stretches for a mile down the river ; having for its back ground 
a range of bluffs, which rise to the estimated Light of about one hundred feet. 
A stream originating in the rear makes its way through these bluffs, and 
traverses the narrow bottom, near its middle, to join the Mississippi. Its 
valley is about three hundred yards wide, and considerable portions are lia- 
ble to inundation from its own waters. The river bottom below the mouth 
of this torrent is likewise subject to submersion from freshets of the Missis- 
sippi. In addition, many springs burst out near the base of the hills, and 
water the bottom. Such is the site of the city, which is built on the narrow 
belt, above and below the brook by which it is traversed, and on the hills 
in its rear. From the mouth of Flint River, an extensive bottom stretches, 
for many miles, up to the mouth of Iowa River. Its average width is four or 
five miles ; and, like the American Bottom, opposite St. Louis, it is liable to 
partial inundations, which, together with the descent of streams from the 
bluffs, gives it a surface abounding in sloughs, ponds, and bayous. The 
position of this bottom is directly north of the city. To the south, or below 
the city, the bluffs close in upon the river, and continue near it for four or 
five miles, when a bottom commences. On the eastern or Illinois side of the 
Mississippi, opposite Burlington, there is a bottom several miles wide which 
extends up and down the river, and closely resembles that lying between 
Flint River and the Iowa. In extreme floods of the Mississippi, the whole of 
this Illinois bottom is submerged. On the evenings of hot days, in the latter 
part of summer and in early autumn, the exhalations of this bottom are 
often extremely offensive to the smell. Finally, in the river above the city, 
there is a series of low, wooded islands. 

Burlington is situated near the western margin of the Illinois Coal Basin, 
and is abundantly supplied with spring-water, having the usual mineral 
impregnations. As on the sites of other young and flourishing towns, there 
is in Burlington a great deal of excavation and leveling of the surface, which 
often occasions temporary ponds or sloughs. 

On the subject of autumnal fever, Doctor Henry remarks — " The bottom 
lands above and below the city, and also on the opposite side of the river, 
are the chosen seats of intermittents, by which the people every year are 
more or less prostrated; nor do the immigrants seem to become acclimated." 
Remittents also occur. It is an undecided point, whether the people of the 
city who live on the bottom are more subject to fever than those on the bluff. 
The country population in the rear of the city are not exempt from the fever, 
especially where there is an extensive breaking up of new lands, as the be- 
ginning of cultivation. Near the river there is woodland, but prairies soon 
succeed, and spread off indefinitely to the west. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 145 

This description of the Burlington locality, may serve for a large propor- 
tion of the Upper Mississippi. 

VII. Rock Island Locality. — Rock Island was formerly the site of 
Fort Armstrong. On the western side of the Mississippi, opposite the 
island, in the state of Iowa, stands the town of Davenport. On the eastern, 
in the state of Illinois, rather below the island, stands the town of Stephen- 
son. Three miles below is the mouth of Rock River. The whole of these 
properly belong to one locality, which I can describe in the most general 
terms only. 

The island, according to Nicollet, is seventeen hundred and twenty-two 
miles from the Balize, and three hundred and thirty-two above St. Louis, in 
N. Lat. 41° 31' 50". The elevation of the surface of the river at low water 
is five hundred and twenty-eight feet above the Gulf.* The surface of the 
island is about twenty feet higher. Fort Armstrong, now abandoned, stood 
on the southern extremity of this island. Davenport is elevated above high 
water-mark ; but to its south, at the distance of two or three miles, there is 
a tract of low bottom. Stephenson is on a plain less elevated than the site 
of Davenport, but above ordinary higli water- mark. In the direction qf the 
mouth of Rock River, this bottom sinks so low as to be subject to inunda- 
tion. Thus, to the south of both towns, as well as of the intervening island, 
there are tracts of insalubrious surface. 

Of the prevalence of autumnal fever in Davenport and Stephenson, I can- 
not speak. Troops were stationed at Fort Armstrong for seven years, during 
which the ratio of intermittents was seventeen per cent., and of remittents 
ten per cent.f 

This locality, like St. Louis, is within the Illinois Coal Basin. It lies at 
the foot of the Upper Rapids, the fall on which, according to Nicollet, is 
twenty six feet in fifteen miles. 

VIII. Galena. — The latitude of this town is 42° 24' N., — its distance 
above St. Louis about four hundred miles. It stands on either side, but 
chiefly the north-west, of Fever River, six miles from its junction with the 
Mississippi, in the state of Illinois. From a point one or two miles above 
the town, down to its mouth, this river is a mere canal, without perceptible 
current, except when very high, or when the Mississippi is very low. The 
site of the town is a ravine or chasm, with high bluffs, composed of upper 
Silurian limestone. Narrow as the bottom is, a part is liable to inundation 
during freshets of the Mississippi ; but the inhabitants, for the purpose of 
acquiring an ampler town plat, are engaged in raising it with the debris of the 
adjoining bluffs. These bluffs afford copious permanent springs of hard 
water. From the town down to the Mississippi, Fever River meanders 
through a narrow defile; but at its mouth there is an alluvial bottom of 



*Hydrograph. Basin. fMed. Stat., U. S. A. 

10 



146 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book t. 

limited extent, liable to inundation, and a low, long island in the Mississippi, 
which turns the main stream of that river to the opposite or western side. 
The few inhabitants who have resided at the mouth of Fever River, have 
been very constantly affected with fever in autumn ; but those of the town 
above are not particularly liable ; and the ominous name which the river has 
acquired (from a corruption of five, bean), is by no means appropriate. 
The French were the first inhabitants of this locality. At present, its popu- 
lation is exceedingly mixed, and embraces not a few from England, attracted 
thither by the lead mines. 

IX. Prairie du Chien — Fort Crawford. — Immediately above the 
junction of Wisconsin River with the Mississippi, lies Prairie du Chien, the 
general level of which may be seventy feet above low water. It extends 
up the latter river eight or ten miles, and is about two in width; being 
limited by a range of hills rising more than three hundred feet above it. 
The western margin of this plain is liable to inundation in high floods of the 
Mississippi ; and when they subside, there remains, in summer and autumn, 
a long, narrow slip of marsh, abounding in decaying organic matter. Adja- 
cent to the mouth of the Wisconsin, this slip is much wider.* On the oppo- 
site side of the river, the high bluffs press close upon it. The cliffs of both 
sides present on their summits the lower strata of the blue Silurian limestone 
of Cincinnati, beneath which are saccharoidal sandstone and magnesian lime- 
stone down to the water's edge.f Its distance above St. Louis is about five 
hundred miles; its Lat. 43 ° 3' 6" N., Lon. 91 o 9' 20" W. The elevation 
of the Mississippi at low water is six hundred and forty-two feet, of the ad- 
joining hills one thousand feet,t above the Gulf. 

This prairie enjoys the distinction of having been trodden by civilized 
feet before any other portion of the banks of the Upper Mississippi; 
as it was here that the Jesuit Father Marquette, and M. Joliet, in 
descending the Wisconsin River, reached the Mississippi, on the 17th of 
June, 1673. || A French fur-trading village was in due time established 
here, which flourished awhile and then declined. Latterly, it has attracted the 
attention of immigrants into Wisconsin, and promises to become a town of 
considerable size. 

Fort Crawford stands on the same plain with the village, but two miles 
nearer the mouth of the Wisconsin ; and consequently is more exposed to 
insalubrious exhalations. The ratio of intermittents is twenty-eight per 
cent.; that of remittents, four.§ 

X. Fort Snelling. — This military post ( PL I), the highest up the 
Mississippi, stands on the point of land immediately above the junction of 



* Med. Stat., U. S. A. f Owen : Geological Rep. 

$ Nicollet : Hydrog. Basin. || Bancroft : Hist. Col. U. S., Vol. III. 

§ Med. Stat., U. S. A. 



PART I.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



147 



the St. Peter's with that river. According to Nicollet, * the low water-sur- 
face of the rivers at this junction, is seven hundred and forty-four feet above 
the Gulf; the average elevation of the plain which the fort occupies, eight 
hundred and fifty j and the bight of a neighboring hill, called the Pilot Knob, 
one thousand and six. The latitude of this post is 44° 52' 46" N. — the lon- 
gitude 93° 4' 54" W. Its distance from Prairie du Chien is two hundred and 
forty miles, from St. Louis seven hundred and forty-eight, from New Orleans 
two thousand and eighty- eight, and from the Balize two thousand one hun- 
dred and ninety-two. t The descent of the river, following its meanders to 
the Gulf, is four inches a mile : on a straight line, nine and a third inches for 
every minute of latitude. 

The Mississippi flows past Fort Snelling with a rapid current ; but the 
estuary of the St. Peter's is sluggish, and the discharge of its waters into 
the Mississippi is impeded by an island, with a slough on the side which the 
St. Peter's approaches, through a low prairie bottom a mile in width. J 

The waters of the Mississippi are transparent, but those of the St. Peter's 
turbid and of a whitish hue, and hence its Indian name, Minisotah, which ex- 
presses turbidness. || To the north of the post, on the uplands, there are 
small lakes. § According to the army returns for ten successive years, 
during which the average number of troops stationed at this post was one 
hundred and fifty, the ratio of intermittent fever was but a fraction over four 
per cent, per annum, and that of remittent, two. ^f This is a much more 
limited prevalence than would result from the same topographical conditions 
in the south, and shows, very conclusively, the influence of climate. 

Having arrived at the highest settlement on the Mississippi River, it may 
be instructive to recapitulate, in a tabular form, the relative prevalence of 
autumnal fever at the military posts which stand upon its banks. 







Distance 
from the Ba- 


Elevation i Ratio per 


Ratio per 


Posts. 


N. Lat. 


above tlie 
Gulf of Mex- 


cent, per an- 
num of Inter- 


cent, per an- 
num of Re- 








ico. 


mittents. 


mittents. 


Fort Jackson, 


29° 29' 


30 m. 


4 ft. 


114 


15 


Baton Rouge, 


30 Q 36' 


145 


90 


51 


30 


Jefferson Barracks, 


38° 28' 


1,378 


460 


34 


16 


Fort Armstrong, 


41° 32' 


1,722 


550 


17 


10 


Fort Crawford, 


43° 03' 


1,932 


720 


28 


4 


"Fort Snelling, 


44° 52' 


2,192 


850 


4 


2 



It will be seen from this table, that, in advancing north through fifteen 
degrees of latitude, and eight hundred and fift/y feet of elevation, there is, 
with the exception of Fort Crawford (unfavorably situated near the mouth 
of the Wisconsin), a regular decrease of intermittent fever, from one hundred 



* Hydrograph. Basin. 

+ Featherstonhaugh's Geol. 

? Med. Stat. U. S. A. 



Rep. 



f Hydrograph. Basin. 

|] Long's Expedition, Vol. I. 

§ Ibid. 



148 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and fourteen per cent, down to four ; and from Baton Rouge, the second 
post, a regular decrease of remittent fever from thirty to two per cent. 

XI. Falls op St. Anthony. — For nearly thirty miles above Fort Snel- 
ling there is a continued chain of rapids, in the midst of which are the Falls 
of St. Anthony, the only cascade of the Mississippi River. Its distance from 
the fort is eight or nine miles. 

On approaching the edge of the rock from which the water is to fall sixteen 
feet, the river spreads out to the breadth of more than six hundred yards ; but 
contracts below to one-third of that width, and dashes forward over masses 
of rock, detached from the bluffs which form the chasm. The river cascade 
is thus described by Mr. Keating — 

"The irregular outline of the fall, by dividing its breadth, gives it a more 
impressive character. An island, stretching in the river both above and be- 
low the fall, separates it into two unequal parts, the eastern being two hun- 
dred and thirty yards wide, and the western three hundred and ten. The 
island itself is about one hundred yards wide. From the nature of the rock, 
which breaks into angular and apparently rhomboidal fragments of a huge 
size, this fall is subdivided into small cascades, which adhere to each other, 
so as to form a sheet of water, unrent, but composed of an alternation of re- 
tiring and salient angles, and presenting a great variety of shapes and shades ; 
each of these forms in itself a perfect cascade, but when taken together in 
one comprehensive view, they assume a beauty of which we could have 
scarcely deemed them susceptible. We have seen many falls, but few which 
present a wilder and more picturesque aspect than those of St. Anthony. 
The vegetation which grows around them is of a corresponding character. 
The thick growth upon the island imparts to it a gloomy aspect, contrasting 
pleasingly with the bright surface of the watery sheet which reflects the sun 
in many differently colored hues." 

" The country about the fort contains several other water falls, which are 
represented as worthy of being seen. One of them, which is but two miles 
and a half from the garrison, and on the road to the St. Anthony's, is very in- 
teresting. It is known by the name of Brown's Fall, and is remarkable for the 
the soft beauties which it presents. Essentially different from the St. Antho- 
ny's, it appears as if all its native wildness had been removed by the hand of 
art. A small, but beautiful stream, about five yards wide, flows gently until it 
reaches the verge of a rock, from which it is precipitated to a depth of forty- 
three feet, presenting a beautiful parabolic sheet, which drops without the 
least deviation from the regular curve, and meets with no interruption from 
neighboring rocks, or other impediments, until it has reached its lower level, 
when it resumes its course, without any other difference than that produced 
by the white foam which floats upon its surface. The spray, which this cas- 
cade emits, is very considerable, and when the rays of the sun shine upon it, 
produces a beautiful iris; upon the surrounding vegetation the effect of this 
spray is distinct ; it vivifies all the plants, imparts to them an intense green 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 149 

color, and gives rise to a stouter growth than is observed upon the surround- 
ing country. On the neighboring rock the effect is as characteristic, though 
of a destructive nature ; the spray striking against the rock, which is of a 
loose structure, has undermined it in a curved manner, so as to produce an 
excavation, similar in form to a Saxon arch, between the surface of the rock 
and the sheet of water; under this large arch we passed with no other incon- 
venience than that which arose from the spray. There is nothing sublime 
or awfully impressive in this cascade, but it has every feature that is re- 
quired to constitute beauty ; it is such a fall as the hand of opulence daily 
attempts to produce in the midst of those gardens upon which treasures have 
been lavished for the purpose of imitating nature ; with this difference, how- 
ever, that these falls possess an easy grace, destitute of the stiffness which 
generally distinguishes the works of man from those of nature." * 

Mr. Nicollet, in his beautiful map of the Upper Mississippi, has indicated, 
under the name of Cascade Creek, the stream which Mr. Keating has here 
described. It originates partly in Lake Harriet, which is connected by a 
strait with Lake Calhoun. Adjoining the latter, is the Lake of the Isles, and 
several others, which discharge their superfluous waters into the rivei* at the 
great falls. Thus, there is much in the scenery of this wild and distant spot 
to feast the eye of taste, and gratify the lover of nature. It only remains 
for me to add, that the rocks which are here exposed consist of the oldest 
Silurian or transition lime and sandstone, bordering in geological position 
upon the primitive formations. 

XII. Voyages on the Upper Mississippi. — I have not introduced a 
brief description of the Falls of St. Anthony without an object which con- 
forms to the plan of this work. Much has been published on winter resorts 
for invalids of the north ; but the necessity of a summer voyage or sojourn, 
for the drooping valitudinarian of the south, has been too often overlooked. 
To such a one, whom the heat of summer has wilted down, or the marsh ex- 
halations of autumn have blighted, a voyage of two thousand miles directly 
north, should be looked upon with hope and favor. Every breath of the 
steam-engine would waft him into a cooler climate, — every turn of the pad- 
dle-wheel raise him to a higher level. But to make this change a blessing, 
he must not lounge in the cabin of his vessel, or steep himself in the fumes 
of brandy and tobacco at the bar, or doze and dream away the clay in his 
state-room. To enjoy the fruit, he must pluck it with his own hands. He 
must rise with the sun ; and only retire from his labors of active observation, 
when the long and deep shadows of the Rocky Mountains have gathered over 
him. He should not seek to pamper his appetite ; petty annoyances must 
not fret him ; and little hardships should rather be invited than shunned ; 
for, although inconvenient at the moment, they contribute in the end to the 
great object for which he travels. He ought to sojourn successively in the 

* Long's Expedition to the Source of the St. Peters, Vol. I, p. 295—302. 



150 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

various young and nourishing towns to which he will be brought, and study 
their character and prospects ; visit the mines through which the Mississippi 
has cut its way; descend into their shafts, and see the ore detached from its 
parent rocks ; sally out upon the rolling prairies with his gun, and give scope 
to his natural instinct for hunting ; or, turning from animals to plants, fill 
his port-folio with wild flowers, unlike those of the savannas of the south 
Lastly, he should watch the unfolding scenery, as modified by geological con- 
ditions, and contrast the low and unstable alluvial and tertiary banks of the 
south, with the lofty out-croppings of older and deeper rocks in the north ; 
which, even unsmitten by the prophet's rod, pour out fountains of cold water, 
to fall in sparkling cascades, until they mingle with the Upper Mississippi, 
the most beautiful of all our rivers. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS WEST OF THE GULF AND 
OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 



We must return to the shores of the Glulf of Mexico, and rise again to the 
north. Keeping on the western side of the Gulf and of the Mississippi 
River, the region to be described extends from the basin of the Panuco to 
the uppermost tributaries of the Mississippi, in one direction ; and from the 
shores of the Grulf and the banks of the Mississippi, to the Rocky Mountains, 
in the other. This vast region is traversed by a great number of rivers, of 
which, those south of Red River pour their waters into the Grulf, — those 
north, with itself, into the Mississippi. Adhering to the plan of a hydro- 
topographical description, we must ascend the most important of these rivers, 
and add to their general description some brief notices of such localities as 
are of public interest, or fitted, by their salubrity or sickliness, to illustrate 
the connection between the surface of a country and its endemic diseases. 
At first view, this undertaking appears to be of great magnitude ; and so it 
would be, if these immense regions were peopled like many other portions of 
the Interior Valley ; but the larger portions of them are still a wilderness, 
and may be dismissed with a few general remarks. This chapter, moreover, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 151 

will be kept from any great expansion, by a different cause — the want of 
appropriate materials for topographical description. In proceeding to exe- 
cute it, under these limitations, I shall, as already intimated, commence in 
the far south. 



SECTION I. 

REGION SOUTH OF THE RIO DEL NORTE. 

The close approximation of the Cordilleras to the Gulf of Mexico, from 
Yucatan to the Kio del Norte, may be seen by a reference to PL I. The 
narrow zone which stretches from the base of the former to the shores of the 
latter, comprises the Tierras Ccdientes, or hot countries, of the Mexicans. 
Within the tropics it is restricted to a breadth of thirty or forty miles; but 
before we reach the Del Norte, in N. Lat. 26°, it widens to a hundred. In 
the south it belongs to the state of Vera Cruz, in the north to Tamaulipas, 
formerly Santander. The maritime towns of Vera Cruz and Tampico, 
already described, lie within these states. The southern and hottest^portion 
of the zone, is low and level ; abounds in blown sands, lakes, and lagoons ; 
has very little fertility, and supports but a limited population. The northern 
ranges of the Tierras Calientes, while they suffer less from tropical heats, 
have a richer soil and greater breadth. The rivers of this more favored por- 
tion are, the Panuco, Tamissee, Santander, and Fernando, which descend 
from the flanks of the Cordilleras, and refresh the plain on their passage to 
the Gulf. Thus fertilized, the population of the northern parts of the zone, 
is greater than of the southern ; but of the degree in which they are infested 
with autumnal fever, or of the modifications which it presents, I am unable 
to speak. 

In the rear of this zone, we come to the Tierras Templadas, or temperate 
countries. They comprehend the Sierra Madre, and other mountains which 
flank the Cordilleras, and at the hight of from four thousand to six thousand 
feet, present terraces on which stand the cities of Jalapa, San Luis Potosi, 
and Saltillo. In vegetation and climate this zone differs essentially from 
that beneath, and it enjoys a remarkable exemption from the fevers which 
infest the Tierras Calientes. Behind, and at an increased elevation, are the 
Tierras Frias, or cold countries, of which the elevation is above seven thou- 
sand feet, and the productions and diseases of a kind corresponding with the 
temperature. Thus, in ascending from the Gulf under any parallel of lati- 
tude, a distance of two hundred miles carries us from the suffocating heats 
and pestiferous exhalations of the Tierras Calientes, to regions which, al- 
though never very cold in winter, are delightfully temperate and healthy in 
summer. This limited range between the maximum and minimum tempera- 
tures of the year, broadly distinguishes the effects of elevation under the 
same parallel, from those of higher latitude, in ascending the Interior Valley 



152 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

from the Gulf of Mexico. For example, if we advance to the north so far 
as to find a summer equally cool with that of the Tierras Ternpladas, we have a 
winter too rigorous to be borne — the range between those two seasons be- 
coming longer as we proceed from the tropical zone. Within the basin of 
the small Rio Fernando, or Tigre, which traverses the northern part of the 
Tierras Calientes, there are two towns, Monterey and Saltillo, which merit a 
more extended notice than I am able to give them. I shall say a few words 
of the former only. 

Monterey — near the twenty-sixth degree of north latitude — stands at an 
elevation of about fifteen hundred feet above the sea. Doctor Proctor, in his 
account of the diseases of a portion of the army, in 1846 and 1847,* speaks 
of the troops as being encamped near the city, in a low bottom, abundantly 
watered, and surrounded by swamps. This condition of the surface suffi- 
ciently explains the prevalence of intermittent fever, which they experienced. 



SECTION II. 

BASIN OF THE RIO DEL NORTE. 

I. The origin, course, and termination of this river, the longest, except the 
Mississippi, which throws its waters into the Gulf of Mexico, has been given 
at page 14. Its lower half constitutes the dividing line between the United 
States and the Republic of Mexico. According to Doctor Gregg,* the Del 
Norte is a broad, shallow stream, eminently alluvial, and abounding in sand- 
bars and snags. Its direct descent from the Rocky Mountains gives it many 
rapids and ripples, so that its navigation is of little value ; which, taken in 
connection with the sterility of much of the country through which it flows, 
will prevent the population of its banks and bottoms — at present sparse — 
from ever becoming very dense. These banks in many places are not more 
than ten feet above low water-mark, and yet, so great is the breadth of chan- 
nel, that the water does not rise high enough to overflow them. In fact, the 
Del Norte has but few tributaries, and in its descent loses so much water by 
infiltration through the sand, that its depth rather diminishes than increases 
with its progress; thus reversing the law which governs the Mississippi. 
About the middle of its length, portions of it, in long droughts, sometimes 
entirely disappear by absorption. 

The geographical position of the Del Norte gives it an etiological im- 
portance, which will be appreciated when its topography, climate, and dis- 
eases are better known than at present. This importance results from its 
valley being the natural terminus on the south-west of the vast plains which 



* West. Jour. (Louisville), June, 1848. 
f Com. of the Prairies, Vol. I, p. 138. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 153 

lie between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains. Even before reach- 
ing it from the north, detached ridges of that chain are encountered ; while 
immediately beyond, the flanks of the Cordilleras of Mexico are close at 
hand. As many years will elapse before there will be much population near 
the base or on the slopes of the great mountain chain in higher latitudes, we 
must look to the Del Norte for those modifications which diseases undergo 
from change of topographical elevation. 

The valley of the Del Norte, below the Presidio del Rio Grande, about 
the twenty-eighth degree of north latitude, has a general aspect of levelness, 
with tracts of swamp, and some small lakes of salt water. In general the 
soil is not deep, and in some parts so poor and sandy that the country is 
almost a desert. Prairies are common ; the forests are thin, and composed of 
stunted trees ; the prickly-pear ( Cactus) infests the surface, and everywhere 
good water in the form of springs or streams is wanting. 

II. Matamoras. — This Mexican town stands on the right bank of the Rio del 
Norte, fifty miles, by its meanders, from the Gulf of Mexico. The river, at 
the town, and below, as I am informed by Doctor Langdon, who, during the 
late war, was for some time stationed at Matamoras, is narrow, muddy, <ra- 
pid, and eddying ; on the whole, it resembles the Mississippi ; even, like it, hav- 
ing no tidal estuary. The country on each side, from the mouth of the Del 
Norte to the town, and above, is level and sandy, with groves of small tim- 
ber and an abundant growth of the prickly-pear. Immediately above the 
town, the river turns from its general south-eastern course, to the east; and 
after making a bend of many miles, returns below the town, on the south, so 
near as to be in sight. In this bend there is a small, permanent lake, or 
pond, which occasionally in river floods extends its area to the edge of town. 
To the west of the town there is a larger lake, about two miles long, which 
becomes dry in the month of August. To the north and south of this lake, the 
ground is a little more elevated than that on which the town is built, and 
covered with small trees. On the whole, there seems to be but little 
drowned or swampy land in the vicinity of Matamoras. It does not appear 
to be liable to yellow fever. Of the extent to which its inhabitants are sub- 
ject to autumnal fever, I cannot speak. The troops had both intermittent 
and remittent fevers, but not to any remarkable degree ; and their types 
were nearly the same that Doctor Langdon had been accustomed to see in 
the neighborhood of Cincinnati. 

III. Presidio del Rio Grande — Santa Rosa — Monclova. — In the 
absence of materials for a methodical topographical description of the re- 
gion on each side of the Lower Del Norte, I may give the following extract 
of a letter, written from Monclova, in Mexico, by Doctor Gregg, who was 
attached to the army commanded by General "Wool : 

"I have been surprised during our march, to hear of a considerable 
amount of intermittent fever among the Mexicans. At Presidio del Bio 



154 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Grande* (in N. Lat. 28° 20' and W. Lon. 100° 30'), a town of some two 
thousand inhabitants, many of the natives were suffering with chills and 
fevers, up to the middle of October, the time of our being there. Eight or 
ten days afterwards, I found the same disease still more prevalent (though by 
no means as bad as in many parts of the Valley of the Mississippi during au- 
tumn ), in Santa Rosa, a town of near three thousand inhabitants, in about 
N. Lat. 27 Q 54', and (approximately) in W. Lon. 101° 40'. The Presidio 
is situated virtually in the valley of the Rio Grande ( being only five miles 
west of it, on a small tributary) ; but Santa Rosa is entirely inland, being at 
the eastern base of a lofty and extensive ridge of mountains, which divides 
the waters of the Rio Grande from those of the interior of Mexico. Since 
leaving Santa Rosa, we have never been entirely out of sight of mountains ; 
and at this place ( Monclova ) we are completely surrounded by them, though 
the city itself is in the border of an extensive valley, looking to the north- 
ward. But even here ( N. Lat. 26° 54', W. Lon. 101° 37' ) I find the peo- 
ple afflicted to some extent with the same fever. Now, Santa Rosa and Mon- 
clova, with the intervening and surrounding country, certainly do not, natu- 
rally, abound in the conditions to which, by observation, we are led to ascribe 
autumnal fever ; and I am disposed to attribute the fever which now pre- 
vails to an artificial cause. Irrigation, you are aware, is extensively resorted 
to in all the agricultural operations of this people, who cultivate sugar, cot- 
ton, and Indian corn, in abundance, but are obliged to depend on irrigation. 
If the surplus water were returned to the streams by ditches, there would, 
perhaps, be but little malaria produced ; but it is generally suffered to run 
into the lower flats, and give origin to permanent ponds and marshes. There 
are marshes below the Presidio, more extensive ones about Santa Rosa, and 
many of considerable size in the vicinity of this city ; all of which appear to 
have been produced in the manner I have pointed out." 

In ascending to what may be called the Middle Rio del Norte, the country 
becomes more elevated and broken. 

IY. Chihuahua — the capital of the state of Chihuahua — stands on the 
banks of the Conchas, a small, western tributary of the Del Norte. "Although 
situated about one hundred miles east of the main chain of the Mexican Cor- 
dilleras, Chihuahua is surrounded on every side by detached ridges of moun- 
tains, but none of them of great magnitude. The elevation of the city 
above the ocean is between four and five thousand feet ; its latitude is 
28° 36' N.; and its entire population numbers about ten thousand 
souls." f I am not informed as to the prevalence of autumnal fever in 
this locality. 

V. From Chihuahua to the El Paso del Norte. — The latter town or 
settlement, is found on the western side of the Rio del Norte, two hundred 
and thirty miles north of Chihuahua, and two hundred and twenty below 

* Rio del Norte. f Com. of the Prairies, Vol. II, p. 114. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 155 

Santa Fe. The character of the middle portion of the basin of the Eio 
del Norte, may be understood from the following paragraph, by Doctor 
Gregg :* " The road from El Paso south is mostly firm and beautiful, with 
the exception of the sand hills before spoken of ; and is only rendered disa- 
greeable, by the scarcity, and occasional ill savor of the water. The route 
winds over an elevated plain, among numerous detached ridges of low moun- 
tains — spurs, as it were, of the main Cordilleras, which lie at a considerable 
distance to the westward. Most of these extensive, intermediate plains, 
though in many places of fertile-looking soil, must remain wholly unavailable 
for agricultural purposes, on account of their natural aridity, and a total lack 
of water for irrigation." Doctor Gregg does not tell us whether this region 
is infested with autumnal fever. 

VI. El Paso del Norte. — This locality is the most attractive in the valley 
of the Del Norte. It will have at last the densest population, and prove to 
be that in which the most interesting observations on the diseases of that 
valley will be made. According to Mr. Hughes, f " the settlement of the El 
Paso extends from the falls of the Rio Grande on the north, to the Presidio 
on the south, a distance of twenty-two miles ; and is one continuous orchard 
and vineyard, embracing in its ample area an industrious population of at 
least eight thousand." It is " isolated from all other Mexican settlements 
by the mountains which rise on the east and west, and close in to the river 
on the north and south. The breadth of the valley is about ten miles." It 
is irrigated by water taken from the Del Norte above the scattered village of 
El Paso. The freshets of the river do not overflow this bottom. The sur- 
rounding highlands are generally destitute of timber. In latitude, the Paso 
is a little below the thirty-second degree north. | According to Kendall, the 
population of this oasis of the desert, is chiefly Spanish, unmixed with In- 
dian. !| Of its autumnal fevers, I cannot speak, from want of information. 

VII. Santa Fe. — We ascend to Santa Fe by passing through a country but 
thinly inhabited. This town, well known as the capital of New Mexico, stands 
in N. Lat. 35° 41', and in TV. Lon. ( about ) 106°. Its elevation above the 
ocean is estimated at seven thousand fect.§ According to Doctor Gregg, ^[ 
"its situation is twelve or fifteen miles east of the Rio del Norte, at the 
western base of a snow-clad mountain, upon a beautiful stream of a small 
mill-power size, which ripples down in icy cascades, and joins the river some 
twenty miles to the south-westward. The population of the city itself but 
little exceeds three thousand ; yet, including several surrounding villages, 
which are embraced in its corporate jurisdiction, it amounts to nearly six 



* Com. of the Prairies, Vol. II, p. 83. 

t Doniphan's Expedition, p. 282. 

J Com. of the Prairies, Vol. II. 

|| Narrative of the Texan Expedition, Vol. II. 

§ Com. of the Prairies, Vol. I, p. 144. IT Ibid. 



156 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

thousand souls." This is something more than the population of the entire 
province of New Mexico, as estimated by Doctor Gregg. The great obstacle 
to a dense population in this region is the want of water; and hence nearly 
all the agriculturalists live along the Del Norte or its few tributaries, and 
resort to irrigation. In such a region, ponds and marshes are, of course, 
nearly unknown ; and the diseases to which they give origin, almost as rare, 
as will appear from the following statement, by Doctor Gregg : * 

" Salubrity of climate is decidedly the most interesting feature in the char- 
acter of New Mexico. Nowhere — not even under the boasted Sicilian skies — 
can a purer or a more wholesome atmosphere be found. Bilious diseases — 
the great scourge of the Valley of the Mississippi — are here almost un- 
known. Apart from a fatal epidemic fever of a typhoid character, that rav- 
aged the whole province from 1837 to 1839, and which, with the small-pox 
that followed in 1840, carried off nearly ten per cent, of the population, New 
Mexico has experienced very little disease of a febrile character; so that as 
great a degree of longevity is attained there, perhaps, as in any other portion 
of the habitable world. Persons, withered almost to mummies, are to be en- 
countered occasionally, whose extraordinary age is only to be inferred from 
their recollection of certain notable events, which had taken place in times 
far remote." 

Santa Fe, of which this favorable account is given, lies under the same 
parallel with Memphis and the southern portion of the St. Francis Bottom ; 
which were described in the last chapter as having an elevation of three 
hundred feet above the sea, with an excess of moisture, and abounding in au- 
tumnal fevers of a fatal character. 

VIII. Valley of Taos. — The last locality within the basin of the Rio del 
Norte, which I shall mention, is Taos, lying above Santa Fe, in N. Lat. 36 Q 
20'. The stream which flows through this valley, enters the Del Norte by its 
left bank. The settlements in this valley are among the most northern of that 
river. According to Doctor Gregg,f " no part of New Mexico equals this 
valley in amenity of soil, richness of produce, and beauty of appearance." 
As this distant region (it may be hoped) will hereafter be visited by certain 
classes of invalids, I will transcribe from Doctor Gregg, the following notice 
of a natural curiosity : J " Opposite Taos, for an uninterrupted distance of 
fifteen miles, the Bio del Norte runs pent up in a deep canon (gorge), through 
which it rushes in rapid torrents. This frightful chasm is absolutely impas- 
sable ; and viewed from the top, the scene is imposing in the extreme. None 
but the boldest hearts and firmest nerves can venture to its brink and look 
down its almost perpendicular precipice, over projecting crags and deep crev- 
ices, upon the foaming current of the river, which in some places appears like 
a small, rippling brook." 



* Com. of the Prairies, Vol. I, p. 146. 

t Ibid, p. 145. X Ibid, p. 138. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 157 

We must now take leave of these detached and extreme western settle- 
ments, of the Great Interior Valley, and return to regions nearer the Gulf of 
Mexico. 



SECTION III. 

SOUTHERN TEXAS. 

Between the Lower Rio del Norte and the Lower Mississippi, there is a re- 
gion watered by the following rivers, beginning to the south-west : — Nueces, 
San Antonio, Guadalupe, Colorado, Brazos, San Jacinto, Trinity, Neches, 
and Sabine; not to mention smaller intervening streams. The longest of 
these numerous rivers are limited to the north by the water-shed between 
them and Red River, which, behind the state of Texas, runs nearly from 
west to east, about the thirty-fourth degree of latitude; the shorter ones 
arise much nearer the Gulf; into the numerous shallow bays and sounds of 
which, they all discharge their waters, between the latitudes of twenty-seven 
and a half and thirty degrees north. It is the north-west segment of the 
Gulf which receives these contributions — more copious than those poured 
into any other equal portion of its coast, from the Delta of the Mississippi 
round to Yucatan; a sufficient evidence that the region from which they 
flow, is neither so deficient in rain, nor abundant in absorbing sands, as that 
of the Rio del Norte further west. 

Not having visited any part of this group of river basins, nor seen their 
medical topography described, I cannot speak of them except in the most 
general terms. Mrs. Holley* informs us that Texas, as it was then bounded, 
by the Nueces to the west, and Red River to the north, presents three zones 
or regions, — the level, the undulating, and the hilly. The level occupies 
the entire coast, extending from thirty to eighty miles into the interior, and 
corresponding, except in latitude, to the Tierras Calientes of the western side 
of the Gulf. The whole Gulf-margin of this zone, from the Nueces to the 
Sabine, has a belt eight or ten miles wide, consisting of prairie, except along 
the streams. Although low and extremely level, it is almost free from 
marshes. That part of the level region which extends back between the 
San Jacinto and Sabine Rivers, about seventy miles from the coast, is in gen- 
eral heavily timbered. The section of level country which lies between the 
San Jacinto and Guadalupe, extends back about eighty miles ; is sufficiently 
elevated for perfect drainage after rain ; and presents few swamps or ponds. 
The bottom lands of the Brazos, San Bernardo, and Colorado, are from three 
to twenty miles in width, and heavily timbered, presenting cane-brakes of 



* Texas. By Mrs. Mary Austin Holley : Lexington, 1836. This late accomplished 
and gifted lady, a niece of Moses Austin, the pioneer of the American emigrants to 
Texas, resided for some time in the region she has described. 



158 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

immense extent. That portion of the level land which lies between the 
Guadalupe and the Nueces, is narrower, but at the same time more elevated, 
than the regions just described. 

We come now to the undulating zone. Between the Sabine and San Ja- 
cinto Rivers, the country is undulating to Red River, on its north, and never 
rises into ridges higher than those which belong to a rolling country. It is 
partly wood-land and partly prairie, — everywhere well watered. North of 
the level country from the San Jacinto to the Guadalupe, the surface is 
gently undulating, diversified with prairie and forest, and abundantly sup- 
plied with permanent springs. West of the Guadalupe to the Nueces, a 
similar surface is found. We come now to the third division. 

" The mountain range of Texas may very properly be called a spur of the 
Sierra Maclre ( Mother Ridge ), which it leaves near the junction of the Rio 
Puerco with the Del Norte, and, pursuing a north-easterly direction, enters 
Texas at the sources of the Nueces River. Thence, continuing in the same 
direction to the head waters of the San Saba, a branch of the Colorado, it 
inclines to the east down the San Saba ; crossing the Colorado some distance 
below the mouth of that river, it is finally lost in the undulating lands of the 
Brazos. This range does not cross the Brazos. The country east of this 
river and upon Trinity River is gently undulating, and in some districts 
quite level ; this description of surface extending the whole distance to Red 
River. Spurs of this mountain range extend southwardly, down the rivers 
Madina and Guadalupe, to the vicinity of Bexar. Spurs also extend down 
the rivers Slanos and Pedernales, and the smaller western tributaries of the 
Colorado. Similar spurs stretch up to the Colorado above San Saba to a 
considerable distance, and round the head-waters of the San Ardress and 
Bosque, tributaries of the Brazos. 

" The mountains are of third and fourth magnitude in point of elevation. 
Those of the San Saba are much the highest. These are, in many places, 
thickly covered with forests of oak, cedar, and other trees, interspersed with 
a great variety of shrubbery. 

" This range of high land on its north-western frontier, is of vast advan- 
tage to the state of Texas. It not only renders the atmosphere more salu- 
brious, but, abounding in copious fountains of limpid water, it gives rise to 
the numerous rivulets which, having first irrigated their own fruitful valleys 
flow off with a rapid current, and unite to form the large rivers of the cen- 
tral and western parts of the state. These last -mentioned rivers are uni- 
formly more limpid than the rivers to the east of the Brazos. 

"North of this mountain range, and on the extreme head-waters of the 
Brazos River, the country becomes level again and presents to the view in- 
terminable prairies. These stretch to the north and north-west beyond Red 
and Arkansas Rivers, and are finally lost in the vast ocean of prairie that 
terminates at the foot of the Rocky Mountains." * 

* Texas, by Mrs. M. A. Holley, p. 21—23. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 159 

This outline of the physical geography of Texas, even if not too favorably 
drawn, lays but a foundation for its medical topography ; and even on this 
foundation, for want of the requisite materials, I cannot ]mild. I can, 
however, give an additional and corroborative notice of one portion of this 
extensive region, in an extract of a letter from Doctor Gregg : * " The gen- 
eral character of this country, to the southward, that is, between this and 
the coast, is level — chiefly high and dry plains, with fertile soil, abounding 
in vegetable remains ; in many places, alluvial ; in others, more elevated, con- 
taining silicious pebbles. These plains appear to be based on what I have 
always called rotten limestone, a soft, friable, semi-decomposed carbonate of 
lime (tertiary or cretaceous). But to the north we have a hilly or low 
mountainous region, with strata of firmer limestone. At the base of these 
hills the San Antonio takes its rise, by numerous springs of pure water, one 
of which is exceedingly copious, and, during the month I have been here, 
has had a daily morning temperature of seventy-six degrees, and an after- 
noon temperature of seventy-eight degrees, Fahrenheit. This is a very 
healthy region of country, I am sure ; yet I find some autumnal fever among 
the inhabitants, and still more is occurring to the troops; but they bave 
been marching through more insalubrious regions. The town stands in Lat. 
29° 25' 30" N., and Lon. 98° 50' W. Its population is about two thou- 
sand — chiefly Mexican. This place is so far west that the nights in sum- 
mer and autumn are dry. I am disposed to think that it is near the western 
limit of the epidemic prevalence of autumnal fever." 



SECTION IV. 

VALLEY OF RED RIVER. 

I. General Description. — We have taken leave of the rivers which, 
to the west of the Gulf and the Mississippi, flow directly to the former; and 
reentering the Mississippi basin, will ascend ; and must now advance gradually 
through its western half, to the northern limits of its settlement. 

Red River, a large, and the most southern, tributary of the Mississippi, 
mingles its reddish-colored waters with the chocolate -tinted currents of the 
Great River, in the N. Lat. 31 ° 2' 25", at the vertex of the Delta. In con- 
sequence of its low latitude, and its flowing nearly east for the first half of 
its length, Red River throws out its annual flood in the month of February ; 
while the more northern tributaries of the Mississippi are still locked up. In 
tracing the course of the river from its mouth to its sources, we pass to the 
north-west, and very soon to the west, until we reach the Llano Estacado, on 
which it chiefly originates. Restricted to the north by the river Arkansas, 

* Dated, San Antonio de Bexar, September 25th, 1846. 



r 



160 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and on the opposite side by the rivers of Texas, which flow directly south to 
the Glulf, the basin of this river is long, narrow, and, near its middle, bent 
almost to a right angle. It is chiefly the portions below this bend, within 
the limits of the state of Louisiana, that present at this time anything of 
interest to the medical topographer. Throughout its upper half, its annual 
swell pours, through numerous outlets, and over its low banks, a deluge of 
water, which collects into lakes or reservoirs on both sides of the river, and 
thus diminishes the inundation. When the river sinks in summer and 
autumn, most of these safety-basins, by outlets from their lower sides, send 
back their waters to the river, and many of them even have their bottoms 
covered with grass. The distant highlands on both sides, are tertiary or 
cretaceous pine terraces, which extend down to, or below, the town of Alex- 
andria, one hundred miles above the junction of the river with the Missis- 
sippi, where they trend away to the north-east from the left bank of the 
river, and to the north-west from its right; and thus the valleys of the two 
rivers are blended into one, in which the deposits of the two rivers are distin- 
guishable — those of the Mississippi being some shade of blue, and those of 
the other streams, a tint of red. In all other respects, their medical topo- 
graphy is so much the same as to render a further description unnecessary. 

The streams generally, which, from the north, fall into Red River below 
the great bend, are limpid; but those of the south, and many of its upper 
tributaries on both sides, have a reddish turbidness, and a brackish taste, 
from traversing rock-salt formations. The redness is from clay, colored with 
peroxyde of iron, the saltness from muriate of soda — both of which impreg- 
nate its alluvial soil, and are regarded as the elements of its unrivaled ferti- 
lity.* We must now notice a few localities. 

II. Alexandria. — This town occupies the right bank of the river, at the 
foot of its rapids, in the parish of Rapide, distant from New Orleans three 
hundred and thirty-six miles, and from the mouth of Red River about one 
hundred. The plain on which it stands rises above high water, but gradually 
sinks to the cypress-swamp level, and continues so for fifteen or twenty 
miles back from the river. Immediately above the town is the foot of the 
rapids, which, when the river is low, cause the navigation to terminate at 
Bayou Rapide. The banks of this bayou are sufficiently elevated for culti- 
vation. Alexandria suffers equally with the towns of the upper part of the 
Delta from autumnal fever, and has once been visited by yellow fever. 

Pine Lands. — Opposite Alexandria the pine lands approach to the very 
shore of Red River. This plateau is handsomely undulated with hill and 
dale, and in the valleys there burst out innumerable springs. The streams 
have transparent water, flowing generally over white sand. The soil is com- 
paratively poor, except the narrow intervals of the streams, which abound in 
magnolias, flowering shrubs, and climbing vines, with the speckled trout in 

* Darby and Flint. 



part 1.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 161 

the shaded waters beneath. Finally, the air has a balmy and terebinthine 
odor. * These pine woods, like those nearer the Gulf, already described, are 
proverbial for their freedom from autumnal fever. v 

III. Natchitoches. — This old, originally Spanish, town is situated on the 
right bank of the river, eighty miles above Alexandria, in N. Lat. 31 u 46'; 
and, in consequence of the rapids which have been mentioned, cannot be 
reached by steamboats when the river is low. According to Flint, it is 
beautifully situated on a well- developed river bank, and extends back to a 
pine bluff, with fine scenery around it. I have not materials for a fuller 
description. The yellow fever has never, as far as I can learn, visited this 
town; though, according to Doctor Monette, cases have occurred in persons 
arriving there from New Orleans; nor is autumnal fever very violent. 

Mr. Darby t informs us that, in the neighborhood of this town, we first 
meet with the pecan, white -flowering locust, and red cedar, in ascending from 
the Gulf of Mexico. 

IV. Fort Jesup. — This post, established in 1822, is situated south-west 
of Natchitoches, on the dividing ridge between Red Paver and the Sabine, 
about twenty-five miles from each. The surrounding forest is composed of 
pine, with an intermixture of oak and hickory. The surface is rolling, and 
somewhat rugged; the geological formation, tertiary. Along the neighboring 
streams there are narrow bottoms, with a dark, tenacious soil, shaded with 
beech, sassafras, mulberry, and cypress. Its latitude is 31° 30' N., longi- 
tude 93° 47' W.; its distance in a direct line from the Gulf, one hundred 
miles. The annual ratio of intermittent fever is twenty-four per cent. ; of 
remittent, seven. | The yellow fever has not invaded it. 

This is the most southern of a range of military posts lying west of, and 
at a distance from, the Mississippi. The others, and more northern, are 
Forts Towson, Smith, Gibson, Leavenworth, and Calhoun. Passing by the 
flourishing town of Shreveport, which I have not the means of describing, 
we come to 

V. Fort Towson. — The latitude of this post is 33° 51' N., its longitude 
95° 1' W. Its site is six miles north of Red River, above the great elbow 
bend. The Kiamiehi, a tributary of that river, passes within the same dis- 
tance of the fort, to the south-east. In front of the post the ground descends 
gradually for a mile, when an undulating prairie, of great extent, begins. 
Immediately in the rear there is an abrupt descent of eighty feet into the val- 
ley, which varies in breadth from a few yards to half a mile, and is bounded 
on the opposite side by rolling tertiary or cretaceous hills, densely covered 
with oak and pine. Through this valley, which is wooded, and has a marshy 
surface, there flows a small tributary of Red River. The soil around the 



* Flint's Recollections. f Statistics of Louisiana. 

tMed. Stat.,U. S. A., p. 237. 
11 



162 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

fort, composed of sand and clay, is not very productive. The annual pre- 
valence of intermittent fever at this post is one hundred and fourteen per 
cent. ; of remittent, twenty. It has not suffered from yellow fever. 

VI. The Washita. — This great tributary of Red River has acquired a 
notoriety which claims for it a more extended notice than I have the means of 
giving. Its origin is in the Ozark Mountains, there called the Washita Hills, 
immediately north of the great bend of Red River, a little below the latitude 
of thirty-four degrees. Taking at first an eastern direction, it turns at length 
to the south-east, and then to the south, when it descends into the Concor- 
dia Bottom ( PL VII), and, under the name of Noire or Black, enters Red 
River about thirty miles from its mouth. Its great tributaries to the east 
are Saline River, joining it some distance up, and the bayous Boeuf, Macon, 
and Tensas, which unite with it in the Mississippi bottom. On the western 
side it receives, nearly opposite these bayous, the Catahoola, or Little River, 
which has traversed Lake Catahoola; and higher up, among minor streams, 
the Dorbone, and Little Missouri. 

Thus the upper portion of this river is in hill lands, and its middle near the 
junction of the hill lands with the Concordia Bottom, where it flows in such 
a direction that, while its right bank looks to the highlands, its left is to the 
bottom, into which it finally descends. Being then joined by the bayous 
just mentioned, it loses the character of an upland stream, and, filled with the 
redundant waters of the Mississippi, in spring and summer overflows its 
banks far and wide. 

In its topography and autumnal diseases, this lower portion of the 
Washita is so much like the lower portions of Red River and the Mississippi, 
that a separate notice is not demanded ; and as there is not on its banks any 
town of interest, we may pass to the region of its upper waters. 

VII. Hot Springs. — Among the upper waters of the Washita, in N. Lat. 
34° 31' and W. Lon. 92° 50' 45", near the base of the south-eastern slope of 
the Ozark Mountains, about six miles north of the Washita River, lie the cele- 
brated Hot Springs.* According to Nicollet,! their elevation is seven hun- 
dred and eighteen feet above the G-ulf of Mexico ; the altitudes of several 
neighboring ridges being nine hundred and ninety-seven, eleven hundred and 
sixty-two, and fourteen hundred and six. The springs are about seventy in 
number, and burst out near each other in the same valley. In temperature, 
they range from ninety-two to one hundred and fifty-one of Fahrenheit. 
They are limpid, emit no bubbles of gas, and have no particular taste. Like 
many other hot springs, they hold silex in solution; for they deposit a tufa 
which is composed of that earth, with lime and oxyde of iron.! The sur- 
rounding rocks manifest more or less of a volcanic character, as I am 



* Major Long's Expedition to Rocky Mountains, Vol. II, p. 289, etc. 
t Hydrograph. Basin. 
| Expedition, Ibid. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 163 

informed by Doctor "Warder, who has specimens of them in his cabinet ; and 
according to Colonel Long, many of them are in strata highly inclined to the 
horizon. The scenes of this region has an aspect of wildness and grandeur, 
and its summer and autumnal salubrity is unquestionable. 

For the people of the far south, the Washita Springs might be made an 
interesting summer resort, as this is their nearest mountain locality; and to 
invalids of the southern part of the Interior Valley whose diseases require a 
resort to hot springs, those of the Washita are far more convenient than the 
hot springs on the mountains of Virginia. If our physicians would turn the 
attention of their patients to this locality, the only objection — a want of 
comfortable accommodations — would soon be obviated. 



SECTION V. 

THE ARKANSAS RIVER. 

< 

I. General Topography. — The distant origin, in the Rocky Mountains, 
of this great tributary of the Mississippi, has been already given in treating 
of our hydrographical axes. It is, essentially, an alluvial river. In traver- 
sing the boundless plains between those mountains and the Mississippi, most 
of its southern tributaries, and especially Canadian River, pour in currents 
of salt water, colored red with the ocherous clays which belong to the rock- 
salt strata, while others throw in sand and blue clay. Thus, its alluvial de- 
posits, before it reaches the Mississippi, exhibit considerable variety. Below 
Little Rock, cretaceous pine bluffs approach its right-hand bank, the bottoms 
on the opposite side being low and broad. At length these hills recede, and 
its alluvial plains blend themselves with those of the Mississippi, and abound 
in lakes, bayous, and swamps, which are annually replenished by the spring 
floods. The junction of the two rivers is about in N. Lat. 33° 40' and W. 
Lon. 90° 34'. 

In ascending the river, after passing Little Rock, the traveler enters the 
range of Ozark Mountains, through which, without falls or even rapids, the 
river makes its way. At Fort Smith, nearly three hundred miles up, he still 
finds a rugged country ; but at Fort Gibson, one hundred miles further, and 
about six hundred and thirty miles from the mouth of the river, the moun- 
tains have ceased, and the prairies, which stretch away to the Rocky Moun- 
tains, are seen on every side. That portion of the valley which traverses 
the hill country is much narrower than that below, and the bottoms are far 
less liable to inundation. The deposits which are made upon them by the 
freshets of the river abound in common salt, and the water which is left 
behind contains a great deal of that salt in solution ; which, Mr. Nuttall sup- 



164 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

poses, checks the progress of organic decomposition in summer and autumn, 
and diminishes the prevalence of intermittent and remittent fevers.* 

Of that, the longer, portion of the river which lies beyond Fort Gribson, in 
the great prairies, I need not speak, as its banks are almost uninhabited. 

II. Little Rock. — Of the most important town in the valley of the 
Arkansas, I can say but little. Its latitude is 34° 45' 25" N., — its eleva- 
tion above the level of the Oulf, three hundred and thirty- two feet — that 
of Big Rock, three miles above, six hundred and eighty.f Thus the town of 
Little Rock is beyond the limits of the alluvial beds of the Mississippi. In 
fact, there are on the south side of the Arkansas a series of cretaceous bluffs, 
below the town. On the immediate topography of this locality I cannot 
speak for want of facts. It has never been visited by yellow fever; and is 
not, I believe, greatly infested with intermittents and remittents, considering 
its latitude, and the contiguity of the river. 

III. Fort Smith.— The site of this post, in N. Lat. 35° 22', and W. 
Lon. 94° 10', is the right bank of Arkansas River, which, at that point, 
flows directly north. A tributary passes near the fort, on it south side, and 
enters the river just above it. Small lakes and marshes abound in every 
direction, some of which are subject to inundation from the river. The ter- 
race on which the fort stands is about fifty feet above the alluvial plains, 
and consists of a dark-colored, slaty, micaceous sandstone. J The country 
beyond the bottom lands is broken, with some eminences which are almost 
mountainous. || 

The returns from this post indicate a decided prevalence of autumnal 
fever, especially the intermittent form, the annual ratio of which is one hun- 
dred and seven per cent. ; that of remittents, fourteen. In the autumn of 
the year 1823, there prevailed a malignant fever, which put on many of the 
symptoms of yellow fever, of which more will be said in the history of that 
disease. § 

IV. Fort Gibson. — The latitude of this post is 35° 48' N., its longitude 
95° 9' W. It is situated on the left bank of the Neosho River, a northern 
tributary of the Arkansas, three miles above their junction. Its site is a 
low bottom ; and about a mile and a half to its south south-west, between 
the two rivers, their lies a small lake surrounded with marshes. The descent 
to this lake from the fort is very little, and hence the latter is badly drained. 
This bottom, including the place where the fort is built, was a cane-brake. 
Cane is found also on the opposite or south side of the river, which abounds 
in ponds and marshes. Immediately above the mouth of Neosho River, 
Verdigris Creek enters the Arkansas, and adds to the alluvial grounds on 



* Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. — Nuttall's Travels in Arkansas.- 
Featherstonhaugh's Report and Excursion. 

t Nicollet : Hydrograph. Basin. || Med. Stat. U. S. A. 

X Nuttall's Travels. § Ibid. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 165 

the west. For three-fourths of the distance round it, this locality is envi- 
roned by elevated prairies, terminating in a range of hills. As might be 
expected, the army reports represent this as a very sickly post in autumn — 
the most sickly, indeed, in the whole Interior Valley, except, perhaps, Fort 
Jackson, below New Orleans; the annual average being, for intermittents 
one hundred and twenty, for remittents, twenty-five per cent.* 



SECTION VI. 

THE OZARK MOUNTAINS. 

In advancing by a single step through four degrees of latitude, from the 
Arkansas to the Missouri River, it is is proper to make a few general 
remarks concerning the country between them. This has been already done 
for its eastern margin, as we ascended the Mississippi ; when we saw that, 
from the mouth of St. Francis River to that of the Missouri, more than six 
hundred miles, no considerable stream enters the common trough. Of the 
whole, the Maramec, below St. Louis, is the largest, but does not present 
anything of interest to the medical topographer. 

The Arkansas, nearly as high as we ascend it, flows through the state of 
Arkansas; and the Missouri, in like manner, advances to the Mississippi 
through the state of Missouri. As we leave the right bank of the Missis- 
sippi, and advance westwardly between these rivers, we are everywhere on 
high, rolling, forest land; which at length rises into the Ozark Mountains, 
the position and outline of which were sketched in Chapter I, and may be seen 
on the map of the Valley. On the flanks of these mountains lie the cele- 
brated lead, iron, and copper mines of Missouri, mostly west of Ste. Genevieve. 
To the south, these mountains send down branches of the River St. Francis, 
the whole of White River, and some small tributaries of the Arkansas, which 
join it above Little Rock. To the north, they throw off the Maramec. 
which finally turns to the east, and unites with the Mississippi; also the 
Gasconade, and large branches of the Osage, which flow to the Missouri. This 
elevated hydrographical center of two states abounds in pure and permanent 
springs, is exempt from lakes and marshes, and forms a striking contrast in 
its topography with the broad and wet alluvial bottoms of Red River, the 
"Washita, and Arkansas, over which we have just passed. This topographical 
change results from a change in the geological constitution, which is here 
entirely different. Loose tertiary and cretaceous deposits, easily moved about 
by the currents of rivers, and thus favoring the production of wide alluvial 
bottoms, are replaced by older and more solid strata of carboniferous and 
Silurian lime and sandstone, reposing upon, or around, unstratified or primitive 
rocks. Thus it is that mineral geology illustrates medical topography. 

*Med. Stat. U. S. A. 



166 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 



Of the autumnal diseases of this region, I cannot speak with much 
authority; but whatever I can say, is in its favor. Beyond the western 
slopes of these mountains, we come to the great treeless plain, which ascends 
to the Rocky Mountains. It begins between the ninety-fourth and ninety- 
fifth degrees of west longitude, that is, not far east of the western boundary 
of the states of Missouri and Arkansas ; and there, equidistant between the 
Arkansas and the Missouri, we have the interlocking sources of two of their 
considerable tributaries, the Neosho and Osage, which flow off nearly in 
opposite directions. 



SECTION VII. 

THE MISSOURI RIVER. 

I. General Description. — Having myself ascended the Missouri River 
to Fort Leavenworth, nearly four hundred miles, beyond which, from the 
sparseness of population, the banks at present offer but little interest to the 
medical topographer, I am enabled to speak with more confidence than of 
Red River and the Arkansas, which I did not explore. 

According to Nicollet,* the junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi, 
fourteen hundred and eight miles from the Gulf of Mexico, is in N. Lat. 38° 
50' 50" and W. Lon. 90° 13' 45". Its surface, at low water, is three hun- 
dred and eighty-eight feet above the Gulf. Its general course from Fort 
Leavenworth to its mouth is so nearly east, that the difference in latitude 
between the two points is only thirty-one minutes fifty seconds, and most of 
that difference accruesbetween Fort Leavenworth and the Kansas River, the 
mouth of which is only fifteen minutes thirteen seconds north of the 
junction of the Missouri with the Mississippi. The trough, or immediate 
valley, through which the Missouri flows, is from two to four miles wide ; and 
bounded by rocky limestone hills, which rise to the hight of from one hun- 
dred to three hundred feet. The fall in the Missouri from Fort Leaven- 
worth to the mouth of the river, a distance of three hundred and seventy 
miles, is, according to Nicollet, three hundred and fifty-eight feet, — nearly a 
foot a mile, and within thirty feet of the entire descent afterwards to the 
Gulf of Mexico, a distance of fourteen hundred and eight miles. 

Nearly all the Missouri bottoms are on the north or left side, the river 
pressing against bluffs to the south or right side ; as the Mississippi, below 
the mouth of the Ohio, presses on its bluffs to the east or left-hand side. 
Most of these bottoms, in occasional extraordinary floods, like that of 1844, 
are liable to inundation ; but ordinarily, the greater part are exempt. Ponds, 
lagoons, and swamps are, therefore, much less common than along the Missis- 
sippi below; and from the narrowness of the valley, they are, of course, 

* Hydrograph. Basin. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 167 

much more limited. Another cause contributing to the same exemption, is 
the sandy and absorbing quality of the ground, which, along the Mississippi, 
is more resistant to percolation. On these bottoms, the cotton-tree takes the 
place of the cypress in the south. 

The voyages of Lewis and Clark, and subsequently of Breckinridge, Cat- 
lin, and Nicollet, inform us, that from its remote sources in the Rocky Moun- 
tains, the Missouri flows down an inclined plain, the upper strata of which 
are in most places but slightly consolidated, and therefore easily disintegrated 
and transported. Much of it is, no doubt, a tertiary deposit, and a part is 
known to be cretaceous ; thus giving us formations far in the interior analo- 
gous to those around the Gulf. It is in the passage of the Missouri and its 
great tributaries, especially the Yellow Stone and Platte, through these loose 
deposits, that its waters become thoroughly impregnated with all the mineral 
or organic substances they can either dissolve or suspend. To the suspen- 
sion, the rapidity of the current greatly contributes ; while, in floods, it also 
rolls or drifts onward various matters too heavy to be floated. These are 
chiefly sand and small gravel. Arriving at the limpid and delicately tinted 
Mississippi, it pours into the common channel its drab-colored and muddy 
torrents, to roll on for clarification in the Gulf of Mexico. I have already 
stated that a gallon of this water taken from the Mississippi opposite St. 
Louis, yielded one hundred and eighty grains of sediment, giving the re- 
markable proportion of one part by weight to three hundred and thirty- 
three of water.* 

Of the drifting of sand upon its banks and over its alluvial plains, I wit- 
nessed a striking example, in ascending the river after the great freshet in 
1844. For about four hundred miles, there was scarcely a single plantation 
in the bottoms which had not suffered; and many were entirely desolated, 
the sand having been spread over them, in many parts near the river, to a 
depth of several feet. Literally, low sand-drifts occupied the very spots on 
which houses and fences had stood before the inundation. In places where 
the current had slackened, recent deposits of silt covered the surface, which, 
by a single inundation, was raised several inches. The great proportion of 
sand in these alluvial bottoms, renders them much more friable than the 
argillaceous banks of the Lower Mississippi; and hence they are ever falling 
in, and maintaining the turbidness of the stream, which meanwhile is making- 
new deposits and new drifts ; whereby its channel is perpetually changing. 

The intervals or bottom lands of the Missouri are covered with a luxuriant 
tree and herbaceous vegetation; and as many of them are more or less sub- 
merged by the ordinary spring floods, there is no deficiency of those surface 
conditions which, as we have seen in so many localities, favor the production 



* This result was ascertained by Doctor Raymond, in his analysis, given on page 75. 
It was, strictly, Missouri water in which Professor Bailey found so great a variety of 
animalcules. — See p. 71. 



168 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

of autumnal fever ; and there is no exemption from that epidemic. On the 
contrary, it prevails in the bottoms and on the bluffs every year, though the 
number of malignant cases is not, perhaps, as great as in more southern 
localities of the same topographical character. 

II. Osage River. — This river, the sources of which have been already 
indicated, after pursuing a north-east course through a rugged country, en- 
ters the Missouri by its right bank, one hundred and thirty miles from its 
mouth, and eight miles below the capital of the state, presently to be 
described. From Mr. John Johnson, who resides eighteen miles from its 
mouth, I learned, that the back-water of the Missouri, in 1844, ascended 
beyond his residence ; and that the flood of the Osage itself deluged its bot- 
toms from Warsaw down, that is, through nearly half its length. Uusually, 
however, it does not overflow its banks. In freshets its waters are turbid, 
at all other times, clear, but not so remarkably limpid as those of the Gas- 
conade, a smaller tributary of the Missouri, entering a little lower down. 
The latter comes entirely from the northern slopes of the Ozark Mountains. 
The immediate valley of Osage River varies from half a mile to a mile in 
width. Its inhabitants, and those of the adjacent hills, are subject to au- 
tumnal fever ; but malignant cases are rare. 

III. Jefferson City — the capital of the state of Missouri — stands on 
a group of right-hand bluffs, one hundred and thirty- seven miles up the 
river. There is no interval land in front, but on the opposite side of the 
river there lies a bottom of the usual width, which is liable to partial inunda- 
tion from ordinary floods. Directly west of the town, a creek, which has 
passed near it on the south, enters the Missouri. When the river is high, 
the back-water ascends this little stream and submerges its narrow bottoms. 
The country beyond this creek, and generally around the city on the south 
side of the Missouri, is elevated and rugged, the hills being composed of car- 
boniferous limestone. The buildings in the city are scattered, and none of 
them very old. Visiting it in the latter part of August, I had an opportu- 
nity of seeing that it is subject, in a very positive degree, to autumnal fever, 
chiefly intermittent. I saw, indeed, malignant or congestive cases, and found 
that the medical gentlemen were familiar with them. Doctor Edwards in- 
formed me, that the disease prevailed as much on the city bluffs, at an esti- 
mated hight of two hundred feet, as in the bottom opposite the town ; and 
that it was less prevalent on the margin of the bottom, than back from the 
river. Doctor W. Davison has observed, that the people near the creek, 
west of the city, both in its valley and on the adjacent hills, are more liable 
to fever than those farther east. He has also remarked, that the inhabitants 
three or four miles from the river, are more exempt than those who reside on 
its bluffs. Having formerly practiced medicine in the old town of Wheeling, 
Virginia, he was enabled to say, that his present locality was more infested 
with autumnal fever than the former. 

IV. Roonville. — This is another bluff-town on the same right-hand 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 169 

bank of the river, fifty miles higher up, and one hundred and eighty-seven 
from the mouth of the Missouri. The bluffs, still composed of carboniferous 
limestone, are less rugged and much less elevated than those of Jefferson 
City; being, according to Nicollet, only seventy-two feet above low water 
mark, and six hundred and two above the Gulf of Mexico. The country 
around Boonville is dry and rolling, but on the opposite side of the river, 
there is a bottom two miles wide. Visiting Boonville and Jefferson City 
near the same time, I had an opportunity of comparing them, as to autumnal 
fever, and found it decidedly more prevalent at the latter, than the former. 
From Doctor Hart, Doctor Thomas, and Doctor Stockton, I learned, that 
the people who live near the La Mine, the Saline, and other smaller streams, 
which meander among the low hills around Boonville, are more subject to 
autumnal fever than those of the town and its vicinity. These streams 
have alluvial bottoms, of moderate width, which are partially overflowed by 
every freshet, or have portions of their surface converted into temporary 
swamps by copious rains. Many of them, moreover, are rendered stagnant 
by mill-dams. In a confined locality of this kind, seven or eight miles from 
the river, Doctor Thomas had seen many malignant and fatal intermittents. 
In an excursion with Doctor Stockton, five miles from town, into the valley 
of Petite Saline, which is a mile wide, flat, wet, and traversed by a stream, 
converted by dams into a series of ponds, I found the fever decidedly and 
fatally prevalent. 

Y. Franklin, Fayette, and Howard County. — Let us pass to the 
opposite side of the river. The older village of Franklin, one of the earliest 
settlements on the Missouri, has been arrested in its growth and partly de- 
populated by Boonville. The sandy and friable bottom on which it stands, 
or rather, on which it stood, is not only liable to overflows, but to extensive 
cavings-in of its banks. In consequence of this, a village called New Frank- 
lin has arisen on the low bluffs in its rear. Through this village, I made an 
excursion of twelve miles, to the town of Fayette, in Howard County. The 
substrata are carboniferous limestone, and the surface is low, ridgy, or rol- 
ling. A ^mill-stream, called the Bonne Fcmme, traverses the county from 
north to south, up which the back-water of the flood of 1844 ascended ten 
miles. Both the Femme and its principal branches have bottoms from a 
quarter to half a mile in width, which, after floods or great rains, are left 
wet and pondy. The town of Fayette is on rolling and sufficiently dry 
ground. All parts of this county, — which may be taken as a specimen of 
the most fertile and desirable of the wood-land portions of Missouri, — are ob- 
noxious to autumnal fever, especially near the streams. In the month of 
August I saw a number of cases, some of which were malignant ; and Doc- 
tor Talbot, who had resided in the county several years, testified to the an- 
nual visitations, which, although general, are much more violent near the 
sluggish streams than elsewhere. 

VI. Arrow Bock. — This village is situated fifteen miles above Boon- 



170 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ville, and two hundred from the mouth of the river. Like the last, it stands 
on a level, but more elevated, rocky bluff on the right hand, and is built a 
little further back from the river. Opposite to it, the Missouri bottom is 
liable to inundation in river floods, and throughout the year abounds more or 
less in ponds and sloughs. In the rear of the village, on the south side of 
the river, at the distance of a few miles back, runs the edge of an extensive 
prairie. The village of Arrow Rock, according to Doctor Price, is not 
greatly infested with autumnal fever. The opposite bottom, and the prairies 
behind the village, suffer much more. 

VII. Miami. — This new and inconsiderable village, on a locality more 
hilly even than Vicksburg, or any other town we have described, is found on 
the right bank of the river, about fifty miles above the last. The river flows 
against the foot of the bluffs, and presents wide and low alluvions on the north 
side. Indeed, for some distance before reaching this point, the bottoms are 
broader, more depressed, more swampy, and bear a greater resemblance to 
those of the Mississippi, than the bottoms lower down the Missouri. To their 
vicinity it is owing, perhaps, that the village of Miami, notwithstanding its 
rugged site, and the absence of all stagnant water near it on the south side of 
the river, is decidedly liable to autumnal fever. This, in fact, is not a con- 
jecture; for, since my visit in 1844, I have been informed by Doctor Towles, 
that when, in summer and autumn, the wind sets over the village from that 
bottom, the fever inevitably appears. 

VIII. Saline County. — This is the name of the large county in which 
the two last-mentioned villages are situated. The Missouri here makes a 
great bend to the north, and hence the distance between those villages is 
much greater by the river than on the chord of the arc. Except a margin 
near the Missouri River, slips along the branches of the La Mine (which 
joins the Missouri above Boonviile), and copses of small trees, shrubs, and 
vines, scattered here and there, this county is made up of undulating prairie, 
which, from any point, extends in all directions to the limit of vision. Many 
small natural ponds, and a greater number of wet prairies, generally con- 
nected with sluggish brooks, are met with. In fact, the grass materially 
interferes with the ready and rapid flow of the rains which fall on the prairie 
surface. The sub-stratum is carboniferous limestone, — the soil fertile, black, 
and abounding in organic matter. The prairies of Saline County are the 
beginning of the great plains which stretch south to the Arkansas River, and 
west to the Rocky Mountains; and this description maybe received as appli- 
cable to their eastern margin generally. When visiting this county in 1844, 
I was told by Doctor Long, of the interior village of Marshall, and by 
Doctors Tait and Towles, of Miami, that intermittent and remittent fevers 
prevail in all parts of it, but do not often assume a malignant character. 

IX. Lexington. — The young but rapidly growing town of Lexington, 
like the others, stands on the south side of the river, and is two hundred and 
ninety-four miles from its mouth. The Missouri washes the base of the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 171 

nearly perpendicular limestone bluffs on -which it is built. The elevation may 
be two hundred feet above the river. Immediately east of Lexington there 
are strata of shale, which, I presume, underlie the coal and carboniferous 
limestone through which we have passed from the mouth of the river; and if 
so, the limestone on which the town is built must be the upper Silurian. 
The prairies here approach within two miles of the river, and the moment we 
enter them, small miry and lagging rivulets, with swampy tracts, the whole 
having a dense covering of grass, are met with. The slip of wood-land which 
separates them from the river, is dry and hilly. On the north or opposite 
side of the Missouri, the bottom is broad, depressed, densely wooded, liable to 
annual inundation, and abounding in ponds and swamps, some of which are 
permanent. Lexington, on the whole, does not appear to be seriously infested 
with autumnal fever. The prairies, as in Saline County, are generally, but 
not violently affected. Doctor Vaughan and Doctor Vivian, of the village of 
Dover, near Lexington, have occasionally seen intermittents of a malignant 
and fatal character along the creeks up which the back-water of the Missouri 
flows. Doctor Flournoy and Doctor Digges, of Lexington, regard the low 
bottom on the opposite side of the river as more unhealthy than the town, or 
the adjacent prairies. 

X. Mouth of Kansas River. — The bed of the Kansas River, near its 
mouth, is so level that its current, when the river is not swollen above the 
Missouri, is occasionally sluggish. On the upper side, its banks are high, — 
on the lower, there is an alluvial bottom of moderate width, which is liable 
to submersion. A mile below its mouth, at the foot of a bluff less elevated 
than that on which Lexington is built, is Westport Landing, where a number 
of families reside. On the opposite side of the river, there is a low and foul 
bottom of great extent, which is liable to inundation, and is but thinly 
peopled. In the month of August, I found a decided prevalence of autumnal 
fever among the inhabitants of Westport, both at the base and at the sum- 
mits of the bluffs. 

The western boundary of Missouri, from the state of Arkansas to the 
Missouri River, is the meridian of the mouth of the Kansas River, which is 
found, three hundred and seventy-two miles from the Mississippi, in Lon. 
94« 32' 54" W., and Lat. 39° 6' 3" N. The low water-level of the 
Missouri is, at this point, seven hundred feet above the Gulf .* The altitude 
of the adjoining hills may be one hundred and fifty feet higher. 

XL Methodist Manual Labor School, and other Missionary Sta- 
tions. — These establishments are found near each other, in the Indian coun- 
try, a few miles south-west of the junction of the Kansas with the Missouri. 
The aspect of the region which they occupy is gently rolling, with intermin- 
gled prairie and wood-land, — the former predominating. Along the small 
streams there are slips of grassy marsh, but no extensive swamps. Perma- 

* Fremont's First Report, p. 182, 183. 



172 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

nent springs are numerous. The rocks beneath are Silurian limestone. The 
Baptist Mission buildings were erected on a prairie; but in 1844, when I 
was there, a grove of various kinds of forest trees had sprung up ; apparently 
from the annual burning of the grass having been prevented. The number 
of benevolent white persons, of both sexes, attached to the two establish- 
ments which have been named, and a third under the management of the 
Society of Friends, has for several years been sufficient to test the autumnal 
salubrity of this locality ; which is decidedly healthier than the bluffs at the 
mouth of the Kansas, or the prairies of Saline County; the former compari- 
son showing the insalubrious influence of the river, and the latter announ- 
cing the great fact that, as we proceed westwardly on the prairies, autumnal 
fever becomes less and less prevalent. 

XII. Fort Leavenworth. — This post stands on a high limestone bluff, 
on the right hand side of the river, four hundred miles from its mouth, in 
Lat. 39° 22' 40" N., and Lon. 94° 44' W. The low water-surface of the 
river is seven hundred and forty-six feet above the Gulf; * the summit of 
the hill on which the fort is erected, is about nine hundred feet. The river, 
flowing nearly south, dashes strongly against the rocks at the base of this 
hill. Half-way up, there breaks out a copious spring of water, the tempera- 
ture of which I found to be fifty-four degrees, Fahrenheit, in the month of 
August. On the opposite side of the river, there is a broad and miry bot- 
tom, with all the characteristics of those further down the river. On the 
same side with the fort, above and below, but not very near, there are nar- 
rower bottoms. The ground stretching off to the south from Fort Leaven- 
worth, inclines a little, and becomes undulatory. It presents both prairie and 
wood-land, the former greatly predominating, and becoming still more pre- 
dominant as we advance westwardly. In different directions not far from 
the fort, I observed small tracts of grassy swamp. While this was a new 
post the prevalence of autumnal fever was much greater than at present, 
although the condition of the low bottom on the opposite side of the Mis- 
souri has not been materially changed ; which shows that a part, at least, of 
the early sickness was owing to topographical conditions nearer the site of 
the fort, which have been obviated. As the dragoons stationed here often 
spent a portion of the summer and autumn in excursions on the prairies, the 
returns do not admit of an accurate estimate of the ratios of intermittent and 
remittent fevers. 

XIII. Settlements North of the Missouri River. — These settle- 
ments belong either to the state of Missouri, which extends up to the lati- 
tude of forty degrees thirty minutes, or to the southern or south-eastern 
part of Iowa, which rests upon that parallel. The former were made 
first ; but all are comparatively new. The principal river of this region, 



* Nicollet : Hydrograph. Basin. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 173 

belonging chiefly to Iowa, is the Des Moines, which originates on the Coteau 
des Prairies, between the St. Peter's and the Missouri, and flows nearly to 
the south-east, until it reaches the Mississippi. 

Within the state of Missouri the population of this region is chiefly 
found in the little basins of Salt River, which flows into the Mississippi, and 
of the Chariton, the Grand, and the Little Platte Rivers, which empty into 
the Missouri. Of this region, I can say but little. It presents a mixture of 
wood-land and prairie, the latter increasing as we advance from the Missouri 
or Mississippi ; the surface is either flat or undulating ; the rivers have wide 
bottoms ; and intermittent and remittent fevers are annual epidemics. When 
describing Boonville, some account was given of Howard County lying within 
this region. 

The principal rivers of south-eastern Iowa ( after the Des Moines ) are 
the Shikagua, Iowa, Wabezipimkau, and Makokety. As far as is known to 
me, the country through which they flow, is in the main similar to northern 
Missouri, with less autumnal fever, because in higher latitudes. 

XIV. The Great Plains — The Indian Country. — If the reader will 
turn to the map of the Interior Valley ( PI. I), he may, by the descriptions 
in this chapter, trace the boundary line of the Caucasian and Indian popu- 
lations. To do this, he must descend from Santa Fe, in N. Lat. 35 Q 41' and 
W. Lon. 106°, keeping on the east side of the Rio del Norte, until he comes 
to the back settlements of Texas, about latitude thirty-three ; then turn east- 
wardly to the state of Arkansas ; then ascend on the ninety-fourth meridian 
to the mouth of the Kansas ; then go up the Missouri River to the northern 
boundary of the state of Missouri, in Lat. 40° 30'; and then travel north 
north-east to the junction of the St. Peter's with the Mississippi, in N. Lat. 
44° 52' 46" and W. Lon. 93° 4' 54". In following such a line, he will 
have a Europo- American population to his right, and an Indian population to 
his left. Having done this, and cast his eyes on the Appalachian Mountains 
to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west, he will at once perceive 
the vastness of the savannas which are still in the joint occupancy of migra- 
tory herds of buffaloes, and the savage tribes which follow on their trails. The 
natural characteristics of this boundless region may (as far as etiology is 
interested ) be sketched in a few sentences. It extends through fifteen de- 
grees of latitude; rises regularly from south-east to north-west until it 
reaches the base of the Rocky Mountains ; has but little forest, except along 
its streams ; consists, at and near its surface, of sand and other loose matters, 
which largely imbibe its rivers ; enjoys but little rain, compared with the 
more eastern part of the Valley; from the dryness of the surface and the 
absence of trees, often becomes greatly heated in summer ; from its declivity, 
its destitution of forest, and its contiguity to the Rocky Mountains, expe- 
riences unwonted coldness in winter ; and finally, suffers extensive running 
fires, when its grass has dried in autumn. 

Such a region, except near the rivers which traverse its lower latitudes, 



174 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

can never be much infested with intermittent and remittent fevers ; but it 
may be scourged with the phlegmasia of the lungs and joints. Its summer 
health is likely to be greater than its winter. 

XV. Journeys of Health on the Great Plains. — There are three 
routes by which invalids may traverse the plains. 

First. The Missouri Route. — The Missouri is the only river of the entire 
region that will admit of steamboat navigation. The opportunity for making 
a distant voyage on this river does not often occur, and when it does, it should 
not be preferred to the others, by any who have health and strength to travel 
by land. The voyage, when made, is always for the purposes of trade, and is 
sometimes limited to the Council Bluffs, the site of the vacated Fort Calhoun, 
eight hundred miles from St. Louis; at others, extended to Fort Pierre Chou- 
teau, a fur-trading establishment, five hundred miles further, above the forty- 
fourth degree of north latitude, and at a low-water river- elevation of four- 
teen hundred and fifty-six feet over the G-ulf, or nearly eleven hundred feet 
above the Mississippi at St. Louis. Such changes of latitude and elevation 
must necessarily give a pleasant and invigorating summer climate to sou- 
thern invalids, the effects of which will be hightened by the novelty and 
wildness of the scenery. The slow progress of the boat against the rapid 
current of the Missouri in ascending, and the frequent obstacles and stop- 
pages, should be regarded as recommendations, and not objections, to the 
voyage; as they would afford opportunities for exercise or amusement on 
shore. 

Second. The over-land route to Oregon. — This road leaves the Missouri at 
or below the mouth of the Kansas; ascends the valley of that river for some 
distance; then turns north of west to the Nebraska or Big Platte, and, tra- 
versing the Black Hills, makes its way to the South Pass of the Rocky 
Mountains. In making a summer journey on this route, as there is not 
much northing, and very limited forests, the heat may be oppressive, until a 
high altitude is attained; but fevers need not be apprehended. After 
passing the hundredth meridian, the dews are so inconsiderable, that but 
little inconvenience is felt from lodging on the grass, even without a tent. 
Excursions of health, science, and pleasure united, might be made by parties, 
to the distance of several hundred miles ; where, in the voiceless solitudes of 
the desert, they might pitch their tents, and plunge into rustication. Inva- 
lids, moreover, might attach themselves to companies of emigrants bound for 
Oregon or Upper California; returning home as opportunities might offer. 
In such journeys they would find that radically curative and reinvigorating 
influence which short excursions cannot, of course, impart. 

Third. The route to Santa Ft. — Of the three routes this is, and for a 
long time will continue to be, the most traveled. Bearing a little to the 
south of west, it does not give the advantage of as cool a climate as the 
others; but the surface which is traveled over docs not generate autumnal 
fevers. Moreover, this route may be pursued at a later period in autumn than 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 175 

either of the others. Another recommendation is, that the distance is not so 
great as that to Oregon; and yet, after reaching Santa Fe, he has it in his power 
to prolong his journey, by descending the valley of the Rio del Norte to the 
luscious vineyards of the El Paso; or he may ascend to the rich and beautiful 
valley of Taos; and thence scale the surrounding outliers of the Rocky 
Mountains.. His elevation, while sojourning in these valleys, will be from 
five to seven thousand feet above the Gulf — quite equal to that of the 
Tierras Templadas, or temperate countries of Mexico ; in addition to which, 
the snowy summits of the neighboring mountains will often refresh him with 
cool and strength-giving breezes of pure air. 

From a deep conviction of the value of these overland journeys to several 
classes of valetudinarians, I am constrained to point out some of the various 
modes in which they operate : 1. The patient escapes from that malaria, or 
that condition of the atmosphere, which, in the larger portions of the Great 
Valley, gives origin to intermittent and remittent fevers, too often followed 
by infirmities for which a change of locality is the only effectual remedy. 
2. He is constantly immersed in a dryer air. 3. He lodges on a hard 
bed. 4. He lives on a reduced, solid, and simple diet. 5. He drinks 
water. 6. He takes regular saddle exercise, or relieves himself \fy walk- 
ing. 7. His eye and mind are constantly exercised, on objects which 
stand in contrast with those he has left behind. 8. He is divested of his 
old cares; and his new ones, although constant realities, are few in number. 
9. He is redeemed from the dominion of empiricism and polypharmacy. 
Such are the therapeutics of these journeys ; and to what infirmities are 
they applicable? Every enlightened physician will answer: 1. To all forms 
of dyspepsia, even that depending on chronic gastritis. 2. To chronic dis- 
orders of the liver, spleen, and bowels. 3. To morbid sensibility and mor- 
bid imagination, — including every shade of hysteria and hypochondriasis. 
4. To apoplexy in its incipiently-forming stage, and to lingering and par- 
tial palsies, following its attack. 5. To haemoptysis, depending on plethora 
or hasmorrhagic diathesis. 6. To tubercular consumption in every stage, 
from the earliest predisposition to that in which the patient has merely the 
ability to keep in his saddle through the day. 

But it may be said, these journeys abound in exposures, fatigues, and pri- 
vations. Undoubtedly they do ; and it is on them that the benefit chiefly 
depends. Take them away, and a journey over the desert to the Rocky 
Mountains would be scarcely more efficacious than the fashionable voyage to 
Europe. 



176 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE GULF AND 
THE MISSISSIPPI, AND SOUTH OF THE OHIO BASIN. 



SECTION I. 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND GEOLOGICAL OUTLINES. 

I. Limits. — The region on which we now enter, comprises the western 
side of Florida, the western margin of G-eorgia, nearly the whole of Alabama, 
a portion of East Louisiana, the entire state of Mississippi, and the west end 
of Tennessee. It is in fact a large section of the Great Valley, and presents 
to the medical topographer subjects of the gravest interest. 

II. Hill Country — Old Geological Formations. — The north-eastern 
portions of this region, in "Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi, are mountain- 
ous or hilly, being the extreme southern termination of the Appalachian 
chain, turned westwardly toward the Mississippi River. From these high- 
lands, streams pour down to the Tennessee River, to be discharged, by a 
circuitous course, into the Ohio, while others, larger and more numerous, 
flow directly to the Gulf. That portion of this water-shed which lies within 
the state of Georgia and the adjoining eastern side of Alabama, is composed 
of primitive rocks ; while further west, through the latter state, into Missis- 
sippi, the rock formations consist of the older secondary or Silurian lime- 
stones, and of the sandstones and shales which belong to the superincumbent 
coal formation. On the Coosa River, as far down as Wetumpka, primitive 
rocks, in the form of gneiss and mica slate, show themselves; and at Tusca- 
loosa, the late capital of Alabama, on the Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior 
River, and on the Catawba, above Centreville, coal makes its appearance at 
the surface. 

III. The Cretaceous Formation. — Immediately south and west of these 
formations, and sweeping round from Georgia to West Tennessee, we have 
the larger portion of the most extensive cretaceous formation which exists any- 
where (as far as we yet know) in the Great Valley, or indeed on the continent 
of North America. The western portion of this formation, lying beyond the 
Mississippi River, and traversed by the Washita and Arkansas, has been 
already noticed. The Mississippi cuts through this formation ( which con- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 177 

stitutes its bluffs), from the western extremity of Kentucky, to a line not far 
above Vicksburg in the state of Mississippi. In addition to the Mississippi, 
it is traversed by the Yazoo and Big Black, tributaries of that river ; and 
further east, by Pearl River, the Tombeckbee, Tuscaloosa, Cahawba, Coosa, 
Tallapoosa, Chattahoochee, and Flint Rivers, the last two of which, by their 
union, form the Appalachicola. As the strata of the cretaceous formation 
dip to the south, these various rivers traverse them at right angles to their 
lines of bearing. The general surface of this cretaceous formation, near its 
northern margin, is hilly; further south, and in the neighborhood of the 
rivers, it is somewhat rugged, with extensive intervening plains, or table 
lands, from which the water, in many places, runs off with difficulty ; and 
hence sluggish and swampy streams are not uncommon. As the strata are 
soft, the rivers, both small and large, have formed wide valleys, most of which 
are subject to inundation. Although the rocks, geologically speaking, belong 
to the cretaceous formation, no chalk has yet been discovered. The chief 
deposits are calcareous, and called by the people 'rotten limestone/ 
They consist of an argillaceous, friable carbonate of lime; but there are, 
likewise, soft sandstone, and strata of clay, sand, and gravel, of whicji some 
details may be given hereafter. Where the last two are at the surface, the 
rains percolate into the earth, and form permanent springs of pure, soft 
water ; but where the rotten limestone shows itself at the surface, as it is 
free from fissures, and impervious to water, the springs are few, superficial, 
and transient. 

Beginning at the east, the principal towns in the cretaceous formation are, 
Columbus, Georgia, on the left bank of the Chattahoochee River ; Montgom- 
ery, the new capital of Alabama; Wetumpka, Selma, Cahawba, Marion, 
Greensboro, Demopolis, Eutaw, Tuscaloosa, and Pickensville, in Alabama ; 
Columbus, Yazoo, Pontotoc, and Holly Springs, in Mississippi ; and Memphis, 
Randolph, Somerville, and Bolivar, in Tennessee. The whole of the creta- 
ceous formation is infested with autumnal fever, beyond, perhaps, any other 
portion of the Great Yalley ; but yellow fever has only occurred at Memphis, 
on the Mississippi River. 

IV. The Tertiary, Post- Tertiary, Diluvial, and Alluvial De- 
posits. — Advancing southerly from the cretaceous formation, we come 
upon the newer deposits, which extend to the Gulf of Mexico, where we 
have already contemplated their southern margin. These strata, which con- 
stitute the newest geological beds, are still less consolidated than the creta- 
ceous, on which they repose. The eocene, or oldest, crop out with a line of 
bearing from the Chattahoochee River, to, or beyond, the Tombeckbee, and 
form the high blnffs of the Alabama River, at Claiborne.* This formation, 
which lias no great width, is calcareous, and, like its mineral analogues of the 
cretaceous group, has a dip to the south or south south-west. To this suc- 

* Conrad. 

12 



178 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ceed the newer tertiary and post-tertiary deposits of loam, gravel, and sand, 
not yet consolidated into rock. As a general fact, the surface of the tertiary 
region, from Florida round to the Mississippi River, is flatter, and lies at a 
lower level, than the cretaceous. Its fertility is less, and its inhabitants 
fewer, but most of it is better watered. The same rivers traverse both re- 
gions, acquiring broader alluvial bottoms as they flow on to the Gulf. Much 
of this extensive plateau has a dry and sandy surface ; but, on the other 
hand, much of it near the streams is swampy. Its principal towns, off the 
Gulf coast, are Tallahassee, in Middle Florida; Claiborne, in Alabama; Jack- 
son, Yicksburg, and Natchez, in Mississippi ; and Baton Rouge, the capital 
of Louisiana. 

Like the cretaceous formation, all the fertile parts of this region are 
subject to autumnal fever of a violent character ; and, as we have seen, the 
towns on the Mississippi have been often visited by yellow fever. The most 
populous portions of the cretaceous and tertiary regions here sketched out, 
lie between the parallels of thirty-one and thirty-three degrees north. 



SECTION II. 

THE COUNTRY EAST AND SOUTH OF APPALACHICOLA BAY AND 

RIVER. 

I. General Views. — We are indebted to the Army Surgeons and Topo- 
graphical Engineers who served in this region during the Seminole war, for 
most that we know of its medical topography, as the greater part of it is 
uninhabited, or but thinly peopled.* When at Pensacola in 1843, I could 
not obtain facilities for visiting it. The low water- shed which divides the 
streams that flow into the Gulf of Mexico, from those which make their way, 
eastwardly, into the Atlantic Ocean, subsides entirely before it reaches the 
twenty-eighth degree of latitude ; that is, about the middle of the peninsula. 
Thence to Cape Sable the surface is but little elevated above the sea, and 
has no particular inclination. Consequently, it is overspread by savannas, 
swamps, immense grassy ponds, and small lakes, to a degree that must for- 
ever render most of it uninhabitable, It is called the Everglades. Above 
the twenty-eighth parallel, where the water-shed emerges from the dead 
level, the map discloses, that the number of lakes on its eastern side is much 
greater than on its western, or that portion which lies within the Mexican 
Basin, and is traversed by the Hillsboro, Withlacoochee, Santa F6, Suwa- 
nee, and some smaller rivers. According to Doctor Forry : 

" This northern portion is an extensive pine forest, interspersed with ponds, 
swamps, low savannas, and hummocks, which last are rich bottoms overgrown 

* Medical Statistics U. S. Army. — Forry on the Climate of the United States. — Map 
of the Seat of War in Florida, by Captain Mackay and Lieutenant Blake, United 
States Topographical Engineers. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 179 

with trees, and a redundant under-wood. The barrens are covered with for- 
ests of pine, with little under-growth. The soil consists mostly of sand; but 
the hummocks, which are numerous, have a fertile soil composed of clay and 
sand. The savannas, which are covered with a tall grass, are inundated 
during the wet season. The river swamps are wooded with a variety of 
heavy trees, whilst the pine-barren swamps are mostly overgrown with 
cypress and cypress-knees."* 

The dry pine lands are composed mostly of silicious sand, more or less fer- 
tilized with carbonate of lime and vegetable mold. The swamps on the bor- 
ders of the rivers are formed by the inundations, which deposit alluvion on 
their banks, and thus dam out a portion of the returniug waters. 

The sub-stratum of this region, and of the peninsula of Florida generally. 
is rotten limestone — cretaceous or tertiary; but it differs from that of 
Alabama, in being cavernous ; and hence many of the smaller streams dis- 
appear from the surface, and reappear in the form of copious springs. Small 
lakes, likewise, occasionally empty themselves through unseen fissures in 
their beds; and many of the tracts denominated hummocks seem to have 
been laid bare in this manner. We must now take notice of some localities. 

II. Fort King. — The site of this military post is not positively within 
the Mexican Basin, for the copious spring of pure water which originates 
near it, flows to the east. There are reasons, however, for claiming it as 
belonging to that basin, and no valid geographical objection, seeing that it 
stands on the dividing ridge which makes the^eastern boundary of the basin. 

"As regards geographical position, this station is about ninety-five miles 
north-east of the head of Tampa Bay, one hundred and thirty south-west of 
St. Augustine, perhaps forty miles due east from the Gulf of Mexico, and 
sixty due west from the Atlantic Ocean. The fort, which has been recently 
rebuilt, is situated on rising ground, partially encompassed by a hummock, 
which describes almost a semi-circle, at an average distance of five hundred 
yards from the pickets. The surface of the surrounding country is slightly 
undulating. The soil of the so-called pine barren consists of loose sand and 
a light admixture of vegetable mold, with an argillaceous sub-stratum. ' Its 
principal vegetable productions are, the pitch pine ( Plnus vigida), black 
jack ( Quercus nigra ), scrub oak ( Quercus catesbcei), palmetto ( OkaMcerqps ), 
and coarse herbaceous plants. The hummocks are rich, marshy bottoms, 
composed of vegetable deposition, overgrown with redundant vegetation. 
Here flourish the live-oak, with other species of the same genus, the cypress, 
magnolia, cabbage-tree, and several varieties of hickory ( Caryu ), all united 
by a cordage of vines and brambles, extending from trunk to trunk and from 
limb to limb, constituting an immense net-work of vegetation. 

" No large bodies of water exist in the vicinity of this post. Three miles 



* Climate of the United States, p. 193. 



180 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i; 

from this point is Silver Spring, the source of a beautiful stream of the same 
name. From this fountain, remarkable for its transparency, Silver Creek 
emerges at once a bold stream, sixty yards wide and twenty feet deep, run- 
ning into the Ocklewaha about twelve miles from this post. 

" Although large bodies of water do not exist in the vicinity, yet the actual 
quantity is very great, owing to the extensive marshy low-lands, swamps, and 
stagnant pools ; and as the soil is not completely covered with water, the 
circumstances most conducive to the evolution of those morbific agents result- 
ing from solar influence, obtain. The humidity of the vicinal hummocks gives 
rise to constant exhalations, which fall in heavy dews."* 

The annual ratio of intermittent fever at this post, as deduced from the 
returns of four years, is one hundred and twenty-three per cent. ; of remit- 
tent, twenty. These ratios are decidedly high. 

" This post, however, has always been regarded as decidedly salubrious, 
with the exception of the liability to fever and ague. Violent fevers of the 
remittent form, and intermittents running into the same type, occurred in the 
latter part of the summer of 1837, owing, doubtless, to the circumstance that 
the smaller trees and under-growth of a neighboring hummock had been cut 
down, as a precaution against Indian ambuscade. It is a well-known fact 
that military stations, near jungles, often continue healthy until the soil is 
brought under cultivation, or the trees and shrubbery cut down, exposing the 
boggy surface to the agency of solar action." f 

When adequate settlements shall be made at Fort King, it will perhaps 
become an important place of winter resort for invalids. Lying nearly a de- 
gree south of St. Augustine, and more than a degree south of Pensacola, it 
must have a warmer winter climate than either; and being nearly equi- 
distant from the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, on the shores of 
which those resorts for invalids are, respectively, situated, it has an equal 
advantage as to diminution of atmospheric moisture and the absence of a 
mixture of land and sea airs. 

III. Except Fort Brooke and Fort King, nearly all the posts of Florida 
were temporary, and their topography has not been published. I can give 
the following memorandums of two or three others, from conversation with 
Assistant Surgeon Holmes, who served at each of them. 

1 . Fort Wacasassa. — This post was situated about thirty miles from the 
Gulf, on the head waters of a small river which enters it between the With- 
lacoochee and Suwanee. Its site was the edge of a wet prairie, and yet 
it was regarded as one of the healthiest posts in Florida. 

2. Fort White was erected on the left bank of the Santa Fe River, about 
eighteen miles from its junction with the Suwanee. On the opposite side 
of the river ( which is forty yards wide ) there is a cypress swamp. The 



* Climate of the United States, pp. 212-13. f Med. Stat. U. S. A., p. 295. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 181 

rocks beneath are rotten limestone, with good springs. Autumnal fever, in 
all its varieties, was common. 

3. Fort 31c Comh. — The Suwanee River, one of the largest in Florida, 
has its origin in the vast Okefinokee swamp, extending from the thirty- first 
to the thirty-second degree of north latitude. On its way to the Gulf it is 
joined by the Santa Fe, just mentioned, below which its wide, swampy bot- 
toms are overshadowed by moss-hung cypress trees, loftier than Doctor 
Holmes saw anywhere else in Florida. Fort McComb is situated on the 
right side of this river, a considerable distance from the Gulf, about Lat. 
30° N. The banks are rocky and sandy; the surface of the plain is white 
sand, with a sub-stratum of clay a foot beneath. There are no swamps nor 
drowned lands near this post; yet it is infested with autumnal fever. 



SECTION III. 

BASIN OF THE APPALACHICOLA RIVER. 

I. The River. — This considerable river extends from the southern bend 
of the Appalachian Mountains, directly south to the Gulf of Mexico. It is 
the most eastern river of this part of the Great Valley. Its upper portion, 
under the name of Chattahoochee, flows through the primitive formations, — 
its lower half traverses the cretaceous and tertiary. It drains the western 
part of Georgia, the eastern of Alabama, and, to some extent, the northern 
of Florida. 

II. Fort Mitchell. — This, now ungarrisoned, post was situated ten 
miles below the town of Columbus, on the right or west bank of the Chatta- 
hoochee River, in N. Lat. 32° 19' and W. Lon. 85° 10'. It occupies an eleva- 
ted ridge about one mile from the river. Between it and the river the 
bottom is low, but nearly free from marshes. In reference to autumnal 
fever, it was found remarkably salubrious ; the annual ratio of intermittents 
being only thirteen per cent. ; of remittents, eight per cent.* 

III. Columbus. — I am indebted to Doctor Charles A. Hentz, for a descrip- 
tion of the medical topography of this place. It stands on the left or eastern 
bank of the Chattahoochee River, which, for a long distance, makes the divi- 
ding line between Georgia and Alabama, in N. Lat. ( about ) 32° 25', and 
W. Lon. near 85° 10'. Geologically, it is found at the junction of the 
cretaceous formation with the primitive. Opposite to, and above, the upper 
or northern part of the town, there are rapids, and the river-bed abounds in 
masses of granite and other primitive rocks, which are more or less grouped 
into small islands. In some places these rocks have become decomposed 
into beds of kaolin, out of which a dentist of the town, by the aid of his blow- 

* Medical Stat. U.S.A. 



182 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

pipe, has made artificial teeth. The rapids at this place render a higher 
ascent of the river by steamboats impracticable. Within a mile of their 
foot, there are two mill-dams ; but the declivity on which they stand pre- 
vents the formation of extensive ponds. No portion of the river-bottom on 
either side is subject to inundation. " The town-site is a smooth plain, ele- 
vated about fifty feet above the surface of the river, that elevation being 
reached by two ascents ; — the first bluff is thirty feet high, with a plain 
five hundred feet in breadth, in its rear; — the second bluff is twenty feet 
higher, and spreads out into the margin a much broader terrace,, on which 
the town is chiefly built. The two terraces are a mile in breadth. Then 
comes a third rise of about one hundred feet, to a plateau a mile broad, be- 
yond which there is a creek, with low, marshy bottoms, appropriated to the 
growing of rice." 

The gutters of the second terrace discharge their waters into an artificial 
drain, with which some rivulets, originating near the north-east corner of the 
town, have been united. The depression of the plain through which this 
drainage takes place, presents sloughs and ponds, some of which are dried up 
in summer. A little further to the east, is a larger stream, with tracts of 
wood -land swamp. These bad topographical conditions happily lie to the 
leeward of the town ; but on the opposite or western side of the river, there 
are sources of autumnal fever which lie to the windward. On that bank 
we have the village of Grirard, through which Marshall's Creek makes its 
way to the Chattahoochee. Within the village it is extremely tortuous ; at 
the distance of one and two miles from its mouth, there are two mill-dams 
with foul ponds ; and immediately below the first, there is a belt of alluvial 
marsh. The inhabitants drink water, introduced by a hydrant system, from 
a neighboring spring. Autumnal fever is the chief object of medical prac- 
tice in Columbus. It prevails most in the south-east part of the city, in the 
neighborhood of the drain, and of the wet or pondy tract through which it 
runs. The fever displays every type and grade of violence. On the Ala- 
bama side, along the high banks of Marshall's Creek, its prevalence is still 
more certain and dangerous. Yellow fever has not occurred in this locality. 



SECTION IV. 

BASIN OF THE ALABAMA RIVER. 
L The River. — It has been already stated that this river is composed of 
the Coosa and Tallapoosa, which, after their junction, assume a common 
name. As it descends to the south, it is reinforced, through its right bank, 
by the Cahawba ; but the number of its tributaries is small. Before reach- 
ing the head of Mobile Bay it unites with the Tombeckbee, and assumes 
the name of Mobile River. Here commences the long estuary — briefly 
described on page 54 — which extends down to the city of Mobile. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 183 

settlements along this estuary are comparatively few, and they are infested 
with severe autumnal fevers. Near its termination in the bay, on the left- 
hand side, is the blighted village of Blakely, which has suffered, once or 
oftener, from yellow fever. That disease, however, has not, I believe, yet 
advanced further up the estuary. 

After leaving the highlands, the Alabama Eiver flows through loose creta- 
ceous and tertiary strata, in which it could not fail to excavate a wide valley. 
Its banks become more developed as we advance upward. Like other 
streams which meander in alluvial valleys, it generally presents a bluff on 
one side, and a low bottom, subject to annual inundation, on the other. In 
many places the bottom is from two to three miles wide ; and, where not 
subjected to cultivation, presents forests of cane, cypress, sweet-gum, syca- 
more, cotton-wood, magnolia, and live-oak, with an iron-gray drapery of long 
moss. The face of the bluffs is generally wooded with the same trees, 
except the cypress. On their summits the forest becomes piny. These 
summits, in the form of plateaus, stretch off from the river, indefinitely, on 
both sides, and abound in swamps, the tree and herbaceous vegetation of 
which is not unlike that of the bottoms, while the dryer and sandier portions 
are overshadowed with interspersed pines and oaks. 

As the river, descending from the north, strikes against the out-cropping 
edges of the strata, through which it cuts at right angles to their line of 
bearing, the medical geologist, on the upward voyage, has an opportunity of 
becoming acquainted with the mineral character of the superficial parts of 
the region which he traverses. At first, he sees beds of tertiary clay and 
loam, which present shades of blue, red, and yellow; then comes, at Clai- 
borne, the bold out-crop of old or eocene tertiary limestone, more solid, and, 
therefore, less disposed to crumble away, than the looser strata which overlie 
it; to the limestone succeed, as we advance, beds of sand, loam, gravel, lig- 
nite, and shale, inclosing geodes, which are arranged in strata. Further up, 
are new and much thicker deposits of loose reddish clay and sand ; then fol- 
low high banks of coarse friable rocks, sand, dull red and blue clays, and 
rolled pebbles, consolidated into breccia or pudding-stone, the stratification 
being waved, oblique, and extremely irregular, but on the whole affecting a 
horizontal position. In low situations, a soft, bluish, cretaceous limestone now 
shows itself, and the surface of the country becomes more rugged. In this 
enumeration, no reference is made to the line of division between the tertiary 
and cretaceous groups of the geologists, which are characterized by different 
organic remains ; nor is it necessary, for the medical etiologist is only inter- 
ested in the mineral constitution of the rocks which underlie or constitute 
the surfaces which he studies. 

But little of the bottom-land of the Alabama Eiver has been reclaimed; 
and much of it is subject to such deep inundations that its cultivation is 
impracticable. It would seem scarcely necessary to say, that the inhabitants 
near such a stream, in the latitudes of thirty-two and thirty-three degrees 



184 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

north, are subject to the worst forms of autumnal fever. Those who reside 
at the water's edge, with a swamp between them and the distant bluffs, are 
said to be less liable than those who live on the bluffs; but the population 
visible from the river is sparse ; for experience has shown the necessity of 
placing families in the pine woods, at the distance of one, two, or three miles 
from the river. 

But few towns of any considerable size adorn the banks of Alabama 
River. Those which I am about to describe are the most important, and 
their topography will serve, in some degree, to fill up the meager outline 
which has been sketched. t 

II. Claiborne. — This was originally a military post. It is situated on a 
very high bluff, on the left side of Alabama River, not far above its junction 
with the Tombeckbee, in N. Lat. 31° 30'. It stands on the eocene or oldest 
tertiary calcareous rock. According to Doctor Lewis, the plain inclines back 
from the brow of the bluff until it terminates in a few low marshy ponds.* 
On the opposite side of the river, there is a depressed and swampy bottom. 
Claiborne is subject to severe autumnal fevers of every form and grade; but 
has not, I believe, suffered from yellow fever. 

III. Cahawba: River and Town. The River. — It has been already 
mentioned, that Cahawba River is the largest tributary of the Alabama. Its 
origin is in the highlands, between the Coosa and Tuscaloosa, whence it de- 
scends into the cretaceous formation, within which it has wide bottoms, sub- 
ject to annual inundation. It joins itself to the Alabama, while still in that 
formation, a little above the thirty-second degree of north latitude. Imme- 
diately below its junction, which is through the right or west bank of that 
river, stands 

The Town. — In 1831, the late respectable Doctor Heustis published an 
instructive paper on this locality,f and in 1843, I paid it a short visit. The 
plain on which the town is built consists of red and yellow loam, sand, and 
pebbles, which repose on strata of bluish rotten or cretaceous limestone or 
marlite, which shows itself in the river bank, between high and low water- 
marks. The elevation of the site is not such as to preserve it from inunda- 
tion when the river rises to its greatest hight ; and at such times the grounds 
above the mouth of Cahawba River are likewise overflowed. On several 
parts of it there were ponds, which have been drained. To its north-west, 
extending from one river to the other, there is, as Doctor English and Doctor 
Morrell informed me, a liquidambar swamp, about a mile and a half in width, 
the margin of which is three miles from town. On the opposite side of the 
Alabama River, to the east, the plain is elevated and sandy, but includes a 
few ponds. Cahawba is the seat of justice of Dallas county, concerning 
which Doctor Heustis, in the paper referred to, speaks as follows : 

*New Orleans Journal, Vol. Ill, No. 6. 
f American Journal, May, 1831, p. 75. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 185 

" There is in this county a very considerable proportion of fertile land, 
confined principally to the rivers, creeks, and prairies. The upland in other 
situations is generally thin and sandy, yet when of moderate fertility, it is 
often preferred, on account of the purity of the water and healthfullness of 
situation, to the less salubrious though more productive lands near the rivers. 
Perhaps there is no country possessing a greater variety of soil, and in which 
sudden changes take place more frequently from fertile to poor, and vice 
versa; or, in common parlance, where the land is more spotted: not unfre- 
quently a space or strip of a few yards constituting the boundary between 
lands of very poor and of very rich quality. It would seem that, with the 
exception of the more recently formed rich river-lands, this great and sudden 
variation in the soil is owing, in a considerable degree, to the depth or prox- 
imity to the surface of the subjacent limestone. There can be little doubt 
that this limestone possesses the property of great fertility. 

" The land, not only of this county but also of most others in the state, 
may be divided into six natural varieties, or classes. First, the side river- 
bottoms, or swamps, as they are called, subject to inundations. Second, the 
more elevated river-lands, of inferior quality, and not subject to overflow. 
Third, hummock, or second river and creek-bottom, or low grounds of a loose, 
black, sandy soil, fertile, and above inundation. Fourth, first quality of up- 
land, of intermediate fertility between the hummock and second quality of 
upland. Fifth, second quality of upland, consisting principally of piny 
woods, interspersed with a few oaks, hickories, &c. Sixth, prairie. The 
extent of the first division, or river-bottom, is extremely various and irregu- 
lar, being sometimes a mere border, of not more than forty or fifty yards in 
width, and in other places extending from one to two miles from the river; and in 
other situations again, the second quality of upland or piny woods, reaches 
to the very river, forming high and precipitous bluff's. Generally, where one 
bank of the river or creek is formed in this manner, the opposite one is low, 
with a greater or less extent of rich river or creek-bottom. Before, and at 
the first settlement of this country by the present white population, the rich 
river-lands were thickly covered with gigantic cane; this, since that time, has, 
in many places, been entirely destroyed by accidental fires, and by cattle, 
which are extremely fond of it, especially when young and succulent, at 
which time they eagerly devour the whole plant. Thus, when the old cane 
dies, as it does spontaneously in a few years, after going to seed, as none of 
younger growth has been left to succeed, the crop is entirely destroyed. 
There is, however, in this state, a considerable proportion of cane land re- 
mote from the rivers and creeks. It is scarcely necessary to say, that land 
of this description is of the first quality. When the growth of cane is not 
situated on the rivers and creeks, or, in other words, where the soil which 
produces it is not made land, the result of alluvion and inundation, it is of 
prairie or limestone quality." 

Both Cahawba and the surrounding country have, from the beginning of 



186 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

their settlement, been subject to violent and often fatal intermittent and re- 
mittent fevers ; but, with the progress of cultivation, the severity of these 
diseases has been considerably mitigated. 

IV. Marion. — We must diverge from the bed of the Alabama River, to 
say something of a town situated on the waters of the Cahawba. Marion is 
the principal town of Perry county, which adjoins Dallas county on the north. 
The streams which originate around it, flow partly into the Cahawba, and in 
part into the Tuscaloosa. Its site is uneven, and the ground slopes in all 
directions from it. The general surface of the country around it is dry and 
moderately fertile, with scattering pines. Sloughs and marshes are few in 
number, and the streams flow with greater velocity than in many other parts 
of South Alabama. The surface, much of which presents reddish, sandy 
loam, is undulating. From the best information I could obtain, the autumnal 
health of Marion is in harmony with its favorable topography. Mr. Jewett, 
the teacher of one of the female academies, with his assistants, averaging 
seven persons in the family, all from the north, had resided here four years, 
without one attack of autumnal fever. 

V. Selma. — The position of this town is ten miles above Cahawba, on 
the right bank of Alabama River. Its site is an elevated sandy plain, pre- 
senting bluff's, washed by the river ; which, on reaching the town, has flowed 
from the south-east, to bend soon afterwards to the south-west. The plain, 
covered with oaks and scattering pines, is free from ponds and marshes. To 
the north and east of the town, however, at the distance of two or three 
miles, there is an extensive swamp. Soft and good water is obtained on the 
town plat, by digging twenty or thirty feet. From a comparison of all the 
information I could collect, at this place and Cahawba, concerning autumnal 
fever, I am brought to the conclusion, that the disease prevails less here than 
there ; which might be expected from the differences in their topography. It 
has not been visited by yellow fever. 

In a late paper by Doctor Harris, on the Medical Topography of South 
Alabama, I find the following paragraph : 

"In 1824, the yellow fever appeared in Selma, and that section of the 
country known as the Pleasant Valley, ten or twelve miles north; one- case 
under Doctor Phillips terminated fatally on the third day after black vomit, 
and several cases under my inspection on the fifth and seventh days after the 
same, some in collapse. There was no yellow fever in Mobile at the time."* 

It is remarkable that Doctor Heustis, in his paper on the Diseases of 
Cahawba, is silent as to this alleged yellow fever; and that Doctor Lewis, in 
his Medical History of Alabama, lias not adverted to it; and equally remark- 
able that, in the course of a rigid inquiry, in 1843, into the fevers of that 
region, not one of its numerous physicians' should have mentioned to me 

*West. Jour, of Med. and Sur., (Louisville), December, 1846. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 187 

what Doctor Harris has since published. In the history of our yellow fever, 
this statement will again come under review. 

VI. Montgomery. — This city has lately been made the permanent capital 
of the state of Alabama ; and being both the most populous, and the largest 
cotton-shipping town of the interior of the state, it merits a more extended 
notice than has been bestowed upon Selma. The position of Montgomery, 
on the left bank of Alabama River, four hundred miles from Mobile, in N. 
Lat. 32° 10' and W. Lon. 86° VI', is on the convexity of a compressed horse- 
shoe bend. Thus, in approaching the city, the river flows from the north 
north-west, and, in departing, flows to the north-west; folding on itself in a 
remarkable manner, and forming, opposite to, and north-west of, the city, a 
low, long, heavily-timbered peninsula, which is too liable to deep inundations 
to be cultivated, except in a few spots. 

The immediate site of the city is a terrace, above high water-mark, with 
an amphitheatre of hill-land, or bluff, more than one hundred feet high, in 
its rear, and extending from the east round to south-west. The surface of 
the plain on which the city is chiefly built, is sandy; and, at the beginning of 
its settlement, had some ponds, which have been since filled up. The streets 
are unpaved, and but indifferently shaded. On the plain to the north-east of 
the city, there are numerous ponds and marshes, which are thrown into forms 
more or less elongated and serpentine, by oak and pine ridges or narrow 
plateaus, which gradually become more elevated and hill-like, but still em- 
bosom stagnant and swampy streams. The upper stratum of this tract is a 
red, sandy loam, with beds of silicious gravel. To the west north-west of 
the city, there is a margin of lower and wetter bottom-land, on the upper end 
of which attempts were once made to build a town, but it proved too insalu- 
brious. In the rear of this bottom, a plateau, as elevated as the site of the 
city, begins, and stretches westwardly to the junction of Catoma Creek with 
the river, eight or ten miles below. The predominant growth of this plain 
is oak. It abounds in ponds and marshes. After ascending the hills south 
of the city, a long descent to the south very soon begins, and continues to 
Catoma Creek, which is found to the south-east, south, and south-west of the 
city, at distances varying from three to nine miles. The valley of this stream 
is from half a mile to a mile in width. Its depressed surface is generally 
swampy, and its tree, bush, and herbaceous vegetation, luxuriant. The 
sloping hills which bound it, present strata of fissile clay, and soft marlite, or 
rotten limestone, — which, together with the superincumbent loam and sand 
deposits, belong to the cretaceous formation. With such a topography, we 
cannot be surprised to learn, that this locality is among those which are in- 
fested with all the grades and varieties of autumnal fever ; but it has never 
experienced an invasion of yellow fever, although the intercourse by steam- 
boats, between it and Mobile, is of the most intimate kind. 

About ten miles, by land, above the city of Montgomery, we reach the 
head of Alabama River, or the junction of the Tallapoosa with the Coosa. 



188 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

The road, for most of the distance, passes over a plateau, which abounds in 
shallow ponds and stagnant streams, bordered by sloughs, and abounding in 
various kinds of evergreens. The descent into the valley of the Tallapoosa 
is by three terraces, the last of which, extending to the river's edge, is sub- 
ject to deep inundation, as appears from the water-marks on the trees. 
Four miles from this crossing, is the town of 

YII. Wetumpka. — Its site is at the foot of the long rapids of the Coosa; 
which river divides it into two villages, denominated, from their position, 
East and West Wetumpka. The former stands upon a narrow, elevated, 
and rather rugged plain, with the river on its west, and a range of knobs 
from one to two hundred feet high, on the east, in close proximity. They 
are composed of a dry, gravelly, micaceous, red loam, surmounted by pines 
and chestnuts ; and are succeeded, to the east, by still loftier hills. West 
Wetumpka, connected with the other village by a bridge, is built on the 
margin of a plain which stretches off indefinitely to the west. A slip of this 
plain, in front of the lower part of the town, is subject to occasional inunda- 
tions. On the terrace above, in the south-western part of the village, there 
is a long, narrow swamp, which discharges its waters into the river below 
the town. The rest of the site is dry, with a sandy yet not sterile surface. 
On the north and north north-west, the town plat is dry, and limited by hills 
similar to those described as lying on the opposite side of the river. About 
three miles to the west, there is a stream called Mortar Creek, not large 
enough for mills, which represents many others on the pine plains of Ala- 
bama. It consists of a series of narrow swamps, through which there is a 
sluggish and interrupted current of clear water. The want of declivity lies 
at the root of this topographical evil. Beds of clay beneath the more sandy 
surface, prevent the rains from percolating into the earth, and want of fall 
retards their flowing off; and therefore the water diffuses itself laterally. 
Trees and shrubs which flourish in such localities, multiply, and when they 
fall, tend still further to obstruct the feeble current, and thus the marsh or 
superficial pond is extended. Mortar Creek, which enters the Coosa River 
three or four miles below Wetumpka, has many tributaries, partaking more 
or less of its own character, and giving to the country, to the south-west of 
the town, a great deal of swampy surface. Through some of these sloughs, 
which are separated by zones of dry wooded plateau, ditches have been dug, 
with the effect of draining them, and exposing a dryer and highly fertile sur- 
face. On a visit to the cotton plantation of Governor Fitzpatrick, which 
lies in a bend of the Coosa River, between the mouth of Mortar Creek and 
Wetumpka, he informed me, that much of his land had been redeemed in that 
manner. That part of it which lies nearest the river, gradually sinks in level, 
until it becomes subject to inundation. Below the town, the bottoms of the 
Coosa, on both sides, are, in fact, subject to overflow ; and as the river there 
bends to the west, its alluvial grounds, not less than the swamps or swales of 
the plain which I have described, unfortunately lie to the south-west or wind- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 189 

ward of the town; and this accounts satisfactorily for the decided prevalence 
of the various forms of autumnal fever, which have visited this place since 
the beginning of its settlement in 1833. Steamboats from Mobile visit 
Wetumpka, which is at the head of navigation ; but the yellow fever has not 
occurred. 

Another fact must be mentioned to complete the medical topography of 
this locality. The bed of the river, at the termination of the long falls or 
rapids, in the upper part of the town, is composed of primitive rocks, in situ, 
having a dip of about forty-five degrees to the north or north north-west. 
They consist of gneiss and mica slate, which appear to be undergoing con- 
stant disintegration. The adjacent hills rest upon these rocks, and, as they 
abound in mica and silicious materials, may be regarded as the debris of the 
primitive formations, which, further up the river, are developed into a moun- 
tainous country, abounding in gold. Wetuinpka is, in fact, seated on the 
last out-crop of the cretaceous formation, at its -junction with the primitive. 
The mica, which is here liberated in large quantities, impregnates the waters 
of the springs and wells, in the form of an almost impalpable, foliaeeous pow- 
der, which is often observed in the bottoms of the vessels, in which water is 
kept for drinking. To this impregnation, many of the physicians ascribe the 
chronic diarrhoea which, in town and country, and also in the state peniten- 
tiary, prevails to a degree quite unknown, as it would seem, in any other 
part of Alabama. When treating of that disease, this hypothesis will be 
considered. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF THE TUSCALOOSA OR BLACK WARRIOR RIVER. 
I. Region between Wetumpka and Tuscaloosa. — The plain on which 
West Wetumpka is built, stretches off to the west, and for about thirty 
miles presents a dry, sandy, or clay and gravel surface, overshadowed b} r forests 
of long-leafed pine, interspersed with oaks, and having, here and there, a 
wooded swamp or marshy creek of very limited area. The high, blue hills, 
which to the north-west embosom the Coosa River, as it flows down to We- 
tumpka, are frequently in sight; indicating that the route lies near the 
northern margin of the flat country. The inhabitants on this road are but 
few, yet the number is sufficient to test its salubrity ; and I was assured by 
several of them that, after leaving the wet lands near Wetumpka, autumnal 
fever is unknown. At the distance of thirty miles, the road turns more to 
the north, and encounters the hills, among which water is still scarcer than on 
the plain, and autumnal fever equally absent. At length the road descends 
into the low and wet valley of Mulberry Creek, at Maplesville, where au- 
tumnal fever abounds. Beyond this alluvial tributary of the Coosa River, 
a hilly and healthy country is again reached, which continues to Centreville, 



190 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

on the banks of the Cahawba River, where autumnal fever reappears. A 
rugged surface, with oak and pine, succeeds; the inhabitants of which enjoy 
a complete immunity from fever. At length the surface begins to assume a 
lower and more level aspect, and a dark brown, friable, ferruginous and cre- 
taceous sandstone shows itself, in connection with increasing cultivation; 
which amelioration continues to the town of Tuscaloosa, on the left bank of 
the Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior River, about one hundred miles from We- 
tumpka; and with this change there is some increased prevalence of the 
fever. This route lies nearly in the mean latitude of thirty-three degrees ; 
and the region which it traverses, affords an instructive illustration of the 
connection between the surfaces of a country and its autumnal fevers. 

II. Town of Tuscaloosa. — This town, the seat of the University of 
Alabama, and until lately the capital of the state, stands in N. Lat. about 
33 Q 15', on the eastern or left bank of the Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior 
River, at an elevation of about one hundred feet above the river. The plain 
is composed of red and yellow, dry, crumbling sand, gravel, and clay ; which, 
although hard and compact at the surface, is readily undermined and washed 
away, forming deep ravines. From the north-west round to the south-east, 
the terrace is abutted by a hill country, through which the river makes its 
way to the plain. Here, also, is the final out-crop of the imperfectly con- 
solidated cretaceous and tertiary strata; for coal is found but a short dis- 
tance above the town, as it is also above Centreville, near the Cahawba 
River ; indicating that a carboniferous formation here supports the cretace- 
ous, which at Wetumpka rests upon the primitive. To the west, south-west, 
and south of the town of Tuscaloosa, the surface differs widely from that in 
the opposite directions. As it passes by the town, the course of the river is 
nearly south south-west, and between them there is a narrow slip of low bot- 
tom, which widens for a mile above, and then terminates. On the further 
side of the river, stands the village of Northford, on a wider alluvial plain, 
much of which is liable to inundation, when the river is swollen. 

A mile or two west of this village, there is a creek called Orange, which 
flows sluggishly through a foul, wooded swamp, that extends to the river, 
below the town. On this stream there is a mill, the superintendent of which 
assured me, that he had been sick with fever every autumn for four years, 
and that nearly every one of ten operatives, employed in the establishment, 
had experienced an annual attack of the same kind. 

After passing Tuscaloosa and its faubourg, Northford, the river turns to 
the west, which direction it maintains, as Doctor Drish informed me, for sev- 
eral miles, then bends to the south, and finally flows for a number of miles to 
the east, until meeting Sandy Creek, it again turns to the south. Thus to 
the south-west of Tuscaloosa, there is a great horse-shoe, or elliptical bend, 
broader than, but analagous to, that of the Alabama River near Montgom- 
ery. Nearly the whole of the extensive tract there inclosed, is liable to inun- 
dation when the river rises high, and much of it is overflowed in ordinary 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 191 

fresliets. By the first of June, annually, most of the water drains off, or is 
evaporated; and then the cultivation of the higher parts is recommenced. 
These portions are, generally, in the form of long, narrow, flat ridges, 
between which there are permanent swamps, lagoons, and ponds, with low, 
foul margins, disfigured by fallen trees, and infested with venomous snakes. 
One of these ponds, out of which a stream flows during the whole year, has 
been sounded to a great depth, as Doctor Guild and Doctor Harrington in- 
formed me, without finding bottom. It is doubtless a natural Artesian well. 
Of the swamps, one, overshadowed by liquidambar, and by cypress with 
long moss, has a length of eight or ten miles, with a breadth sufficient to 
inclose several islands, on which there are cotton plantations. The opera- 
tives on these islands, as I learned from Doctor Drish, are exceedingly subject 
to autumnal fever. The whole tract, lying, as it does, to the windward of 
Tuscaloosa, is undoubtedly a chief cause of the fevers which prevail there ; 
which, however, are not as malignant as those of some other localities. 

To the south of the town, the plain on which it stands, although, in most 
parts, dry, is not free from swamps and swales, which combine their sinister 
influence with that of the horse-shoe bend. Traces of a swamp, which for- 
merly existed in the southern part of the town itself, are still visible. 

III. Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior Biver. — This river is properly a 
large tributary, almost a coequal, of the Tombeckbee. Above the town it 
has the character of a mountain, or at least an upland stream ; below, until it 
loses both its name and waters in the channel of the Tombeckbee, near 
Demopolis, it flows through a wide alluvial valley, most of which is liable to 
inundation when the river is swollen. At such times, steamboats ascend it 
to Tuscaloosa. Near Eutaw, not far from its mouth, the valley is four miles 
wide, and so low and flat that much of it is traversed on a causeway of logs, 
on each side of which there are swamps and ponds, overshadowed by a dense 
forest, and made foul with the decaying limbs and leaves of trees, mingled 
with silt from the river. I need scarcely add, that those who live on its 
banks, from the hill country above Tuscaloosa to its mouth, are subject to 
autumnal fever. 

IV. Country between Tuscaloosa and Pickensville on the Tom- 
beckbee Biver. — The distance between these two points is about fifty miles 
— the course nearly from east to west. The road keeps within the creta- 
ceous formation, but much of the route is high and rugged. Some of the 
hills rise, by estimate, five or six hundred feet above the level of Tuscaloosa 
Biver; and consist of friable, earthy sandstone, with unconsolidated loam 
and gravel. The scattered inhabitants of this tract escape autumnal fever. 
The highest hills are near the Sipsey Biver, a considerable tributary of the 
Tombeckbee, which has cut itself a deep and wide valley through these loose 
deposits. Where the road crosses this valley, a causeway of logs continues 
uninterruptedly for two miles, with foul swamps on either side. In this 
locality I did not discover either cypress or long moss ; though both are seen 



192 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

in the horse-shoe bend below Tuscaloosa. The latitude is about 33° 20' 
N., being a little north of that of the bend referred to. West of the Sip- 
sey, the country continues dry and rolling, but is less elevated, and, grad- 
ually declining, becomes comparatively a fertile plain, for many miles before 
reaching; the Tombeckbee River. 



SECTION VI. 

LOCALITIES IN THE BASIN OF THE TOMBECKBEE. 
I. Pickensville. — This village, which does not contain more than three 
hundred inhabitants, is seated on the western margin of the plain just de- 
scribed, about half a mile east of the Tombeckbee River, and within a mile 
of the boundary between Alabama and Mississippi. Unimportant as this 
place may seem, its medical topography deserves attention. The course of 
the Tombeckbee River, at this point, is nearly south south-east. From the 
north round to the south-east, lies a high and dry plateau, consisting of red 
and yellow gravelly-loam, cut into ravines, and thinly covered with oak and 
pine trees. The village stands on the margin of this plain, which, in some 
places, is thrown up into low hills. On descending from this terrace, through 
sixty or eighty feet, we come upon the river-bottom, which is subject to an- 
nual submersion, and covered with the forest trees that belong to such 
localities, overshadowing a rank herbaceous vegetation. In the river banks, 
near the water's edge, we see rotten limestone or marlite ( cretaceous lime- 
stone ), in strata dipping slightly to the south. On the further side of the 
river, we are again in a low, untilled bottom, subject to frequent overflows, 
and infested with pools, lagoons, and swamps. This continues to be the 
case for a mile and a half, when an imperceptible ascent carries us above or- 
dinary floods, but the plain is still swampy ; and the streams that meander 
feebly through it have marshy borders, for the distance of two or three 
miles ; when we ascend a higher and better defined alluvial or diluvial ter- 
race, which the river cannot reach. The surface of this old and upper bot- 
tom, is more sandy than that near the river. It bears the forest trees, inclu- 
ding pines, which in the south belong to thin and dry soils. The width of 
this bottom is about two miles. Having traversed it, we make another and 
greater rise, through a narrow belt of woods and annual plants, common on 
the limestone lands of Kentucky and Ohio, six or seven degrees further 
north. This summit- level attained, we find ourselves on the limestone prai- 
ries, which will be described hereafter. The topographical section here given 
is, I believe, applicable to almost every part of the Tombeckbee River, above 
the mouth of the Tuscaloosa, near Demopolis, and not inapplicable to some 
parts below. In visits to Doctor Yongue, Doctor Swearingen, and Doctor 
Brown, I had favorable opportunities for inspecting the valley, wliich extends, 
longitudinally, nearly from north-west to south-east, and lies directly south- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 193 

west of the town of Pickensville, and consequently to its windward. As no 
other recognized cause of autumnal fever exists in or near Pickensville, we 
must ascribe its annual visitations by that disease to this valley. One of 
these visitations, in 1835, almost destroyed or dispersed its inhabitants. 
Steamboats frequently stop at Pickensville landing, but it has not experi- 
enced yellow fever. 

II. Columbus, Mississippi. — The distance from Pickensville to Colum- 
bus is about twenty-three miles. East of the Tombeckbee River, the road 
runs over a surface dry and somewhat broken, composed of the same ma- 
terials with the plain at Pickensville; and bearing oaks and pines, as its 
predominant forest trees. To the east, the country rises still higher, and 
presents the final out-crop, in that direction, of the cretaceous formations : to 
the west is the broad trough of the Tombeckbee, and beyond it the prairies. 
The town, standing on the left or east side of the river, has for its site a 
long and rather narrow plain or ridge, on the east side of which is a valley, 
while on the west we have the Tombeckbee River. The valley opens into 
that of a stream called the Looksphellila, which discharges its waters into 
the Tombeckbee, two miles below the town, and has its own wide bottoms 
overflowed whenever the river is swollen. The sources of this tributary are 
found in broken pine and oak lands, composed of loose materials, east and 
north-east of the town. In summer, the waters of these heads or sources 
stagnate ; and in their valleys there are, moreover, small lagoons and cypress 
swamps, which generate autumnal fever among the inhabitants, who are suf- 
ficiently remote from all other insalubrious localities. The trough of the 
Tombeckbee, opposite Columbus, does not differ materially from that near 
Pickensville, already described. The site of the town, on the river side, has 
a bluff bank seventy or eighty feet high, to the base of which the river 
makes a near approach; though immediately above, there is a wide and wet 
bottom between them. In traversing the bottom, west of the river, and op- 
posite the town, we find it low and subject to inundations, which leave 
sloughs and lagoons behind, overshadowed with cypress, destitute of its more 
southern parasite, the long moss, which here does not reach the latitude of 
thirty-three degrees thirty minutes. Then comes a higher and cultivable 
terrace, not subject to inundation, but traversed by lagging streams, and 
bearing oaks and pines; to which succeed, as at Pickensville, the prairies. 
In ascending upon the prairies, we see in the banks of the rivulets, the 
friable or rotten cretaceous limestone, resembling that which the banks of the 
river at Pickensville present. The intermediate terrace, between the low 
alluvial bottom and the prairies or highest uplands, is inhabited; and here, 
as well as opposite Pickensville, it is declared to be more unhealthy than the 
low and wetter bottoms. The plantations on the latter are, however, too few 
to admit of a satisfactory comparison ; while the two belts are so contiguous, 
and so dove-tailed into each other, that whatever cause of disease is gener- 
ated on the lower, of necessity affects the people living on the upper and 
13 



194 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

dryer plain. As the general course of the river here is the same as at Pick- 
ensville, its broad, alluvial, pondy, and marshy valley, unfortunately lies to 
the south-west or windward of the town. The following fact, which I 
received from Doctor Jones, seems worthy of being recorded as a part of 
its history. 

In the summer of 1837, a field of oats, when nearly fit for the sickle, 
was inundated by a great rise of the river. After the flood had receded, 
Doctor Jones sent six negro men to cut the tangled, half- dead, and decaying 
crop. They lodged on the premises, in a shanty, for nearly a week, when 
one of them sickened with fever, and the whole were recalled. All, however, 
were soon afterwards taken down with intermittents or remittents, while the 
different families from which they had been detached, remained healthy. 

In the early periods of its settlement, from 1822 to 1825, Columbus was 
much infested with autumnal fever, but latterly it has suffered less. Its 
latitude, as I have intimated, is about 33° 30' N. 

III. The Prairies. — The tract of country which is denominated ' The 
Prairies,' is found chiefly on the western side of the Tombeckbee River ; but 
that stream, changing its course, at length, from south south-east to south, 
traverses the prairie-country ; so that land of the same description is found 
to a considerable distance east of that river, in Greene and Marengo counties, 
where it gradually becomes wooded, and has received the name of ' The 
Cane-brakes,' from a luxuriant growth of native cane (Miegia). I cannot 
state the precise limits of this tract in the north and west. I was informed 
by Mr. Billups, one of its most intelligent inhabitants, that it begins above 
the county of Lowndes, of which Columbus is the seat of justice, and extend- 
ing southerly, through Noxubee county, enters the state of Alabama from 
the west. According to another authority, it is found in the latter state, in 
the following counties : Russell and a part of Barbour ; Macon and Talla- 
poosa, with a part of Pike ; Montgomery, Lowndes, Dallas, Wilcox, Antauga, 
Perry, Marengo, Sumpter, Greene, with portions of Tuscaloosa, Pickens, 
Bibb, and Shelby. This extensive enumeration, however, refers rather to a 
tract which has the same geological constitution as the prairies, than to a 
surface destitute of trees and free from overlying deposits of ' sterile sand, 
gravel, or ferruginous clay,' which constitute the greater part of the surface 
embraced within those broad limits. The best specimens of prairie -surface, 
in Alabama, are included in Greene and Marengo counties.* Even the true 
prairie district is by no means destitute of trees, but abounds in tracts of 
forest, some of which seem once to have been the beds of ponds or lakes, and 
are called 'hummocks.' The vegetation of these basins is identical with that 
of the most fertile limestone borders of the Ohio River, while that of the 
country generally is entirely different. The prevailing width of this tract, in 



* Mr. C. S. Hale of Mobile, in Doctor Lewis' admirable paper on the Medical History 
of Alabama : New Orleans Med. and Sur. Jour., Vol. Ill, No. VI. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 195 

the state of Mississippi, as Mr. Billups informed me, is about twenty miles. 
It was inhabited by the Choctaw Indians, before their removal to their pre- 
sent residence beyond the Mississippi. Geologically, the prairies are the 
out-crop of a thick formation of soft, cretaceous or rotten limestone, which 
dips to the south south-west, and has a line of bearing nearly east and west. 
According to Mr. Hale, * " The lower strata of the series consist principally 
of silicious sand, with various inter-stratifications of green sand, clay, and 
limestone ; above these is a bed of soft, impervious, argillaceous limestone. 
This bed, commonly known as rotten limestone, is in some localities from two 
to three hundred feet thick, while in the others it is found exceedingly thin, 
but never disappearing. Resting upon this stratum is a deposit of yellow 
pulverable limestone, which in a few instances is replaced by a pure white 
carbonate of lime." The soil, consisting largely of the debris of this forma- 
tion, intermixed with the recrements of animals and plants, is extremely fer- 
tile. Doctors Cooper and Gibbs, of the College of South Carolina, analyzed 
two specimens of this soil, — one from a high and dry, the other from a low 
and humid spot of the same plantation. The former contained twenty-five 
per cent, of carbonate of lime, and twenty-eight per cent, of organic* matter; 
the latter, fifteen per cent, of carbonate of lime, and twenty-five of organic 
matter ; the other ingredients were alumina and a small quantity of silex and 
iron. No attempt was made to separate the animal from the vegetable ele- 
ments of the organic matter. Doctor Lewis supposes the former to predom- 
inate, which may be doubted. f As the general aspect of the prairies is level, 
the rains flow off but slowly, and hence marshes or sloughs are numerous, 
and every stream has not only a sluggish current but swampy borders. In 
the summer these surface-waters evaporate ; and, as the strata beneath are 
almost impervious, there is a want of spring and well, not less than of run- 
ning, water. 

IV. The Cane-brake. — To the south-east, in Alabama, the prairies, as 
I have already said, are transformed into wood-lands, and covered ( where 
not cultivated ) with a dense brake of tall cane. This is the case with por- 
tions of Greene, Marengo, Perry, Dallas, and Wilcox counties, quite through 
to the Alabama River. The black soil of this tract is several feet deep, 
adhesive, and almost glutinous. Its fertility is exhaustless; but it is as 
badly watered as the prairies, being, geologically, the very same region. 

V. Artesian AVells. — On the settlement of the prairies and cane-brake, 
it was soon discovered that they were badly watered. This led to well- 
digging; which, however, failed to supply the desideratum. A feeble perco- 
lation or oozing was all that occurred, and no depth of digging procured 
more than a moderate supply of warm, very hard, and sulphurous water. 
These excavations, called by the people ' sipe ( seep ) wells,' are now held in 
small estimation ; and the reliance, on all the extensive plantations, is on 

* Loco citato. f Ibid. 



196 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



Artesian borings, of which T saw specimens, from Lowndes Cqunty, Missis- 
sippi, to Greene and Marengo comities, Alabama. Those which I visited, 
varied in depth from one hundred and twelve to five hundred and twenty- 
feet ; which was the depth of that on the plantation of Mr. Billups, in Nox- 
ubee county, Mississippi, twenty miles south of Columbus. The water rose 
within sixty feet of the surface, and he had sunk a well, below that depth, by 
the side of the boring, to serve as a reservoir, out of which he would pump 
the water ; a common resource, when it does not rise to the surface of the 
ground. As the strata crop out successively, and constitute the surface of 
the country, I may give the following statement, derived from him, of their 
nature, as ascertained by the boring. 

Black soil, succeeded by reddish loam, - 8 feet. 

Hard, whitish clay, ------- 4 '* 

Bluish rotten limestone, with very hard sulphur balls (pyrites), 408 " 
Gray sandstone, so hard as to require the pick, - - - 10 " 
Then a feeble vein of water, followed by sand — soft sand rock 

— and finally, by hard, gray sandstone, - - - 90 " 

Then a second and more copious supply of water. 

In the southern part of Greene county, Alabama, near the residence of 
Doctor Dancy, I visited seven wells of the same kind, the shallowest of which 
was one hundred and twelve feet ; the deepest, three hundred and twenty 
feet. Water flowed from the whole of them, either in a feeble or strong and 
copious stream. The depth and temperature of each is presented in the fol- 
lowing table, beginning with the shallowest : 



No. 


Depth. 


Temperature. 


1 


112 Ft. 


66° Fall 


2 


255 


68° 


3 


268 


69° 


4 


290 


67°.5 


5 


307 


69° 


6 


311 


67°.5 


7 
Average, 


320 


67° 


266 


67°.71 



As some of these borings were in superficial valleys, and others on low 
ridges, the figures in the second column do not accurately express their depth 
below the general level of the country. It may be considered remarkable 
that there should be so little relation between their depth and temperature. 
The shallowest, it is true, falls one degree and seventy-one hundredths below 
the average, but the deepest falls nearly three-quarters of a degree below, and 
one, which in depth is at the average, in temperature is at the maximum. 
There was no copious and permanent surface -spring in the neighborhood 
with which to compare them ; but a few minutes of latitude to the south, on 
the Tombeckbee River, not far from Moscow landing, where the limestone 
has sunk below the river, I found the temperature of a copious spring, which 
burst out forty feet from the top of a clay and gravel bank, to be sixty-two 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 197 

degrees. As this observation was made on the second day of June, it conld 
not indicate a winter temperature, and, therefore, we may conclude that the 
difference of five degrees and seventy-one hundredths of temperature, was the 
result of the difference of two hundred and twenty-six feet of depth, being one 
degree of increased heat for about every forty feet of descent below the level of 
the spring, taken as a standard. The water of all the Artesian wells which I 
visited, had a perceptible sulphurous taste, and, tested with acetate of lead, 
afforded a white, granular precipitate, indicating, of course, the presence of 
some muriatic or sulphuric salt ; — still it is so soft as to be used by the 
people for all domestic purposes, without any preparation. 

As many of these wells afford a large quantity of water, which flows by 
night and day, their multiplication, if means should not be adopted to restrain 
and regulate the discharge, must, at length, create ponds and marshes, which 
can scarcely fail to prove insalubrious. 

In liability to autumnal fever, the prairies hold an intermediate place be- 
tween the river-bottoms and the sand and loam plains, which bear oaks and 
pines. I was told by Mr. Bibb, who resides upon the prairies, twelve miles 
south of Columbus, that, for several years, while he kept his operatives on 
the slopes of the prairies near the diluvial plain or old bottom of the Tom- 
beckbee, they suffered much from autumnal fever ; which led him to remove 
them a few miles back, where they enjoyed excellent health. He knew of 
many other cases of the same kind. Mr. Moore, a few miles off, had found 
the prairies decidedly healthy. In nine years, out of one hundred operatives, 
but two adults and three or four children had died. Mr. Billups, his neigh- 
bor, however, in eight years had lost twenty out of one hundred and twenty; 
of whom but two were adults ; yet eight only of the whole had died of fever. 
Nevertheless, the prairies, as I learned from various persons both in and out 
of the profession, may be said to be subject to that form of fever; but they 
are healthier than the cane-brake, in which there is a deeper mold. 

VI. Greensboro. — This town, one of the oldest and most noted in Ala- 
bama, is situate in about N. Lat. 32° 40', near the northern border of the 
prairies, in the west of Greene county, between the sources of Big or Brush 
Creek and a branch of Big Prairie Creek, both emptying into the Tusca- 
loosa, near its mouth. The site of Greensboro is undulating and dry. The 
upper stratum consists of sand, loam, and gravel, being a part of the wide- 
spread deposit on which Pickensville and Tuscaloosa have been built. To 
the south and south-west of the town, there are small ravines or valleys, 
which inclose sluggish wet-weather streams, with marshy borders, having a 
soil of the richest quality, and producing, along with a luxuriant herbaceous 
vegetation, a considerable growth of small cane; — hence they are called 
'switch-cane marshes' and 'reed-brakes.' These localities, which might, by 
ditching, be made dry, are at present very unhealthy. In reaching them, we 
pass for one or two miles over rolling and sandy pine and oak lands. From 
west round to north, the country is poor and ridgy. Its springs form little 



198 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

streams, with marshy borders from fifty to one hundred yards wide. To the 
north, at the distance of five miles, is Big or Brush Creek, the valley of 
which, a mile in width, is a swamp throughout. A farm, on its north or lee- 
ward side, has been found one of the most unhealthy in the whole country. 
To the north-east, the branches of this creek meander in swampy valleys, 
one of which embraces a mill-pond, and all are insalubrious. To the south- 
east, there is an extensive slough or swamp, in the neighborhood of which 
fevers greatly abound. Thus, while the immediate town plat is free from the 
conditions which generate autumnal fever, they abound in the surrounding 
country ; and the inhabitants of both have, from the beginning of immigra- 
tion into this region, experienced very violent intermittent and remittent 
fevers, which, however, are more prevalent in some localities than others. 

VII. Demopolis. — This town, one of the newest in the valley of the Tom- 
beckbee, is situated on the left or eastern bank, immediately below the mouth 
of Tuscaloosa River. On both sides of the latter there are wide bottoms, 
subject to annual inundations. The site of Demopolis is dry, and elevated 
above the highest floods of the river. It bears a spontaneous growth of red 
cedar, and, except the drowned bottoms just mentioned, is more favorably 
situated as to health than many other towns in the region to which it be- 
longs. The river-face of the bank on which the town is built, shows a for- 
mation of cretaceous, semi-indurated limestone, which bears a different 
aspect from that seen further up the river, as at Pickensville ; but it has, 
like that, a manifest southern clip. The upper layers, which are dry, display 
an almost chalky whiteness, while the lower and damper are of a light slate- 
color. The whole presents lines or fissures, more or less perpendicular, some 
of which contain crystals of carbonate of lime. Nodules of martial pyrites 
are also common. Near the water this rock softens like marl, and is perfo- 
rated by some kind of lithodome. Demopolis and its neighborhood are ex- 
ceedingly deficient in water. The ' sipe-wells ' afford but little, and that is 
almost saturated with lime, and imparts a sulphurous taste. Artesian borings 
have been resorted to, but the locality is, geologically, too high. One boring, 
on the town plat, six hundred feet deep, brought up to within ten feet of the 
surface, a moderate supply of very bad water. Other borings, eight hundred 
feet in depth, have failed. The resource of the people is in cisterns or 
wells so lined or plastered as to prevent transudation from the surrounding 
strata. These are filled by the cold rains of winter, and those of summer 
are excluded. In this way a very tolerable drinking-water is obtained. The 
people of Demopolis regard themselves as unfortunate, in not having obtain- 
ed water by Artesian borings ; but they have not gone deep enough to reach 
the water-bearing stratum. Its depth might be calculated from the angle of 
inclination of the strata at Pickensville, taken in connection with the depth 
of the borings west of that town. Everywhere in this region, the Artesian 
water is considered salubrious; as an evidence of which, Doctor Strudwick, 
of Demopolis, mentioned to me, that on a plantation of his, the operatives, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 199 

who had been sickly under the use of the water of a 'sipe-well,' became 
healthy as soon as he had made an Artesian fountain. 

Demopolis, although not so disadvantageously situated as some other 
towns of Alabama, in reference to those topographical conditions which gen- 
erate autumnal fever, is by no means exempt from that disease. It has con- 
stant steamboat communication with Mobile, but has not experienced yellow 
fever. 

VIII. The Lower Tombeckbee. — From Demopolis, the Tombeckbee River 
flows nearly south, to mingle with the Alabama. Not far below the town, as 
I have already intimated, the cretaceous marl on which it stands, from dip- 
ping southerly, disappears beneath the river, whose banks, like those of the 
Alabama, above Claiborne, are composed of deposits of various-colored loam, 
gravel, sand, and clay, with wide overflowed bottoms. The eocene or old 
tertiary limestone is at length traversed, and below, the valley of the river 
widens, and at the same time becomes deeper. The tides of the Gulf are 
perceived, I was told, farther up than Jackson, nearly one hundred miles 
above Mobile, and one hundred and thirty from the open Gulf. The low 
bottoms embrace extensive cypress swamps with long moss; the distant 
bluffs have a reddish color. The water of the river has an ind6scribable, 
dirty-brown color, with now and then a shade of greenish yellow. Its trans- 
parency is greatly reduced. In this condition it unites with the Alabama, 
sixty-five miles above the city of Mobile. This point, or, rather, the high- 
lands in its rear (for the point is subject to inundation), was once the head 
of Mobile Bay; and here commences the estuary, of which some account 
has been already given.* 

IX. The Hill- Country. — Repeated allusion has been made to the 
low alpine region, which lies beyond the cretaceous formation, and consti- 
tutes, through the northern part of Alabama, a water-shed, from which trib- 
utaries of the Tennessee descend to the north, and the various head waters 
of the Tombeckbee, Tuscaloosa, Cahawba, and Coosa, flow off to the south. 
The eastern portion of this range, where the Appalachicola, Tallapoosa, and 
Coosa have their origins, is, on its southern side at least, composed chiefly of 
primitive rocks, topically impregnated with gold. Further west, transition or 
Silurian limestone occurs, overlaid or flanked by a coal formation. Thus the 
geology of the hill-country differs from that of South Alabama, as much as 
its topography. In regard to the latter, however, it may be remarked that 
but little of it is really mountainous : the larger part is only hill-country. 
The streams have a rapid current, which, with the density of the old rocks 
over which they flow, has prevented their excavating wide alluvial and 
swampy valleys ; while the rugged surface has rendered the formation of 
ponds and marshes at a distance from the water-courses equally impossible. 

Nevertheless, this region, which may be called Middle Alabama, is not ex- 

* New Orleans Journal, loco citato. 



200 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

empt from autumnal fever ; which, however, is most prevalent in the vicinity 
of creeks, even when formed chiefly by copious springs. Doctor, now Pro- 
fessor, Grant, of Memphis, who formerly lived four years in Benton county, 
between the Coosa and Tallapoosa, near the thirty -fourth degree of latitude, 
saw, as he informed me, much of this fever, both intermittent and remittent. 
One summer, after copious spring rains, it invaded the inhabitants of the 
pine hills. In Jacksonville there is a limestone spring, which discharges a 
great quantity of water; and it is notorious, that those who live nearest to it, 
and to the brook which it supplies, are most unhealthy. Doctor Clarke has 
given nearly the same account of the fevers of the same county. This local- 
ity, I suppose, may be taken as the representative of all the hill-country 
from Georgia through to Mississippi. Of the whole region, Doctor Lewis* 
remarks, that the "fevers of an intermittent and remittent type, usually 
make their appearance about the first of July ; increasing in number and be- 
coming more violent in the month of August, with occasionally one of a 
typhoid character; and by the first of September, they have attained their 
maximum point, and usually begin to decline in October." 



SECTION VII. 

OUTLINES OF THE REGION BETWEEN THE TOMBECKBEE AND 
MISSISSIPPI RIVERS. 

The Tombeckbee River, of which so much has just been said, originates 
in the depressed extremity of the western spur of the Appalachian Moun- 
tains, which constitutes the water-shed between the Ohio Basin and the 
Gulf of Mexico. Its sources are chiefly in the north-east corner of the state 
of Mississippi; subordinately, in the north-west corner of Alabama. Passing 
from the former to the latter state, at Pickensville, it pursues a course 
directly south to Mobile Bay, at a short distance from the dividing line 
between the two states. Its direction is nearly parallel to that of the 
Mississippi River, from which it is distant, in a straight line, from one hun- 
dred and fifty to two hundred miles. Its extreme length, in a straight line, 
is three hundred miles. Thus, the region on which we have now entered is a 
parallelogram, with its longest sides nearly in the meridian. It includes the 
state of Mississippi, and, in its south-west corner, a small part of Louisiana. 

Few portions of the Mexican Basin, of the same extent, present as much 
geological and topographical uniformity, as this region. According to the 
geological map of Mr. Lyell, compiled from the best authorities, t the whole 
region embraces but two formations: 1, The post-tertiary and tertiary ; 2. 
the cretaceous. The former extends north from the Gulf of Mexico (between 



* Med. Hist, of Alabama : N. 0. Journal, before cited. 

f Travels in North America. By Charles Lyell, Esq. 1845. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 201 

Mobile Bay and the Mississippi River), to a line running across the middle of the 
state of Mississippi, nearly east and west, from the Tombeckbee River, below 
Demopolis, to the trough of the Mississippi, above Vicksburg. All above, or to 
the north of this line, belongs to the cretaceous formation ; for the older 
carboniferous and Silurian groups, which constitute so much of the hill-coun- 
try of Alabama, do not occur in Mississippi, at least to such an extent as to 
merit the notice of the medical geologist. The whole surface of the region 
here sketched out, is composed of loose, miscellaneous ingredients, readily 
disintegrated, and easily transported by water. Its elevation above the 
level of the Gulf is small. The highest parts are to the north-east, at the 
extreme sources of the Tombeckbee ; but they do not, probably, exceed six 
or seven hundred feet, while the greater part ranges from four hundred down 
to fifty feet. In the south of this region, we have Pascagoula and Pearl 
Rivers ; in the north and north-west, the Big Black and Yazoo ; in the 
north-east, the upper part of the Tombeckbee ; nearly all too shallow, nar- 
row, or obstructed, for successful steamboat navigation. An effect of this 
Irydrograpbical condition is, that the towns of the state of Mississippi are 
not, like those of Alabama, on the banks of rivers, except those which are 
found on the Mississippi River. Having alread} T treated of them, and of the 
localities which lie on the Gulf of Mexico — having, as it were, traveled 
round the region under inspection, it only remains, in a series of sections, to 
describe its interior. This, however, I shall not be able to do with much 
fullness ; for I did not penetrate it in many places, and its physicians have 
not published much upon its medical topography. We shall begin in its 
south-east corner, with the first river west of Mobile Bay. 



SECTION VIII. 

BASIN OF PASCAGOULA RIVER. 
This out-of-the-way and little-known district, constitutes the south-east 
angle of the state of Mississippi. Its narrow base, embracing Pascagoula 
Bay, may be seen on the map of the Delta of the Mississippi ( PL V), and 
has been already described under the head of Gulf Coasts. The basin of 
Pascagoula River is intermediate between the Tombeckbee River and Mobile 
estuary, to the east, and Pearl River, to the west. It embraces, entirely or 
in part, fifteen counties of Mississippi; and while its mouth is below the 
latitude of 30° 30', its extreme sources are in 32° 40' N. Thus it flows 
through more than two degrees of latitude. The whole of this basin lies 
in the tertiary formation, and presents on its level or undulating surface 
deposits of sand and loam, which, in the northern portions, attain an eleva- 
tion of four or five hundred feet above the Gulf. Through these loose strata 
the streams have scooped out their valleys, many of which have considerable 
breadth. The bottom-lands are fertile, and heavily timbered with the forest 



202 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

trees appropriate to such localities in the south; but are mostly subject 
to inundations in winter and spring, which greatly limit their settlement 
and cultivation. Along the Pascagoula River there are, however, old or 
diluvial terraces, such as have been described on the Tombeckbee, presenting 
hummocks, which are above the reach of the highest floods. The uplands 
or plains vary in fertility, from the dry, sandy surface on which the long- 
leafed pine luxuriates to the exclusion of almost every other tree, through 
that in which it shares dominion with the oak, to one sufficiently fertile to 
bear a miscellaneous forest vegetation, when we meet with tracts of the 
richest hummock. As a general fact, the poorest uplands, and the broadest, 
lowest, and wettest bottom-lands, are nearest the Gulf. Almost every part 
of the whole basin abounds in permanent springs, the result of infiltration 
from the surface. 

Mr. Darby* informs us that the " general aspect of the soil on the waters 
of the Pascagoula is sterile ; but on their margins a considerable surface of 
good farming land exists. Pine forests reach the Gulf of Mexico on both sides 
of Pascagoula Bay." Doctor Merrill, of Natchez, in 1819 and 1820, was the 
surgeon of a regiment of troops which cut a military road through this basin, 
from west to east. He found it a level pine plateau, with but few swamps 
or ponds. The troops, recently from the north, were subject, in summer and 
autumn, to a mild and simple remittent fever, of which very few died.f 
Speaking of that part which lies near the Gulf, Mr. Darby says, its unfruit- 
fulness is counterbalanced, to the inhabitants, by the health they enjoy. 
According to Besangon, J most parts of it are but little affected with the 
fevers of autumn ; and of one county he says, it is " too healthy to support 
a physician, too honest to need a lawyer, and too free from debt to furnish 
any salary to the clerk of a circuit court." On the whole, we may conclude, 
that the Pascagoula basin affords, in its autumnal salubrity, instructive evi- 
dence of the connection, in the manner of cause and effect, between the 
topographical condition of a southern region and its bilious fevers. If the 
obstructions to the navigation of the Pascagoula River, which lie at its 
mouth, and consist of bars formed by the silt of the river and the sands of 
the Gulf, were removed, so that its deep waters could be entered by steam- 
boats, its banks would afford many healthy, retired, and pleasant retreats, 
for the people of New Orleans and Mobile, during the sickly season. 



* Geog. Descrip. of La., p. 296. f MSS. penes me. 

X An. Reg. of the State of Mi., 1838. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 203 

SECTION IX. 

BASIN OF PEARL RIVER. 

I. This basin, which occupies more than half the longitudinal center of 
the state of Mississippi, extends from the Rigolcts, between Lake Pontcbar- 
train and Lake Borgne ( PL V), on the Gulf of Mexico, in N.Lat. 30° 10', 
to N. Lat. 33° 10'. But, while its length reaches through three degrees of 
latitude, its breadth does not average more than three quarters of a degree of 
longitude. It is, in fact, the narrowest basin, in proportion to its length, that 
can anywhere be found in the Interior Valley. The river, originating in or 
near the cretaceous prairies, south-west of Columbus, on the Tombeckbee, 
soon passes the line of junction between that formation and the tertiary, and 
flows through the latter, by a course nearly south, to the Gulf. Its imme- 
diate valley, or trough, is wide, with rich, wooded bottom-lands, almost every- 
where subject to inundations, which leave ponds, lagoons, and cypress and 
liquidambar swamps. The uplands, on each side, are sufficiently level, and 
through the lower half of the river's length, espeeialty on its eastern side, are 
covered with pine. On the western side generally, and on both sides as 
we ascend the river, the land becomes more fertile and rolling, with hummocks, 
cane-brakes, and even whole counties of productive soil. The tributaries of 
Pearl River are, in general, very short ; but many of them, especially the 
lower, are fed by copious springs. Most of them flow through wide alluvial 
valleys, which are less liable to overflows than those of the main stream, yet 
are not free from swamps and swales, which render their banks unhealthy in 
autumn. The upper part of the basin, although more productive, is not so 
well supplied with springs, and, from its richer mold, is more liable to au- 
tumnal fever than the lower. Hitherto, Pearl River has been found difficult 
and precarious in its navigation; in consequence of which it has no large com- 
mercial towns to interest the medical topographer. The capital of the state 
of Mississippi stands, however, on the west or right bank of this river, about 
N. Lat 32° 20', and, having made a visit to it, I shall give a sketch of its 
topography. 

II. Jackson. — The immediate site of the town is elevated ; some parts of 
it gradually rising into a considerable swell or tuberosity; though other parts 
were, originally, a kind of morass, now filled up. Between the town and the 
river, to the east north-east, there are ponds of clear and cold water, supplied 
by springs. Extensive low bottoms lie to the north-east, east, and south- 
west, which are covered by dense forests, and suffer annual inundations. To 
the west, a small tributary is skirted with narrow, wet, alluvial grounds. 
Formerly the inhabitants drank a very impure well-water ; latterly, they rely 
chiefly on cisterns, replenished in rainy weather. From Dr. Gist, who has 
devoted himself to the study of the geology of this region, I learned that, in 
descending from the surface, there is, first, a bed of mold; second, a bed of 
yellow clay or loam, seven or eight feet thick ; third, a bed of gravel, variable 



204 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

in thickness, but, generally, about three feet ; fourth, a stratum of blue clay, 
from eighty to one hundred feet through ; fifth, sand, of unknown depth. The 
second and third ( loam and gravel ) are often wanting. The fourth ( blue 
clay ) sometimes assumes a white, gray, or yellow hue. It abounds in beds 
of indurated carbonate of lime, or rotten limestone, marl, and gypsum ; and 
sulphates of iron, soda, magnesia, and alumina, have also been detected in 
it. It abounds in marine shells, remains of trees, and bones of land ani- 
mals. The fifth, or sand stratum, in its upper part, resembles the mud of the 
river ; having decayed animal and vegetable matters mingled with it, and 
sending up carbonic acid gas. At the depth of a few feet, the sand assumes 
a white color, and retains it, as far as borings have been made. This bed, 
which, by its undulations, comes much nearer the surface in some places than 
in others, abounds in animalcules, of the same kind that are found in the 
neighboring ponds, which are fed by springs. All the wells which terminate 
in the blue clay, afford bad water, and likewise some of those which pass 
through it ; but a pure water is supplied by the springs which burst out from 
the white sand, where it approaches the surface near enough to be cut into by 
the streams. This interesting description is no doubt applicable not only to 
Hinds county, one of the largest and richest of the state, in which Jackson is 
situate, but applies also, with some modifications, to all the northern belt of 
the tertiary deposits through Mississippi and Alabama. 

For several years after the beginning of settlements, this locality was sub- 
ject to autumnal fevers of a most malignant character; but latterly, they have 
been much milder. Of the basin of Pearl River, generally, it may be said, 
that places near the river, and on such of its tributaries as have wide bottoms, 
are insalubrious ; but the pine and oak lands, and other tracts of richer sur- 
face, but rolling and remote from water-courses, are comparatively healthy. 



SECTION X. 

REGION BETWEEN PEARL RIVER AND THE MISSISSIPPI : THE 
BLUFF-ZONE. 

I. In concluding our survey of the region immediately north of the Gulf, 
we come to the most populous and productive portion of the whole, called by 
Mr. Darby the bluff-zone. Resting on the Bayou Iberville, on the lower 
part of Amite River, on Lake Maurepas, and on Lake Pontchartrain, in N. 
Lat. about 30° 10', the bluff-zone extends directly north, keeping parallel 
to the Mississippi Paver. Its southern end, up to the thirty-first parallel, 
comprehends the parishes of St. Tammany, Livingston, Baton Rouge, West 
and East Feliciana, St. Helena, and Washington, all in the state of Louisi- 
ana. Washington and St. Tammany, from reaching to Pearl River, are 
partly included in its basin. Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, and a small part 
of West Feliciana, rest on the Mississippi. The most important river of this 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 205 

tract is the Amite, which, traversing it centrally, pours its waters into the 
Bayou Iberville, and gives its name to the united streams. 

II. According to Mr. Darby,* a transverse belt of this zone, about 
twenty miles wide, extending from the Mississippi to Pearl Kiver, rises very 
gradually from the water-base line which has been described. It is an almost 
unbroken acclivity, covered, over its whole area, with forest trees, of which 
the most numerous are the liquidambar, and the quercitron oak. Along the 
streams, there are cypress, long moss, live-oak, and cane. Near the Missis- 
sippi there are vast liriodendrons or tulip-poplars, and over the whole, 
laurel magnolias. This inclined plain is diluvial, and corresponds with the 
old or second bottoms of the Tombeckbee, which have been mentioned. Its 
surface is moderately fertile. Immediately succeeding to this belt, there is 
another of nearly the same area ; ' the surface of which,' according to Dar- 
by, ' is broken, often considerably elevated, the soil diversified in quality ; near 
the streams, often fertile, but a much greater proportion covered with pine 
( Pinus rigida ), and sterile. Springs of excellent water become frequent, 
and the creeks and rivers are fine bold streams of very pure limpid water.' 

As to fertility, it may be stated that the eastern portions ( bordering on 
Pearl Kiver) of both these terraces, are more sterile and piny than the 
western. In this quarter we have 

III. Madisonville. — The site of this village is on the right bank of the 
small river Chifuncti, near its junction with Lake Pontchartrain. Its direc- 
tion from New Orleans is indicated on the map of that city ( PI. VI). It 
is surrounded by pine woods, and constitutes, one of the retreats of the un- 
acclimated population of the city, during the prevalence of yellow fever. Its 
vicinity, and the eastern portions generally of the region we are now consid- 
ering, are more exempt from autumnal fever than those to the west, which 
are more fertile, and lie in the rear of Baton Rouge and Bayou Sara, which 
were described in Chapter V. 

IV. We may take another section of this bluff-zone, extending from the 
thirty-first to the thirty-second degree of north latitude, and lying in the 
state of Mississippi, immediately north of the preceding. Its position will 
be best indicated, by saying that the city of Natchez stands near the middle 
of its western margin. The counties which compose this transverse section 
of the bluff-zone, are Wilkinson and Amite, adjoining Louisiana, then 
Adams and Franklin, then Jefferson and Claiborne, with the single courity of 
Copiah in their rear to the east. This region embraces the oldest- settled, 
and, in many respects, the most interesting portion of the state of Missis- 
sippi. The Homo Chitto and Bayou Pierre are its most considerable streams, 
both of which flow into the Mississippi. Its surface is considerably elevated 
and rolling — some of it even low-hilly. Although generally fertile, it em- 
braces tracts of pine with thin soil. Nearly one-half of Amite county, in 

*Geog. Descrip. of La., p. 92. 



206 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which the river Amite originates, is covered with long-leafed pine; while 
another portion, known as the ' Pine Ridge,' passes diagonally through the 
county of Adams, to strike the Mississippi a short distance above Natchez. 
Nevertheless, taken as a whole, this tract is decidedly fertile, and is, or was, 
clothed with a miscellaneous forest, which overshadowed extensive cane- 
brakes. In many places, small ponds or sloughs disfigure the surface; and 
along the streams generally, there are foul alluvial bottoms, subject to inun- 
dation. In consequence of this, the most extensive and valuable plantations 
are on the uplands. Permanent springs are scarce, and the well-water is 
offensive, and regarded as unhealthy. Though pellucid, it deposits, on stand- 
ing, a whitish sediment. Most of the wells terminate in rotten ( tertiary ) 
limestone. I brought away a bottle of water, from a well of very bad re- 
pute, in Jefferson county, several miles back of the river-town of Rodney, 
already described, which, after the lapse of three years, was examined by 
Doctor liaymond, who found a spontaneous deposit of crystallized carbonate 
of lime. All the carbonic acid gas, which kept the lime in solution, and the 
sulphuretted hydrogen gas, which gave the water an unpleasant smell, had 
escaped. Except the lime, Doctor Raymond could not detect any foreign 
matter. 

To supply their wants, the planters, in many parts of this district, resort to 
cisterns. Those to contain drinking water, are filled by the rains in winter; 
those for stock or other purposes, at any time. Many of these cisterns are 
from twelve to fifteen feet in diameter, and twenty to thirty feet deep. Some 
large plantations have several, in different parts, as convenience requires. 
The stock, not less than the people, prefer this to well-water. As a general 
fact, all the fertile portions of this region are subject to autumnal fevers. 
Some account of a few localities will illustrate what has been said. 

V. Woodville. — This town is situated fifteen miles from the Mississippi 
River, in the interior of Wilkinson county. Its elevation above the level of 
the Gulf is three hundred and forty feet ; above the river, at low water, about 
two hundred and sixty. Its latitude is 31° 7' N. The geological formation 
on which it stands, is tertiary sand and clay. According to Doctor Stone and 
Doctor Kilpatrick, its site is the dry rolling land which separates the head waters 
of the Bayou Sara, Thompson's Creek, and Buffalo Creek from each other. 
Some of the small tributaries of the last, originate on the town-plot, and as 
they flow off to the north, pass through broken pine lands, and are skirted 
with narrow swamps ; but the town and its environs, in other directions, are 
entirely exempt from stagnant water, which, from the unevenness of the sur- 
face, cannot accumulate into ponds or marshes. In every direction around 
the town, except to the north, there are extensive cotton plantations, which 
have been cultivated more than forty years. The population of the town is 
eight hundred. It has always been regarded as one of the most pleasant, 
and, in reference to autumnal fever, one of the healthiest towns in the south- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA 207 

west ; yet, in 1844, it experienced a severe visitation of yellow fever.* Wash- 
ington, another town of this zone, has been already described in connection 
with Natchez, from which, its participation in the epidemics of that city, do 
not permit it to be separated by the medical topographer. 

VI. Oakland College. — The site of this rural institution is in Claiborne 
county, six miles from the Mississippi River. The road from Rodney reaches 
it over ridges and tuberosities, composed largely of tertiary sand and loam ; 
but the college grounds, and their vicinity, overshadowed by oak trees, are 
more level. Visiting it in the month of June, I did not see a single spring or 
stream of any kind ; and so great is its destitution of water, that, very often, 
in summer and autumn, the Mississippi River is the only resource of the in- 
habitants. The prevalence of autumnal fever, in this locality, is small; but 
at the distance of three or four miles, where the soil, although dry and rolling, 
is richer, and produces cane, that disease is common and often violent. 

VII. Port Gibson. — Near the central part of the same county, Jefferson, 
stands the town of Port Gibson ; so called because there flows near it a stream, 
of sufficient depth, in wet weather, to float cotton boats to the Mississippi; 
from which it is distant ten or eleven miles. The drive to it, from t]ae town 
of Grand Gulf, was most of the way over hills and ridges, the sides of some 
6f which were rather steep. Before reaching it, the road descended into the 
broad, low, alluvial valley of the Bayou Pierre ; which is composed of two 
principal branches, that unite near Port Gibson, the site of which is on the 
left bank of the southern fork. When the Mississippi rises high, the bottoms 
of the Bayou Pierre are overflowed; and, should that creek at the same time 
be swollen by rains, the inundation is rendered wider and deeper. The plain 
on which the town stands is dry, and sufficiently elevated above the stream. 
I found it clean, and well shaded with trees. It also has a number of wells, 
from twenty to forty feet deep ; and much less cistern-water is drunk here, 
than in many other parts of the district which we are now surveying. Thus,, 
in the tertiary formation, the water obtained from different strata is by no 
means uniform in character. To the east of the town, between it and the 
creek, there are some low, wet grounds ; and on the cape or peninsula, above 
the junction of the two branches of the Bayou Pierre, to the north-east and 
north, are ponds left by the inundations. In the opposite directions, the 
country is moderately level, fertile, and free from swamps. Port Gibson is 
subject to mild attacks of autumnal fever. In the surrounding country it is 
more frequent and fatal. It has not experienced an invasion of yellow fever. 

VIII. A comparison of Localities. — When we compare the two sections 
of the bluff-zone which have been described, with the basins of Pearl River 
and the Pascagoula, we find identities and diversities which are worthy of 
being noted : first, they are all included within the same parallels of latitude — 
all incline to the south — and all belong to the same tertiary deposits; yet, 

* New Orleans Medical Journal, Vol. I, p. 530; Vol. II, p. 40. 



208 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

secondly, the depth and continuity of fertile soil, and the variety and luxu- 
riance of tree and herbaceous vegetation, are much greater in the former than 
in the two latter. Now to what causes shall we ascribe this difference? I am 
not prepared to say that some variation in their mineral constitution may not 
exist, as an efficient agency in the case, but am inclined to ascribe much of 
the difference to the contiguity of the Mississippi River, and its wide, swampy, 
and pondy bottoms. In the great prairies of the west, trees and a rich vege- 
tation are only found near the rivers. On the western side of Lake Michigan, 
I found a belt of lofty forest, two or three miles wide, with prairie immedi- 
ately beyond. It appears, then, that river and lake exhalations favor tree 
vegetation ; and to this influence, continued ever since the Mississippi had an 
existence, we may, perhaps, in good part ascribe the miscellaneous forest and 
luxuriant herbaceous vegetation, and the rich soil, which distinguish the Bluff- 
zone from the zones which lie immediately east of it; and which, at the same 
time, render its inhabitants more liable to autumnal fever. 



SECTION XL 

THE BLUFF-ZONE CONTINUED: VALLEYS OF THE BIG BLACK AND 

YAZOO RIVERS. 

I. This section of the zone, east of the Mississippi and west of Pearl 
River, extends from that just described (the northern limits of which lie 
between the thirty-second and thirty-third degrees of latitude ), up to Lat. 
35°. To the west, this section of the zone is limited, for a short distance, 
by the Mississippi, and afterwards by the Yazoo River ; to the east, it is 
bounded by the upper waters of Pearl and Tombeckbee Rivers. Like the 
three preceding divisions through which we have just passed, this section of 
the zone is narrow, especially in its lower part, where Pearl River, by a 
westerly bend, approaches near to the Big Black. Our paleontologists have 
decided, that the line of junction between the tertiary and the cretaceous 
formations of the south, traverses the lower extremity of this section, not far 
north of the town of Jackson, in the interior, and of Vicksburg, on the Mis- 
sissippi ; so that nearly the whole district on which we have entered, lies in 
the latter formation. As to civil divisions, no less than sixteen or seventeen 
counties, in whole or in part, are included within its limits. Those which 
make up its inferior portion, — Claiborne, Warren, Hinds, Yazoo, Madison, 
and Holmes, — began to be settled as far back as 1820, or even before; but 
the settlement of the remainder was at a later period. 

As intimated by the heading of this article, two rivers drain the whole of 
this section. Big Black, the southern and shorter of these streams, origi- 
nates in Choctaw county, and taking a south-west course, nearly parallel to 
the Yazoo, enters the Mississippi fifty-four miles below Vicksburg, near the 
town of Grand Gulf. The county in which this river has its origin, not less 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 209 

than those through which it flows, is sufficiently elevated and rolling; hut as 
the strata are loose and friable, it has scooped out, for the lower half of its 
course, a broad valley, with depressed and foul bottom-lands, densely over- 
shadowed by tall trees. Even one of its tributaries, Baker's Creek, which I 
crossed in going from Vicksburg to Jackson, had a valley three or four miles 
wide, abounding in ponds and swamps ; and a family near its banks were at 
that time, June 21st, afflicted with fever. At a higher point, where the Big 
Black separates the counties of Yazoo and Madison, its bottoms, as I was 
told, are wide, and subject to inundation. The Yazoo River originates in the 
northern counties of Marshall, Tippah, and Pontotoc, under the names of 
Cold-water, Tallahatchee, and Yallobusha ; which streams, flowing to the 
south-west, descend into the wide Mississippi bottom, unite, and take the 
name of Yazoo. The course of this common trunk is nearly south, to the 
Mississippi, which it joins twelve miles above Vicksburg, and sixty-six 
above the mouth of the Big Black. Of the Sun Flower and other bayous, 
which are canals of communication from the Mississippi to the Yazoo Biver 
across the vast alluvial plain, an account has been already given. The 
course of the Yazoo is along the bluffs, which terminate this plain to the 
east, and constitute the western margin of the upland zone we are now 
studying. The main trunk of the Yazoo belongs, therefore, to the trough 
of the Mississippi, but the upland streams which form it, and the tributaries 
which enter its left or eastern side, belong to the bluff-zone, which, from 
Baton Rouge to Vicksburg, approaches the Mississippi, but is afterwards 
widely separated from it by the Yazoo Bottom. 

This portion of the bluff-zone is nowhere quite level, and in some parts 
rather hilly. It has but few lakes or swamps, except in the immediate vicin- 
ity of its streams, and even these, as we advance to the north, diminish in 
width. One of the most important counties of this district is Y~azoo, into 
which I traveled to Benton, twelve miles from Yazoo City. The country 
over which the road passes is elevated and uneven. 

II. Benton has for its site a dry and rolling tract, with the low and 
swampy bottoms of the Big Black eight or ten miles to its east and south- 
east. The soil of this region is fertile, the natural vegetation miscellaneous, 
the water of the springs and wells much better than in the bluff-zone fur- 
ther south. Notwithstanding the country at and around Benton does not 
seem, in any great degree, to favor the production of autumnal fever, that 
disease is a regular visitant, and often presents malignant cases. 

III. Doctor Montgomery has lately published a paper on the Topography 
and Fevers of Carroll, Choctaw, Tallahatchee, and Y r allobusha counties., 
north of Benton, from which I make the following extract : 

"In the above mentioned counties, the face of the country is very much 
interrupted and broken ; the valleys in all, except the western border of Car- 
roll, are very narrow, and confined and contracted by sandy and rocky ridges: 
no lakes of any importance, very little land subject to overflow, very few 
14 



210 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ponds of stagnant water, or any place that could be properly called a mala- 
rious swamp. The Big Black Biver touches the south-eastern border of 
Carroll, and courses through the midst of Choctaw, from its north-eastern to 
its south-western extremity. There are but few creeks, and those of small 
dimensions, in Choctaw ; and the valleys and creek-bottoms are very small 
and contracted in that county. In Carroll, we have the Yazoo Biver, run- 
ning nearly in a southerly direction along our western border; the Tallahat- 
chee passes through about thirty miles of our north-western corner ; Big 
Black, as before mentioned, courses along the south-eastern angle of the 
county ; thus, these three rivers run nearly from north to south, and the few 
creeks nearly all run westerly, to empty into the Yazoo. The creeks nearly 
all dry up in summer, and we have scarcely any ponds of stagnant water. 
The county of Yallobusha is only coursed by one river, the Yallobusha, 
which traverses that county from the north-east, running down to the south- 
eastern extremity, then turning and coursing all along the southern border. 
There is one large creek, bearing the euphonious name Aattatambogue, which 
traverses the whole county, running from north to south ; and it is worthy of 
remark, that the people living near the bank, of this creek are very exempt 
from disease. There are a few more small creeks in this county, but of 
pure, clear water; and no malarious regions of any extent to my knowledge. 

" We see, then, from this imperfect geographical outline, that the only 
local causes of disease in these counties, are from the Big Black in the 
south-east, the Tallahatchee and Yazoo on the west, and the Yallobusha 
running westerly from Choctaw, between Yallobusha and Carroll counties. 
As I have said, all this region, except the Yazoo valley in the west, is very 
much broken; the soil is rocky and sandy on the hills; the level lands are 
composed of productive dark-colored loam, with a sub-stratum of clay soils ; 
some freestone, but little limestone ; the springs of water are plenty and ex- 
cellent, mostly rising in sandy strata, some few containing large portions of 
iron and sulphur. The highlands, by far the most plenty, are covered with 
the common pine, black jack, and red oak; the valleys are timbered with the 
gums, poplar, hickory, ash, white oak, elm, beech, &c. There is some little 
cane in the Yazoo valley."* 

IY. North of these counties we come to the culminating line between 
the Tennessee Biver, belonging to the Ohio Basin, and the Yazoo Biver. 
This water-shed is a westerly continuation of the hill-country of Alabama, 
but less elevated and not so rugged. Towards its eastern limits some portions 
are said ( by Besangon f ) to reach the altitude of eight hundred feet. It 
abounds in springs. Some of its streams have rapid currents, but others 
meander through wide bottoms which they overflow. The soil is generally 
rich, yet certain portions abound in pine, the indication of comparative 

* New Orleans Journal, Vol. I., No. 6, p. 538. 
t Annual Register. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 211 

sterility. In this region, as in the whole bluff- zone down to the Delta of the 
Mississippi, there are cane-brakes. Besanojon informs us that limestone is 
found in some of the north-eastern counties, which probably belongs to the 
coal formation ; but those nearer the Mississippi are cretaceous. I will, how- 
ever, reserve some remarks on the medical geology of this region, until after 
we have traveled over the next. 

Autumnal fever is an endemio- epidemic of all parts of the zone drained by 
the Big Black and Yazoo Bivers ; in some localities recurring every summer 
and autumn with violence, in others, as an occasional scourge. 



SECTION XII. 

REMAINDER OF THE REGION SOUTH OF THE OHIO BASIN. 
I. To conceive clearly of the form and extent of the remainder of the bluff- 
zone, which is the residue of the great region east of the Mississippi and south of 
the basin of the Ohio, it is necessary to refer to the remarkable course of the 
Tennessee Biver, the southernmost and longest tributary of the Ohio. At the 
sources of the Yazoo, or the northern limit of the tract we have just^ surveyed, 
a little below the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, the Tennessee Biver 
comes within one hundred and twenty miles, in a direct line, of the Missis- 
sippi; but it then turns northerly, being deflected by the highlands of Alabama. 
This northerly course it continues, passing out of the state of Tennessee, and 
then across the western part of Kentucky, to the Ohio Biver at Paducah, above 
the thirty- seventh parallel, and thirty miles in a straight direction from the 
Mississippi. Throughout this lower section of the Tennessee Biver, which, 
by the meanders of the stream, is about two hundred and fifty miles, it 
receives from the region between it and the Mississippi none but the shortest 
tributaries ; for the water- shed between these two rivers, is everywhere very 
near to the Tennessee. From this dividing ridge, or culminating plateau, 
much larger streams, however, descend westwardly to the Mississippi. The 
most southern is Wolf Biver, which, in its origin, interlocks with the Talla- 
hatchee branch of the Yazoo, and finally joins the Mississippi at Memphis, 
Tennessee. Next, advancing north, we have the Big Hatchee, which like- 
wise rises, in part, from the same summit, and, by a circuitous course, enters 
the Mississippi at Randolph, sixty miles higher up. Then succeeds Forked 
Deer Biver, and lastly Obion Biver; after which, up to the Ohio Biver, there 
is no stream worthy of being noted. Such is the hydrography of the district 
we are now studying. Politically, it comprehends the western district of 
Tennessee, and the western extremity of the state of Kentuck} 7 . Its surface 
is either level or undulating, except near the streams, and between their 
sources and those of the tributaries of the Tennessee, where it becomes more 
elevated and hilly. Every part of it belongs to the cretaceous formation, 
which, however, must be very thin in its northern margin. The rivers are 
sluggish in current, and, flowing through a loose surface, have excavated wide 



212 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

troughs, with low alluvial bottoms, which are liable to frequent inundations. 
In traversing this tract from Memphis to Savannah, on the Tennessee Eiver, 
the road passing through Raleigh, Somerville, Bolivar, and Purdy. I found 
the soil generally red, and where the streams had cut down forty or fifty 
feet, their banks exhibit the same hue quite to the water's edge. The stony 
fragments, in which the loam abounds, seem to prove that the latter is a de- 
composed conglomerate or pebbly sandstone; while the color of the soil 
shows that oxyde of iron was the cement. Stone of that kind is here seen in 
situ, increasing in quantity as we advance farther from the Mississippi. A 
notice of two localities — one low down and the other high up — on the Big 
Hatchee, will serve as specimens of the district. 

II. Tipton County. — Doctor Harper* has given us a sketch of the 
medical topography of this county. Bounded on the west by the Missis- 
sippi, it is traversed nearly through its center by the Big Hatchee. The 
river, and its tributaries, are bordered by low bottoms, from one to two miles 
wide, which are bounded by high banks on either side. The streams are 
crooked, and in winter and spring overflow the bottom-lands, which are 
mostly too wet for cultivation, and remain covered with their original forests. 
For ten miles from the Mississippi, the surface is hilly ; but the eastern part 
of the county is more level, and is the chief seat of cultivation- This county 
is subject to autumnal fever ; often congestive or malignant. It prevails 
more in latter years, than when settlements were first made ; and more in dry 
summers than wet. 

III. Bolivar. — This town, the most important of the interior, is situate 
sixty-five miles east of Memphis, on the south or left bank of the Big 
Hatchee, from which it is distant one mile. It stands on a plain, that 
slopes gently to the river; which is a deep, sluggish canal, not more than 
one hundred feet in width. Although between two and three hundred miles, 
by its meanders, from the Mississippi at Randolph, steamboats ascend it to 
this point. The bottom is here a mile wide, and subject to deep inundations. 
A dense forest, embracing cypress trees, overshadows it. Beyond this allu- 
vium the land rises to the hight of from eighty to one hundred feet, and presents 
ledges of perishable sandstone and conglomerate. The wells, in Bolivar, are 
from sixty to seventy feet in depth, and afford much better water than those 
of the cretaceous region, further south. The following strata are generally 
passed through, in digging : 1, Clay or loam, from five to fifteen feet ; 2, red 
sand, from fifteen to twenty feet ; 3, very white sand, from fifteen to twenty 
feet ; 4, red and white sand mingled, but ending in pure white, with excellent, 
soft water. 

IV. Doctor Higgason, of Somerville, speaks as follows of the whole 
"Western District : f 

* Western Journal, Louisville, Aug., 1846. 
f Transylvania Journal, Vol. VIII, p. 39. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 213 

" The face of the country is generally uneven, presenting a variety of hill 
and dale, sufficient to give a pleasing diversity to the eye. Approaching 
the eastern portion, the land becomes a little more broken, assumes a bolder 
feature, and presents an approximation, in character, to the mountain sce- 
nery on the other side of the Tennessee River. This feature obtains, in 
some degree, along the Kentucky border, and down the Mississippi River 
to some extent, until it is lost in the beautiful undulations, scattered over 
the general face of the country. 

" The whole country, so far as geological observation has extended, is of 
secondary formation, composed of layer upon layer of loam, and clay, and 
sand, intermingled with various kinds of earth, and shells, and vegetable 
substances, disposed in such manner, as to induce the idea of being depo- 
sited at distinct epochs of the earth's history. In passing through different 
strata of sand, it is not unusual to find silicious pebbles ; as if they had 
formed a river or an ocean's bed, and had assumed their present form by 
long- continued attrition. The impression of twigs and leaves is common in 
clay ; and, not unfrequently, the trunks of trees, changed to a kind of bitu- 
minous substance, are found at the distance of forty or fifty feet <below the 
surface of the earth. 

" Rivers are numerous here ; perhaps no country on the globe is more 
liberally supplied with navigable streams than this. Sandy and Beach 
Rivers flow into the Tennessee, on the east ; Wolf, Loose Hatchee, Big 
Hatchee, Forked Deer, and Obion, into the Mississippi, on the west ; these, 
having their sources in, or passing through, some portion of the district, 
afford advantages to the farmer and merchant, rarely equaled in any part of 
the world. There is no point more than twenty-five miles distant from a 
navigable water-course. Creeks and rivulets, of sufficient size to propel 
machinery, are to be found in almost every neighborhood; sometimes, how- 
ever, in dry seasons, they become deficient, on account of the absorbent 
quality of the soil. Dry creeks, as they are called, are scattered over the 
whole country ; they wind their way among the hills, and continue flush until 
June, when they become dry, and remain so until the winter rains set in ; 
with the exception of here and there a pool, standing in the deeper part of 
their beds. They are attended by little or no swamp or marsh ; but by a strip 
of rich, level land, that becomes sufficiently drained for cultivation, by the 
planting season. The perennial streams carry along with them a low, palu- 
dal land, from a half to four or five miles in breadth, corresponding, in some 
measure, to the size of the water-course. This land is frequently inundated 
to its full extent by spring freshets, and on the recession of the waters, nume- 
rous sloughs and lakes are left, that remain stagnant, until drained or carried 
off by a slow evaporation. 

" These low grounds give origin to a heavy growth of forest trees and 
shrubbery, that almost excludes the solar rays. The atmosphere is conse- 
quently heavy, and loaded with exhalations from decomposing animal and 



214 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

vegetable matter, left by the retiring waters. On the higher lands, the 
forest is not so heavy, and under-brush less abundant; until here and there 
a patch of barren ground is presented, with scarcely a sufficient growth for 
the uses of husbandry. This obtains, to some extent, over the whole dis- 
trict, and is much sought by the planters, particularly when situated 
adjacent to lands heavily timbered, and yielding the. supplies requisite for 
farming purposes. Small prairies are here and there found, which appear 
to have been produced by an extension of the same natural causes with the 
barrens. They both are light, and porous, and fertile ; both alike suited to 
vegetable nutriment; both equally adapted to the growth of cotton, the 
different grains, and grasses ; and no geological distinction can be detected, 
sufficient to account for the absence of forest trees. In their immediate 
neighborhood, good spring-water is generally scarce ; probably owing to the 
direct rays of the sun on an alluvial soil, favoring an evaporation so rapid 
as to prevent that absorption and percolation of water necessary to the 
formation of springs. Good well-water may, however, be procured in almost 
every part of the country, at the distance of thirty or forty feet. This is of 
the temperature of sixty-two degrees Fahrenheit, and is considered more 
wholesome than that of springs. Whether this is owing to the greater 
purity of the one, or the low marsh-land usually accompanying the other, 
is a point in question. Certain it is, that families using well-water are 
more exempt from disease than those using the water of springs. There is 
in the vicinity of Somerville, a fine, bold spring of clear, freestone water, 
from which the citizens of that village were supplied for some years after 
its first settlement ; during which period it was unhealthy. Diseases of a 
violent and dangerous character prevailed, particularly in the summer and 
fall of 1826 ; almost every case that occurred proved fatal. Since then, 
well-water has come into general use, and the village is comparatively 
healthy; diseases are less common, and of milder character than before. A 
greater improvement has taken place in this respect, than may be ascribed 
to modes and habits of life." 

To this comprehensive account may be added a briefer notice, from 
another physician of the same district : * 

"The Western District," says Doctor Travis, "is generally a low coun- 
try, abounding in many water- courses, upland ponds, and extensive marshy 
bottoms, on each side of every river, creek, and branch. The rivulets, in 
general, have but little fall. Mill-ponds are common ; and, in consequence 
of the level surface of the earth, immense bodies of land are covered with 
water. The soil is fertile and covered with vegetation." According to 
Doctor Travis, intermittents of a malignant type are among the varieties of 
autumnal fever in this district. 

In addition to these authorities I may add, that all parts of the region we 

* Transylvania Journal, Vol. I, p. 423. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 215 

are now exploring are subject to autumnal fever ; but, with the exception 
of some localities, it is less frequent and fatal than in regions further south. 
V. Cotton Limit. — In the Western District we have the northern limit 
of cotton cultivation. The thirty-sixth degree of latitude is that at which 
it ceases to be a reliable and profitable crop ; though its cultivation, in a 
limited way, extends half a degree further north. Thus cotton bears to the 
thirty-sixth parallel, nearly the same relation which the sugar-cane bears 
to the thirty-first — the climatic difference between them being five degrees. 
In the larger towns of the sugar-zone, yellow fever is, apparently, an ende- 
mic disease; beyond that belt, an occasional epidemic; but it has not yet 
reached the northern boundary of the cotton-zone. 



SECTION XIII. 

A GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 

I. In concluding the topographical description of the country east of the 
Mississippi and south of the Ohio Basin, composed almost entirely of the 
cretaceous and tertiary formations, it will be acceptable to the medical geol- 
ogist to have a summary of the original observations of a traveler,* extending 
from Troy, in Obion county, Tennessee, N. Lat. 36° 20', a few miles north 
of Obion River, to Centreville, Alabama, on the Cahawba River, in Lat. 
33° ; the general course of his route being south south-east. 

Around Troy, the country is level or a little rolling, and the wells reveal 
nothing but clay, which is so tenacious that no curbing is needed. Begin- 
ning somewhere north of that town, and extending to Cold-water River, in 
the state of Mississippi, one hundred and thirty miles south, Mr. Christy 
everywhere saw the same upper stratum, which he has designated as No. 1. 
It consists of a heavy deposit of clay, which includes beds of leaves, black 
dirt or mud, and logs or trunks of trees, not petrified. Obion, Forked Deer, 
Big Hatchee, and Wolf Rivers, have their troughs in this stratum. Beneath 
it is a stratum of sand, No. 2, about one hundred feet thick, which presents 
white, red, and yellow layers, and includes, in irregular dissemination, beds 
of gravel and pipe-clay. When wells are sunk through this stratum of sand, 
the quantity of water is so great as to indicate a subterranean stream. Cold- 
water River has cut its bed so deep into this stratum, as to draw a large 
supply from it ; and hence, perhaps, that temperature which suggested its 
name. In some places, these outbursts of water have the diameter of a 
hogshead. The upper stratum of clay, No. 1, extends to near Holly Springs, 
Marshall county, Mississippi, but is attenuated, and only found capping the 
low eminences of the sand stratum, No. 2. Tins stratum extends as far 
south as the Tallahatchee River, in the southern edge of the county just 



* Letters on Geology. By David Christy, Oxford, 0., 1848. 



216 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

named, where it is cut through by the river, and a lower bed, No. 3, is ex- 
posed, consisting of clay, including thin strata of ferruginous sandstone, 
and occasional beds of iron ore. It also contains trees which are silicified. 
Beneath this, in the same locality, is a stratum of sand, with beds of massive 
sandstone, in its lower part; — this is No. 4. A stratum of clay, constitu- 
ting No. 5, is found in the same locality, imbedding lignite, black mud, and 
impressions of leaves. Pontotoc, Mississippi, between the sources of the 
Tallahatchee and the Tombeckbee, stands on this, which is a pine-bearing 
stratum. Below this deposit, is No. 6, a thin bed of sand; then, No. 7, a 
bed of clay; succeeded by No. 8, a marly clay, with beds of limestone, and 
unconsolidated marine shells. No. 9 is red sand; on which follows No. 10, 
the great deposit of marlite, or rotten limestone so often mentioned. Its 
first appearance is a few miles south of Pontotoc. From this town to Hous- 
ton, thirty miles directly south, the road is over Nos. 8, 7, 6, and 5. At 
Houston, No. 9 makes the surface, and No. 10 is only twenty feet below. 
From Houston to Starkville, thirty-seven miles, still nearly south, No. 9 is 
uppermost for more than half the distance ; when No. 10 rises so high, that 
the other is only found capping the hills. Mr. Christy had now reached the 
great cretaceous soft or rotten limestone formation, which stretches from 
Octibbeha county, of which Starksville is the seat of justice, and Lowndes 
county, of which Columbus is the chief town, round to the Alabama Biver. 
He traced it through the prairies, to Centreville on the Cahawba, and made 
many observations on its mineral, as well as its paleontological character ; 
but, as we have already said as much concerning it as etiology seems to re- 
quire, we shall not follow him further. 

II. Conclusion. — In concluding this chapter, a few facts deserve to be 
reproduced to the reader: 

1. The whole region which has been surveyed, lies south of the thirty- 
seventh degree of north latitude, and its broadest part is in the thirty- 
second ; — it is, therefore, a southern region. 

2. Its elevation above the Grulf of Mexico is but small, not averaging 
more than four hundred feet. 

3. It has an inclination to the south ; which is true even of those parts 
which discharge their waters westerly and south-westerly into the Missis- 
sippi. 

4. It is composed of the ( geologically ) recent cretaceous and tertiary 
formations, which are friable in texture and miscellaneous in composition, 
still containing remains of organic matter. 

5. As a consequence of this structure, its streams have wide alluvions, 
and sluggish currents, which lead to frequent valley-inundations. 

6. It is undeniable, that this great region is more generally and seriously 
infested with autumnal fever, than any other portion of the Interior Valley 
of North America. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 217 

7. Most of it has been settled within the last thirty years, and new plan- 
tations are still forming. 

It is, therefore, what we, provincially, call a new country, and with the 
progress of cultivation, may become much healthier. Most of its streams, 
however, will long continue to overflow their low, broad, alluvial bottoms, 
and thus thread the higher lands with lines of pools and swamp, which, under 
the influence of a southern sun, will of necessity send forth the efficient cause 
of autumnal fever. The question, moreover, may be raised, whether, in 
summer and autumn, there may not be telluric emanations, from the uncon- 
solidated strata of the comparatively recent tertiary and cretaceous forma- 
tions, which the older carboniferous, Devonian, and Silurian formations do 
not send forth. I would not venture to answer this question affirmatively; 
but if such be the case, the region we have surveyed is permanently exposed 
to an additional cause of insalubrity. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI : 

THE OHIO BASIN. 



SECTION I. 

LIMITS AND GENERAL FEATURES. 
In entering this basin, we rise from The South- West to The West, 
into the region which, thirty years ago, was, in common parlance, called the 
Valley op the Mississippi ; for, at that time, the settlements beyond that 
river were exceedingly limited, and most of those in the south-west were 
but beginning. The central states of the Ohio Basin are Kentucky and 
Ohio. The former, except its farthest western extremity, which rests on 
the Mississippi, is more entirely within the Ohio Basin than any other state. 
To the south of Kentucky, the state of Tennessee, the northern end of 
Alabama, the north-west corner of Georgia, and a larger portion of the 
south-west angle of North Carolina, lie within this basin ; to the east of 
Tennessee and Kentucky, other portions of North Carolina, and the whole 



218 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book l 

of Western Virginia, belong to tliis basin ; east of the state of Ohio, the 
western third-part of Pennsylvania, and a portion of the south-west corner 
of New York, dip into the same basin ; the northern part of Ohio, and, west 
of it, of Indiana and Illinois, likewise appertain to the Ohio Basin, of which 
the western limit runs through the state of Illinois from north to south, so 
as to include about a fifth-part of that state. Thus, while no single state 
lies entirely in this basin, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio are 
chiefly in it, and constitute what is, or was formerly, called The West. In 
addition to these, eight other states discharge a portion of their waters 
through the Ohio River; making in all twelve states, which are hydro- 
graphically connected with this basin. Of all the basins of the Great 
Interior Valley, this approaches nearest to a circular figure ; its central and 
intersecting diameters conforming to the cardinal points, and being nearly 
of the same length. Its center would be included within a line drawn 
through Maysville and Lexington, Kentucky ; Madison, Indiana ; and Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio ; between the thirty- eighth and thirty-ninth parallels, and the 
eighty-fourth and eighty-fifth meridians. Its most southern latitude, on 
the highlands beyond the great bend of the Tennessee River, is in the state 
of Alabama, about thirty-four degrees and fifteen minutes ; its northern, in 
New York, a little above the forty- second degree. In longitude it ranges 
from about seventy-eight to eighty-nine west. The former of these meri- 
dians runs through New York and Pennsylvania, at the sources of the 
Alleghany River ; the latter passes through the mouth of the Ohio River. 

The Ohio Basin differs, in many respects, from the more southern basins 
over which we have traveled. Its general elevation above the level of the 
sea, excluding its mountains, is more than twice as great as the regions we 
have just left — that is, from seven hundred to one thousand feet; while 
the mountain borders to the east and south-east, rise from two thou- 
sand five hundred to five thousand feet. The north-west portions, in 
Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, embrace tracts of level land, not unlike the 
plains of Alabama ; but south of the Ohio River, the surface is everywhere 
ridgy, rising eastwardly into the mountainous ; a character which belongs 
equally to the eastern portions of the region north of the Ohio. 

Geologically, the difference is equally great. A very small part, near 
the mouths of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers, presents the cretaceous for- 
mation, on which we have dwelt so long ; all the rest offers at the surface 
older geological formations. The western, southern, and eastern parts 
embrace extensive coal deposits, with their accompanying sandstones, shales, 
and limestone ; the central portions show at the surface Devonian sand- 
stones and shales, of an older geological date ; and large tracts of Silurian 
limestone, still older in the geological series, are found at the surface ; the 
carboniferous and Devonian formations seeming to have been washed away. 
The oldest of these Silurian or transition rocks bulge up in, and a little south of, 
what has been designated as the geographical center of the basin. The rocks 



tart i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 219 

of those various formations are firmly indurated, compared with the cretaceous 
and tertiary deposits, and have, therefore, been acted upon much less in a 
lateral direction. Hence most of the valleys are mere ravines, compared 
with those which have been excavated through 'loose and friable strata. 
This is especially true of that part of the basin which lies south of the Ohio 
River. To its north, however, in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, there are 
deep and extensive deposits of drift or diluvium, in which the streams have 
excavated wide valleys, and formed alluvial bottoms of corresponding 
breadth. All parts afford springs, though not of equal copiousness and 
permanence, and well-water can everywhere be obtained. The creeks and 
rivers rise rapidly, and the range between low and high water is great. In 
the northern margin of the basin, there are many small lakes, or, more pro- 
perly speaking, large ponds, and numerous swamps of still greater area; 
but in the basin generally they are not found. 

To the north of the Ohio, in Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, there are consi- 
derable tracts of prairie ; but the basin generally presents, or did present, 
compact and lofty forests, composed of the diversified tree vegetation of the 
fertile soils of the middle latitudes. The pines, hemlocks, and other resinous 
trees, are chiefly found in the mountains of Western New York, Pennsylva- 
nia, and Virginia. 

As is implied in the name given to this basin, its great river is the Ohio, 
the general course of which is west south-west. Its principal tributaries on 
the north side, beginning with the lowest and ascending, are the Wabash, 
Great Miami, Scioto, Muskingum, and Alleghany ; which last is, in fact, the 
Ohio, under another name. On the south side we have, beginning with the 
highest and descending, first, the Monongahela, the junction of which with 
the Alleghany, at Pittsburgh, forms the Ohio; then the Kenawha, the 
Sandy, Kentucky, Green, Cumberland, and Tennessee. As a general fact, 
the rivers on the north side have a shorter course and a more rapid descent, 
than those of the opposite side of the Ohio. 



SECTION II. 

TROUGH OF THE RIVER. 

From the mouth of the Ohio to that of the Tennessee, that is, from Cairo 
to Paducah, the distance is forty-five miles, following the Ohio in its bend to 
the north. Through the whole of this section, which may be called the estu- 
ary of the river, the current is slack and gentle, indicating very little fall, 
except when there is a flood in the Ohio, and, at the same time, low water in 
the Mississippi. The river, in the lower part of the estuary, is expanded to 
a breadth even greater than that of the Mississippi where they unite. Its 
banks, for much of the distance from its mouth up to the Tennessee Hiver, 
are low, and its bottoms so wide that no hills can be seen. Large 



220 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tracts are, of course, annually overflowed, early in the spring by the Ohio, 
later by the Mississippi, and occasionally by a simultaneous flood in both. 
These inundations leave ponds, and extensive swamps, heavily shaded with 
sycamore, cotton- wood, water-maple, and liquidambar, on both sides of the 
estuary. Here and there a clay or gravel bank, cretaceous, tertiary, or dilu- 
vial, rises above high-water mark ; but in its rear there is, commonly, lower 
and pondy land. A ridge or terrace of this kind is seen for some distance, 
on the north side of the river, between Cairo and Paducah, producing cane 
of a diminutive size, and having ponds in its rear. The only towns of any 
importance on the estuary are, Cairo, at the mouth of the river, already 
described when treating of the trough of the Mississippi, and Paducah, 
immediately below the mouth of the Tennessee Eiver. The scattered inhabit- 
ants between these places, not less than the people of the former, are subject 
to autumnal fever, which occasionally shows a malignant character. The 
depression of this portion of the valley below the high- water level of the 
Ohio and Mississippi, must forever render it liable to this form of fever. 
From the Tennessee River upward to the mountains, the banks are more 
elevated than below, and second terraces are everywhere met with. Even a 
third is occasionally seen. The former are rarely so low as to be reached by 
the highest floods of the river; the latter, of course, always above them. 
The first bottoms are mostly argillaceous, with a deep soil. The second 
and third consist largely of bowlders, pebbles, gravel, and sand, covered 
with a stratum of yellow loam, overspread with a thin layer of soil. Their 
surface is generally dry. The debris of which they are composed, are all 
water-worn to a polished surface, except those which obviously belong to 
the adjacent strata. The sand is almost invariably in the deeper parts of 
these deposits, while the other and larger masses are found nearer the sur- 
face ; showing that they have been agitated by the fluctuations of stagnant 
water; a further evidence of which is, that the materials are, imperfectly, 
disposed in strata, which at considerable depths are variously curved and 
inclined, but near the surface are generally horizontal. Among the pebbles 
and small bowlders, there are fragments of all the different rocks yet dis- 
covered to the east, north-east, and north of the river; and the further we 
ascend it, the larger are these masses, and the more extensive the upper or 
second bottoms which they compose. In their depths, beds of tenacious 
blue clay are occasionally met with, and fragments of trees, with unios, and 
other fresh-water shells, of the existing geological era. Detached and 
water-worn teeth and vertebrse of the mastodon and arctic elephant are 
likewise found. Well-water of a hard and sometimes sulphurous quality, 
but generally palatable and salubrious, is obtained at various depths, from 
twenty to one hundred feet. In some places, where there is a third ter- 
race, the debris are consolidated, by oxyde of iron, into a coarse, stratified 
conglomerate. All the beautiful town-sites and valley-residences along the 
Ohio, are seated on these old bottoms, which arc called by the geologists 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 221 

diluvial or post-tertiary deposits. The first or lowest bottoms, lying "be- 
tween these and the river, are sometimes wider, sometimes narrower than 
the second. They are generally composed, as already intimated, of clay, — 
yellow, reddish, or blue, — with more or less marl and sand. When the last 
is abundant, they are easily washed away. They also inclose fragments of 
wood, and detached bones, or even whole skeletons, of extinct as well as 
existing mammalia. The water they afford is often not so pure as that ob- 
tamed in the gravel plains, and frequently contains the bicarbonate of iron. 
These low terraces, and also the higher and older, generally incline from the 
river, and hence the water which descends upon them from the hills, or falls 
in rain, does not flow directly to the river, but takes a course more or less 
parallel to it, forming swampy streams, which slowly discharge themselves 
into the hill-tributaries of the river. 

In former times, these marshy brooks were dammed up by beavers, and 
converted into ponds, overshadowed by the forest, and half-filled with dead 
and decaying trees. The declivity of these, like that of other alluvial bot- 
toms, was produced by the greater deposit of silt near the margin of the 
bank than further back. In ordinary floods, the river no longer passes over 
its banks, but throwing its back-water up the estuaries of its tributary 
streams, and into the beaver- creeks, spreads over the rear of the bottoms, 
producing on many of them a deep inundation, while a margin of dry land 
remains in front. When the flood recedes, a new deposit of silt and drift- 
wood is left, with sloughs and ponds, which dry up more or less rapidly, ac- 
cording to their depth and the degree in which they are fed by springs from 
the adjoining hills. 

Such is the general character of the trough or immediate valley 
of the Ohio. It only remains to add, that this valley, from hill to hill, 
has a width which varies from one to two miles, and that, except where 
considerable tributaries enter, the bottoms are rarely of the same width on 
both sides at the same place, but present the wide and narrow in alterna- 
tion. Of the hills it may be stated, that they generally rise about four 
hundred feet above the lowest level of the river, are steep, and divided by 
narrow ravines, but are covered with productive soil, and sustain a vigorous 
and lofty growth of forest trees. They constitute a rugged zone on each 
side of the river, which, at a short distance back, graduates into undulating 
or level land, until we ascend the river about six hundred miles, to the out- 
crops of the Appalachian coal formation, when the whole surface of the 
country becomes more broken. 

Having made this general survey of the basin and trough of the Ohio 
River, we must now proceed to more particular topographical descriptions. 
In doing this, it will be proper to begin with the lower tributaries on the 
south side; as we shall then start from the terminal line of the last chap- 
ter. The localities along the Ohio River, will be described (as far as I 



222 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

have materials ) as we pass from the mouth of one tributary to that of 
another. We, of course, commence with the Tennessee. 



SECTION III. 

SOUTHERN OHIO BASIN : THE TENNESSEE RIVER. 

I. The Tennessee River has sometimes been compared with the Ohio, 
which it almost equals in length, and in some places rivals in breadth ; yet, 
to the medical topographer, the interest it presents is far less. Its sources, 
in the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, are found as far north as 
the thirty- seventh parallel; which is that of its mouth, in the state of Ken- 
tucky ; while its middle is bent down, in the state of Alabama, to the thirty- 
fourth degree. Through the first half of its course the Tennessee is, strictly 
speaking, a mountain river ; but afterwards, it flows through a hill-country. 
For three-fourths of its length, the Appalachian Mountains, and the declining 
spurs which they send off, westwardly, across the state of Alabama, restrain 
it on the south ; while the Cumberland River, which conforms to its great 
curve, approaches it so closely on the opposite side, as greatly to narrow its 
basin. Hence, after its formation by the Clinch and Holston, at Kingston, 
six hundred miles from its mouth, it does not receive a single tributary wide 
and deep enough for steamboat navigation. This limitation of its basin, 
taken in connection with a number of shoals and rapids, has combined with 
the hilliness of many parts of the country through which it flows, and the 
narrowness of most of its alluvial grounds, in retarding the settlement of its 
banks, and rendering their study an object of interest to the medical etiologist. 
From its mouth to its sources, the banks do not present a single town with 
one thousand inhabitants ; nor is there a town within its basin that contains 
more than that number. 

In continuing the description, we may conveniently divide this river into 
the Lower and the Upper Tennessee, taking the Muscle Shoals, between Flo- 
rence and Triana, as the line of division. The length of the lower section is 
about two hundred and seventy-five miles. Through most of this distance, 
the country on each side is somewhat rugged, and composed largely of carbon- 
iferous limestone ; which, however, is often found only in the bed of the river, 
while the hills are composed of, or capped with, the rotten or cretaceous lime- 
stone; — as I had an opportunity of observing, on the route from Memphis, 
through Purdy and Savannah, to Florence. The bottom-lands of this section 
of the Tennessee, are said not to be very broad ; there is no great prevalence 
of ponds and swamps, compared with the rivers farther south ; and their lia- 
bility to autumnal lever is in correspondence with this topography. 

II. Florence, in North Alabama. — This town, one of the oldest in the 
basin of the Tennessee, stands on its right or northern bank, not far below 
the Muscle Shoals. Its site is on the southern edge of a considerable tract 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 223 

of table-land, elevated from eighty to one hundred feet above the level of the 
river, free from ponds and sloughs, and subjected to cotton cultivation. Be- 
tween the town and the river, which here runs from cast to west, there is an 
alluvial bottom, a quarter of a mile in width, which is subject to inundation, 
and constitutes the chief source of autumnal fever in this locality. The in- 
habitants obtain their drinking-water from wells. They are dug to the depth 
of sixty or eighty feet, through loose materials — coarse red sand and clay, 
abounding in detached organic remains and moldering fragments of silicious 
stone. The water is soft, and of the temperature, in June, of sixty- one degrees 
Fahrenheit. Like other river towns in the latitude of thirty-five degrees 
north, Florence is visited annually with autumnal fever, which, however, is in 
general of a mild character. 

III. Tuscumbia. — The plain on which Florence stands reappears on the 
south side of the Tennessee River, and stretches oif eight or ten miles, to the 
mountain highlands, which constitute the water-shed between this river and 
the Coosa, which flows to the south. On this plain, the surface of which is 
gently undulating and of a reddish color, at the distance of four miles from the 
river, in the midst of extensive cotton-fields, stands the newer town of Tus- 
cumbia. The most interesting object in the topography of this piace, is a 
spring, which, almost in the center of the village, gushes from a ledge of car- 
boniferous limestone rocks. The pool which it forms is beautifully overshad- 
owed by trees ; the water displays a bluish tint, and abounds in long wreaths 
of aquatic plants. Its temperature, in the month of June, was sixty degrees 
Fahrenheit. In flowing off, it expands into a brook thirty yards in width, which 
very soon joins itself with a surface-stream; and the united waters, under 
the name of Spring Creek, make their way, north-westerly, to the Tennes- 
see River, three miles from the town. This creek, flowing through the loose 
upper stratum of the plain, has formed wide alluvial bottoms, which are occa- 
sionally inundated ; and hence Tuscumbia has, to its windward, a permanent 
source of autumnal fever, from which it annually suffers. 

IV. Tue Muscle Shoals and adjacent Plain. — I did not visit the 
Muscle Shoals. Their length is sixty or seventy miles. The river is 
divided into many channels, in which the water is in some parts slack, in 
others rapid. Islands, of course, are numerous, and the breadth of the 
whole trough very great, compared with that above or below. To the 
south, through the whole length of the shoals, lies the plain on which Tus- 
cumbia is built ; and in traversing it for a distance of forty-three miles by 
the railroad, to Decatur, above the shoals, the low range of terminating 
Appalachian Mountains, which stretches across North Alabama, is every- 
where in sight to the south. The width of this plain is from six to ten 
miles. Although it is, except near the river, above the highest floods, its 
surface is not free from ponds and sloughs ; and its inhabitants, including 
those who live in the village of Courtland, are subject to autumnal fever. 

V. Decatur stands on the eastern edge of this plain, and is less eleva- 



224 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ted above tlie river tlian Tuscumbia or Florence. It seems to be free from 
special sources of disease, as far as the plain around it is concerned, but is 
not beyond the reach of sinister influences from the opposite side. 

VI. Route from Decatur to Huntsville. — The river at Decatur is 
nearly half a mile in width, with shallow and stagnant water in the sum- 
mer. Its north or right bank is low, and the road passes for two or three 
miles over a causeway, in the midst of foul ponds, lagoons, and swamps, left 
by the spring inundations of the river ; — beyond this bottom, it mounts on 
table-land of the same kind with that on the opposite side of the river. 
From this plateau, which is several miles in width, the road rises to the 
summits of a tract of low hills ; from the north-eastern edge of which, we 
look over the plain, on which stands the most noted and beautiful town in 
the Tennessee Basin — Huntsville. 

VII. Huntsville is environed by spurs and off-sets of the Cumberland 
branch of the Appalachian Mountains, which repose around it in blue 
masses. This town enjoys the advantages of a fountain as pure and copi- 
ous as that of Tuscumbia. Its surplus water is made to supply a canal, 
which is conducted along its valley, in a southerly direction, to the Tennes- 
see River, — a distance of twelve miles. In this valley and the smaller lat- 
eral valleys opening into it, there is much drowned bottom-land, and, conse- 
quently, the people of Huntsville are not without annual visitations of 
autumnal fever, some of which are severe. There is no town in the south- 
west, the streets of which are better protected from the sun by shade-trees 
than this. In Mississippi and Florida, up to north latitude thirty-three 
degrees thirty minutes, the pride of China ( Melia azedarach ) is the pre- 
vailing shade-tree. Here, as at Memphis, about the thirty-fifth degree, it 
is replaced by our native white-flowering locust ( Robinia pseudacacia), the 
branches of which are longer and tougher than in the higher latitudes. 

VIII. Monte Sano. — The insulated and conoidal mountain which has 
( not inappropriately ) received the attractive name of Monte Sano, rears its 
head in sight of Huntsville to the east. By two barometrical admeasure- 
ments, Doctor Thomas Fearn has determined its altitude to be ten hundred 
and ninety feet above the town, which itself cannot be less than six hundred 
feet above the sea, making the positive elevation of the mountain nearly seven- 
teen hundred feet. Resting on carboniferous limestone, it belongs to the coal 
formation, and presents thin strata of that combustible amid its sand- 
stones and shales. About nine hundred feet from its base, a copious spring 
bursts out on its northern declivity, the temperature of which, in June, was 
fifty-four degrees Fahrenheit. Taking the heat of the spring below at sixty 
degrees Fahrenheit, we have a diminution of one degree of temperature for 
one hundred and fifty feet of ascent. The zone at the altitude of the upper 
spring sustains nearly the same vegetation as the banks of the Ohio in the 
latitude of thirty-eight and thirty-nine degrees, where the mean temperature 
of the year is about fifty-four degrees. The summit of the mountain pre- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA 225 

sents a limited plateau or table, from the margins of which, on every side, we 
look down into coves and valleys, where it often rains, as I was informed by 
Doctor Fearn, from clouds which do not rise as high as the mountain. 

Such is the lofty, picturesque, and salubrious summer-retreat of the people 
of Huntsville, who have erected many hot-weather cottages upon it. They 
do not, however, entirely escape the fevers of autumn ; for, in rainy seasons, 
those maladies have sometimes invaded their summer asylum. 

IX. Whitesburg. — Doctor Capshaw * has given us a sketch of the topo- 
graphy of this small cotton- shipping town, situated on the right bank of the 
Tennessee River, eleven miles from Huntsville. 

" The country in this vicinity is diversified ; on the east we have a ridge 
of mountains making in toward the river, while to the north and west are a 
few scattering spurs and knobs, rising from a general plain but little elevated 
above the banks of the river. The plain is so much cut up with ponds and 
sloughs, as to have given currency to the local appellation of Pond Beat. 
During high tides in the river, about one-sixth of the surface is subject to 
inundation. The lands not occupied by mountains, and free from overflow, 
are generally of good quality, and mostly reduced to cultivation. ^The in- 
habitants number about nine hundred, two-thirds of whom are slaves, em- 
ployed in the production of cotton. The prevailing diseases are of malarious 
origin, and chills are so common that few are so fortunate as to escape them 
a whole year." 

We must now leave this portion of the river, as I am under the necessity 
of conducting the reader along the routes which I traveled, not having; mate- 
rials for a full description. 

X. Route from Huntsville to Knoxville. — The road from Huntsville 
to Knoxville, in East Tennessee, passes through Winchester and McMinville, 
both in the basin of the Tennessee River, to Sparta, on the head- waters of 
the Caney fork of Cumberland River, in the eastern edge of Middle Tennes- 
see. Its course is nearly north-east, and the outlying Cumberland ridge of 
the Appalachian chain is most of the way in sight, to the south-east or 
right hand. At first, the route lies through the broad vallev of Flint River 
a tributary of the Tennessee. The soil of this valley is a rich reddish loam 
abounding in angular nodules of chert, once imbedded in rocks, which, having 
suffered disintegration, form the present surface. The staple of cultivation, 
as in other parts of this great bend of the Tennessee, is cotton. There are 
both natural ponds and mill-ponds in this valley, which, like other localities 
of a similar kind in the south, is infested with autumnal fever. 

In ascending from it, and, at the same time, entering the state of Tennes- 
see, in north latitude thirty-five degrees, the surface of the country becomes 
more rolling; and a gramineous agriculture, with tobacco and pasturage, 



* Western Journal, Louisville, Vol. IV, p. 1. 

15 



226 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

replaces, to a considerable extent, that of cotton. Apple-orchards also become 
more numerous and more productive. 

After crossing the upper part of Elk River, at Winchester, the road imper- 
ceptibly attains considerable elevation, over an off- set of the Cumberland 
Mountain ; the red cotton soil of the Huntsville plain now disappears ; and 
the descent into the basin of Caney River, is made over a succession of beau- 
tiful terraces, called the Pleasant Plains, the surface of which is a yellow 
loam, with fragments of chert. Two springs, which burst out from ledges 
of carboniferous limestone rock, in north latitude about thirty-five degrees 
thirty minutes, had, in June, the temperature of fifty-six and fifty-eight 
degrees Fahrenheit. Near McMinville the red soil, with nodules of chert, 
reappears. From the valley of Flint River to McMinville, the country is 
generally dry, and appears to be but little infested with autumnal fever. 
From McMinville to Sparta, it continues dry, and is more broken. 

From Sparta, which stands near the base of the Cumberland Mountain, 
the route to Knoxville is nearly east. The mountain belongs to the coal 
formation, and the strata which it presents on its western side are nearly 
identical with those of Monte Sano. A spring, about two hundred and fifty 
feet above its base, had, at the end of June, the temperature of fifty-five 
degrees Fahrenheit ; another, in one of the valleys beyond the first ridge, 
was fifty- six degrees Fahrenheit. A succession of ridges, with intervening 
ravines destitute of alluvion, at length brings us into a deeper valley, which 
separates the Cumberland Mountain from Walden Ridge. Some of the 
crests passed over are, from their elevation and sterility, incapable of pro- 
ducing Indian corn. From the summit of this ridge, which is composed 
almost entirely of sandstone and conglomerate, the very distant and elevated 
mountains of North Carolina, in which the Tennessee has its remotest origin, 
can be seen in smoky outline. The descent from this mountain is into the 
valley of Clinch River, which is reached, over a succession of low hills, at 
Kingston, where it unites with the Holston to form the Tennessee River. 
The valley is composed of transition or Silurian limestone. It need scarcely 
be stated, that from Sparta to Kingston autumnal fever is almost unknown ; 
elevation, aridity of surface, and barrenness of soil opposing its production. 

From Kingston to Knoxville, on the west side of the Holston, there is no 
mountain, but the country is, on the whole, hilly ; yet some of the valleys are 
of considerable breadth, and, as they rest on limestone, support a luxuriant 
vegetation. They do not, however, abound in ponds and marshes. 

XII. Knoxville is situate above high-water mark, on the right bank of 
the Holston, and is not surrounded by marshes. There are, however, two 
mill-streams adjacent to the town, one above, and the other a short dis- 
tance below, which have dams and ponds. It was, doubtless, to some partic- 
ular condition of these ponds, that we should ascribe the fever which, 
according to report, a few years since, nearly depopulated the place, and of 
which the history has not, I believe, been written by any of its physicians. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 227 

Previously to that epidemic, Doctor Ramsey * had read before the Medical 
Society at Nashville "An Essay on the Medical Topography of East Ten- 
nessee ;" but he does not give us a description of the site of Knoxville, his 
residence, nor of any other locality. 

XIII. The indefatigable state geologist of Tennessee, Professor Troost,f 
has shown that the whole of this region, east of Walden Ridge, consists of 
Silurian and other old transition rocks ( chiefly calcareous ), ending in the 
primitive. All the rivers above Kingston — the Clinch, and its large tribu- 
tary, Powell's River, to the north ; and the Holston, with its tributaries, the 
Tennessee (improperly so called), and the French Broad — maybe regarded 
as mountain-torrents, converging to form a common trunk, the Tennessee, 
six hundred miles from its junction with the Ohio. Of the elevation of this 
sub- Alpine region above the level of the sea I cannot speak, except from 
estimate. It probably ranges from eight to sixteen hundred feet. But, to 
say nothing of the Cumberland Mountains to the west, it is surrounded from 
the north round to the south south-west by mountains, which attain an 
elevation varying from two to five thousand feet, leaving an open valley to 
the south-west. It is to the divergence of the Cumberland Mountains from 
the Appalachian group, as it advances southerly, that this great mountain 
cove ( to borrow a term from the sea-shore ) owes its existence, and constitutes 
a peculiar region, so well entitled to the attention of the medical etiologist. 

Of this region, Doctor Ramsey, in the paper referred to, speaks in the fol- 
lowing language : " The water-courses of East Tennessee are pure and trans- 
parent, and their currents rapid. There are no sluggish streams, and no 
swamps or marshes of any extent. The water is generally impregnated with 
lime, but springs of freestone water are not uncommon." 

In reference to the autumnal fevers of East Tennessee, the same writer 
thus expresses himself: 

" I have already observed that, during the first settlement of the country, 
there was generally a remarkable exemption of the inhabitants from disease. 
This is especially true in relation to fevers, properly so called. Intermittents 
during the period of autumnal insalubrity form an exception. These pre- 
vailed extensively; but the apyrexia being a state of comparative comfort, 
they received little attention, and remedial agents were rarely employed. 
But with the opening and improvement of the country, sources of disease 
have been multiplied, and with them fever has prevailed to considerable 
extent. It is not confined to the valleys and banks of large rivers ; but the 
more elevated countries are annually visited with its severest forms. The 
fact, that fever prevails in districts where vegetable decomposition is incon- 
siderable, if not harmless, seems to invalidate the correctness of the theory 
which ascribes idiopathic fever to a miasmatic origin exclusively. I would 



* Transylvania Journal, Vol. V, p. 363. f Geological Reports. 



228 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

not be understood to deny, in toto, that marsh miasm is the cause of fever ; 
but since they prevail wifh us in a degree no way proportionate to the extent 
or concentration of the malaria, I must avow my scepticism of the adequacy 
of the cause, to the production of such extensive and powerful results. In- 
termittents are generally mild and manageable. Remittent fever is often 
violent and obstinate." 

Since the publication of Doctor Ramsey's paper, another has appeared, 
from the pen of Doctor Cunningham, of Jonesboro,* the most eastern town 
in Tennessee, from which I make the following extract : 

" East Tennessee, bounded by North Carolina on the east, and extending 
to Cumberland Mountain westward, embraces some two hundred miles in 
length. From the mountains on its southern border, to the line dividing it 
from Virginia and Kentucky, it has a medium breadth of fifty miles. It is 
interspersed with mountains and valleys, and every intermediate variety of 
surface and geological structure. 

"In the highest parts of the upper counties, it presents high ridges and 
precipitous mountains, with a small proportion of valley, or even arable land. 
Here the rocky formation is principally primitive. The water is the purest 
freestone. The streams having rapid currents, speedily drain the soil which 
is almost destitute of marshes, and the dense forests and hills everywhere 
interpose to neutralize the action of heat in summer. Thus, miasmatic influ- 
ence can hardly be said to exist at all. The atmosphere is consequently 
pure and salubrious, except from thermometrical and hygrometrical influ- 
ence. Following the western slope, we find the country less precipitous and 
primitive, though still broken. Here agricultural industry has broken in 
upon and measurably dispersed the dense shades of the forest. The atmos- 
phere is consequently less humid, but the country is more exposed to the 
scorching sun in summer, and to the bleak and chilling blasts of winter, and 
to the daily vicissitudes of our climate. In this region the geological struc- 
ture is secondary or transition, — the water chiefly pure limestone, except on 
the waters of Lick Creek and Horse Creek, both of which streams collect 
from the southern and eastern declivities of Bay's Mountain. These 
streams, as well as some others, from their having percolated slate-rock, or 
soap-stone ( which is the striking formation of that mountain, and of the 
region through which they pass ), present constantly a muddy and impure 
water, unpleasant in taste, and possibly exert some influence on the health 
of the inhabitants, though until late years there was no marked evidence of 
this. The inhabitants, as far as we are informed, enjoy as good health as in 
other localities. 

" But of late, the extensive marsh and meadow-lands bordering these 
streams, which were densely timbered, so as to obstruct the rays of the sun, 



Southern Medical and Surgical Journal, Aug., 1846, p. 456. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 229 

and prevent miasmatic effluvia, have been extensively cleared for cultivation. 
The overflowing from the heavy rains leaves pools of water, with a copious 
deposit of vegetable matter, which, when exposed to the summer heat, enters 
rapidly into decomposition. In addition to this, the sub-stratum is either 
slate rock, or clayey structure, through which water sinks with difficulty. It 
must, of course, dry up more by evaporation than by absorption; conse- 
quently, there is great increase of miasmatic influence, which readily accounts 
for the great increase of sickness which has prevailed there for the last few 
years. Still further down are some extensive plains, but the soil being 
porous, there is but little malaria. Yet on the rivers, affording, as they do, 
a greater expanse of surface, relaxed in currents, and in high tides during 
wet or rainy seasons overflowing their banks, they may leave standing water 
and a saturated soil composed of alluvial and vegetable matter. The climate 
is also hotter, and here may be the elements for the production of fever 
during seasons when their combination of causes is brought into full exer- 
cise. While it will appear that in the upper counties a large proportion of 
cases are fever, in their etiology they differ materially from those in the 
lower counties. Between the summit-level of Johnston county, imbedded 
in the highest mountainous region of the state, and the lowest point of East 
Tennessee, where the Tennessee River breaks through the Look-out Moun- 
tain, there is a difference in elevation of about one thousand feet. The 
mountain range bordering it on the south, recedes so as to leave the western 
counties of this division of the state open and exposed to the southern 
breezes of Georgia and Alabama, so that similar natural causes must to a 
good degree operate on both, and it is therefore reasonable to suppose their 
character of diseases would approximate each other more nearly than those 
of the two extremes of East Tennessee itself. But the producing causes of 
fever in the one, are very different from those of the other ; hence we have 
confirmation of the ( so to speak ) polygeneric causes of fever ; and if it be 
an axiom that cause and effect are steadily related to each other, it would 
seem fair to conclude, that a difference in kind, in development or character, 
and in treatment also, exists." 

XIV. Comparison between East and West Tennessee. — When the 
lapse of time shall have put us in possession of a sufficient number of facts 
on the topography, climate, and endemic diseases of East and West Tennes- 
see, to permit a full and accurate comparison, it will be found to possess as 
much interest as a comparison between any other two regions of the Great 
Interior Valley. These extreme portions of the state of Tennessee lie be- 
tween the same parallels of latitude, one near the sources, and the other 
near the mouth, of the river which bears its name, though distant from each 
other about six degrees of longitude. East Tennessee has a solid basis of 
old crystalline or semi-crystalline rock ; is hilly, rising into mountains ; and 
has rapid creeks and rivers, with narrow alluvions, good springs, and few 
swamps or ponds. West Tennessee is based upon loose, crumbling, miscel- 



230 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

laneous strata — cretaceous, tertiary, and alluvial — abounding in organic 
matters, and impregnated with the gases developed by their slow decompo- 
sition; has a comparatively level surface, overspread more or less with 
sloughs ; its rivers and brooks have wide and wet alluvial bottoms, and their 
currents are sluggish ; its springs are few, and its well-water generally im- 
pure ; its elevation above the level of the sea is from a half to a fourth that 
of East Tennessee ; and, finally, it is surrounded by plains, or low hill-lands, 
while the other is inclosed by mountains. The constitutions and diseases of 
people living under conditions so different as these, cannot, of course, be the 
same, although their latitudes are identical. In reference to autumnal fever, 
it is well known that it prevails incomparably more in the western than in 
the eastern locality. 

XV. Voyages on the Upper Tennessee. — Kingston, at the junction 
of the Clinch and Holston, is the lower head of steamboat navigation on the 
Tennessee River ; Knoxville, on the Holston, thirty miles above, is the final 
terminus. From the latter town to Decatur, near the Muscle Shoals, 
the distance is about three hundred miles. At this time the settlements 
from Kingston to Triana, not far above Decatur, are too limited to render 
the banks of the river an object of interest to the physician. Much of the 
region through which it passes was, indeed, until lately, the habitation of the 
Cherokee Indians ; and much of it, in Georgia and Alabama, not less than 
Tennessee, is too mountainous to admit of a dense population. On that 
very account, however, it will be a desirable summer and autumnal retreat 
for the people of the hot. humid, and malarious coasts of Georgia, Florida, 
and Alabama; — a change of altitude near their own homes, conferring all 
the climatic benefits of a distant and expensive voyage to the north. In 
connection with this change of air, they may enjoy the voyage on the Upper 
Tennessee River; which may likewise be commended to invalids of the 
higher latitudes, when desirous, as they should be, of seasoning their exer- 
cise with the condiment of wild, sequestered, and romantic scenery. All 
these advantages, however, are prospective rather than present, for the num- 
ber of steamboats on the Upper Tennessee is small, and the difficulty of 
reaching that valley, great. When it shall be penetrated from south to 
north by the railroads which are in progress, or have been projected, the ac- 
cess to it will become easy ; and from the vernal equinox to the summer sol- 
stice (through which the Tennessee will be navigable), we may expect, sooner 
or later, to see the invalids from various latitudes united in voyages of 
health and pleasure on the retired waters of the mountain river. I will show 
the probability of this anticipation by a brief notice of a descending steam- 
boat voyage in the month of July. Below Kingston, the river, with a gene- 
ral bearing to the south-west, is exceedingly serpentine. The narrow plains, 
down to the water's edge, were at that time clothed in a luxuriant vegetation 
of the deepest green, and over the wooded hills in their rear, occasional 
glimpses were had of Walden Ridge on the right, and the more distant and 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 231 

lofty peaks of Unaka Mountain, in North Carolina, on the left. Now and 
then the river expanded to three times its ordinary breadth, and was beauti- 
fied with low, green islands, compressing the navigable channel into a canal, 
from the banks of which a cane-brake bent its long stems and tender leaves 
over the margin of the stream, while the low limbs of the overshadowing 
trees, drooping under the weight of their luxuriant foliage, sought relief by 
reposing on the clear waters. No valley could surpass the verdure and 
freshness of this scene ; in the midst of which a grove of sycamores, tower- 
ing above the lower ranges of the forest, presented a lattice-work of white 
limbs, which formed with the surrounding green a contrast of surpassing 
beauty. Continuing its course to the south-west, the river at length ap- 
proaches, but does not enter, the state of Georgia. It is here, in the center 
of the Cherokee country, that the now abandoned missionary station of 
Brainerd lies, off at a short distance to the left. Then comes Ross's Land- 
ing, where the river turns directly to the south ; and Look-out Mountain, 
blue, lofty, and precipitous, is seen a few miles ahead. To the east is the 
low and flat land through which the Georgia Railroad is to reach the Tennes- 
see River, and in which branches of the Alabama River have their origin; 
while close at hand, to the left, Walden Ridge rises like a mighty ranipart. 
As we neared the Look-out, the river seemed about to plunge into some deep 
and dark cavern beneath the rugged buttress which rose one thousand feet 
above us ; but, after amusing itself for a moment with our bewilderment, the 
current wheeled rapidly to the right, and flowing for a short distance along 
the rocky foundations, turned still further round, and almost touched the 
channel through which its assault was made. Another instant brought us to 
a new position, and presented the side of the mountain we had just encoun- 
tered, stretching far away into the state of Georgia ; while before us, on the 
right, stood the lofty abutments of Walden Ridge, confronting, to the left, 
the high and rugged escarpment of Raccoon Mountain, and presenting a 
scene of calm magnificence and solemn grandeur, the memory of which can 
never fade away. In a moment we lost sight of the first, and running for a 
short distance along the base of the second, we entered the rent, or gap, be- 
tween it and the third of these mountains, when we found ourselves in a 
rude, rocky gateway, with immense precipices on either side. Yast fragments 
had rolled down, and contracted the bed of the river to one-third of its usual 
width ; its current was greatly increased, and huge rocks at the bottom gave 
to the water above that agitation which had suggested the appropriate name 
of ' Tumbling Shoals.' To them succeeded a pool of tranquil water : after 
which the mountain chasm suddenly narrowed still closer, and the whole river 
was poured into a deep channel not more than one hundred yards wide, down 
which it glided as on a smooth inclined plane. This is the ' suck' of the 
keel-boatmen; to which succeeded a spot where the water boiled and 
foamed, and then another in which the same commotion appeared in a less 
degree. The stream now assumed a calmer aspect, and wound its way 



232 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

among the mountains, by which it is so pent up, that portions of it, now and 
then, take on the form and face of narrow Alpine lakes. As these scenes of 
beauty and sublimity began to die away, we found ourselves on a wide river, 
still bearing to the south-west to enter Alabama, after passing within a 
mile of the state of Georgia. The country now assumed a more cultivated 
aspect, with tamer scenery ; yet, blue masses of the Cumberland Mountains, 
lying off to our right, occasionally reminded us of the shifting scenes of gran- 
deur through which we had passed. The last object of interest which met 
our view, was the precipice called the 'Painted Rocks.' Rising, like a 
wall, on the right margin of the river, to the hight of a hundred feet, and 
composed of the carboniferous limestone which forms the base of Monte 
Sano, disposed in horizontal layers, it displays the aspect of an immense for- 
tification. From this point to Decatur, the low hills recede, and the river 
flows through bottom-lands which are liable to annual inundation.* 

XVI. Southern Portion of Middle Tennessee. — About one half of 
Middle Tennessee belongs to the basin we are now exploring. Some account 
of its eastern part has been already given in the route from Huntsville to 
Knoxville. My personal observations on the remainder, were limited to a 
journey from Huntsville to Nashville, through Pulaski and Columbia, both of 
which lie within the basin of the Tennessee River. Doctor Buchanan, of the 
latter town,f has described the medical topography of this region more fully 
than my own opportunities would permit. 

Its most important rivers are Elk and Duck. The former flows to the 
south, and joins the Tennessee at the Muscle Shoals ; the latter holds a 
western course, and unites with the same tributary, as it crosses the state to 
the north. These rivers drain six or eight of the most populous and impor- 
tant counties of Middle Tennessee. Their basis is limestone — carboniferous 
to the south, Silurian to the north — generally covered with a thin layer of 
calcareous loam of a yellowish-red color, overspread with mold, which is thin 
on the ridges, but deep and black near the water- courses. The loose upper 
covering of the rocks seems to be, in a great degree, the result of their slow 
disintegration. No drift or transported materials are found in the district. 
Ponds and swamps, even of a limited extent, are but occasionally met with ; 
and the alluvial grounds of the rivers and creeks, unlike those in the creta- 
ceous and tertiary deposits west of the Tennessee River, are narrow, and 
not often inundated. In some places, the surface becomes hilly and elevated. 
Of the springs in this region, Doctor Buchanan speaks as follows : 

" From the fact of our rock formations being all of carboniferous lime- 



*This voyage was performed in company witli Doctor Fearn and Doctor Breck, of 
Huntsville, LeRoy Pope, Esq., of Memphis, E. D. Mansfield, Esq., of Cincinnati, Mr. 
Tarvin, of Decatur, and several other gentlemen, all of whom had the same impression 
of its interest. 

f Transylvania Journal, Vol. IX, No. 3. 






part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 233 

stone, the springs are all impregnated, more or less, with lime ; but they are 
very numerous ; and, although not quite so pure and limpid as the springs 
of a primary region of country, are, nevertheless, cool, transparent, and 
refreshing. Gushing, as they do for the most part, from between two strata 
of rocks, or issuing from the base of a hill, their waters glide upon a rocky 
or gravelly bottom to the larger streams. The mean temperature of our 
springs, which I noticed at different times during the last year, is about 
fifty-eight degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature of the spring which sup- 
plies Columbia with water, was fifty- six degrees, about the first of June, 
when the temperature of the atmosphere was eighty-four degrees ; in 
December it was fifty- eight degrees — temperature of the atmosphere fifty 
degrees ; at several other times it was fifty-six degrees. Many other springs 
in the country were about the same ; some were also as high as sixty-two 
degrees." * 

With all these favorable topographical conditions, this region does not 
escape autumnal fever, the chief sources of which are the water-courses. 
Although most of them have bottom-lands, not often overflowed to any great 
extent, yet, in summer, they become insalubrious. In times of drought they 
fall very low, and much of their beds becomes dry. Thus they are converted 
into a series of stagnant pools. Many of them, moreover, are arrested by 
mill-dams, often at short distances from each other, above which a great deal 
of decomposable matter is accumulated, to be exposed to the action of the 
sun, as the scanty supplies of water, in August and September, are evaporated. 
In the latitudes of thirty-five and thirty-six degrees, at an elevation of only 
five hundred feet above the sea, which is that of the beds of these streams, 
they cannot fail to generate autumnal fever. 



SECTION IV. 

BASIN OF THE CUMBERLAND RIVER. 

I. Outlines. — It has been already stated that this river lies in the great 
bend of the Tennessee River, to which, in its general course and curvature, it 
conforms ; yet it does not wheel so far to the south as that stream ; and hence, 
while the extremities of both are in nearly the same latitudes, their middle 
sections are separated a full degree. The Cumberland, much the shorter of 
the two, has its source in the state of Kentucky, on the western declivities of 
the mountain whose name it bears; whence, flowing to the west, and then to 
the south, it dips into Middle Tennessee, the metropolis of which — Nashville — 
stands on its left bank. Having passed that town, it turns north-west, and 
comes, at length, within a few miles of Tennessee River, when it repasses into 
Kentucky, and, crossing that state, joins the Ohio River at Smithland, only 

* Loco citato. 



234 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ten miles above the mouth of the Tennessee. Thus it drains much of Southern 
Kentucky, and the whole northern portion of Middle Tennessee. Its sources 
are in the Appalachian or Cumberland coal basin ; its middle in the carbo- 
niferous and Silurian limestone ; its termination in the margin of the Illinois 
coal formation. Having laid down the outlines of this basin, let us now 
ascend through it to the mountains. Immediately below its mouth is the 
town of Smithland, of which I am unable to give a topographical description. 

II. The Cumberland Basin, up to Nashville. — The Cumberland River, 
traced from its mouth up to the city of Nashville, a distance of two hundred 
miles, is found to make its way through a hilly and wooded country. Its 
tributaries are generally short ; especially on the south or left side, where 
they are limited by the proximity of the Tennessee River, until we ascend to 
the neighborhood of Nashville. The bottoms along this river are much nar- 
rower than those along the rivers of the south-west, and are not as liable to 
inundations. The beds and banks of the Cumberland, and of its tributaries, 
are, in general, rocky. Within the limits of its narrow basin, on its right or 
north-eastern side, in Trigg and Christian counties, Kentucky, we have the 
western limit of a peculiar tract, called ' The Barrens,' which will be de- 
scribed in connection with the Green River Basin. 

III. Nashville, the capital of the state of Tennessee, and the only city 
of the Cumberland Basin, stands on the left side of the river, in N. Lat. 36° 
9' 33", and W. Lon. 86° 49' 3". Its site is an elevated platform, of blue 
Silurian limestone, identical with that of Cincinnati. The covering of loam 
and soil is so thin that the rocks of the streets have to be blasted, to make 
receptacles for the soil necessary to the cultivation of shade-trees. Originally 
this terrace sustained a grove of red cedars ( Juniperus Virginiana ), of which 
many trees and bushes still remain. On the southern part of the town-plot 
there rises a beautiful rocky, oval hill, overspread with the same unerring evi- 
dence of a dry and stony soil. The surrounding country, in that direction, 
is calcareous and rolling. Immediately below the town, to the west, there is 
a depression, in which a sulphur spring bursts out, and over which the waters 
of the Cumberland spread themselves in high floods. On the opposite side of 
the river, there is a bottom of considerable extent, too elevated to be over- 
flowed. Thus Nashville is favorably situated, as to what are regarded as the 
sources of autumnal fever ; and its exemption from the disease appears to be 
in correspondence with its topography. 

The surrounding country, seen from the top of Cedar Hill, presents a rug- 
ged, beautiful, and spirited panorama. In all directions it displays that con- 
figuration which excludes swamps and every variety of wet surface; but 
suggests ravines, with lagging streams, which, in summer and autumn, are 
liable to insalubrious depression. 

The settlement of Nashville, by emigrants from North Carolina and Vir- 
ginia, was begun in the year 1784. Hence, being one of the oldest towns in 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. £35 

the Ohio Basin, the locality in which it stands, has passed through the trans- 
ition stage from forest to cultivated field. 

IV. Rutherford County. — This county,* one of the oldest-settled and 
most important of the state of Tennessee, lies to the south-east of Nashville; 
from which its principal town, Murfreesboro', is distant about thirty miles. 
Its basis is the blue Silurian limestone of that city, covered with a deeper 
stratum of loam and soil — the former a product of the disintegration of the 
rocky basis, the latter a result of the decomposition of the luxuriant vegeta- 
tion natural to such surfaces. The aspect of this country is either undulat- 
ing or level; but the surrounding country is somewhat knobby. Almost 
every part of it is intersected by the upper tributaries of Stone's River, an 
affluent of the Cumberland. These numerous streams are but scantily fed by 
springs ; and, therefore, although flush in the rainy season, so as even to 
overflow portions of their narrow bottoms, they either dry up in summer, or 
are converted into lines of pools, which, in the language of Doctor Becton, 
"are loathsome and disgusting to the sight, and offensively fetid to the smell." 
"About seventeen creeks, forks, and prongs," he adds, "unite to constitute 
the main river (Stone's), which runs in a north-west course across the 
county. These branches and creeks rise from almost every point, and run 
in as many directions to the main channel. Across them are perhaps thirty- 
five or forty mill-dams, besides many other obstructions, made for cotton-gins 
and fish-traps. The ponds made by these dams are longer in evaporating 
than where there are no such obstructions. Near them, when the summer 
and fall are unusually dry, there has been more sickness than in any neigh- 
borhood of the county ; except where the farmers have made watering-ponds 
on their plantations, for the accommodation of their stock." 

Such a locality, in the latitude of thirty- six degrees north, cannot escape 
serious invasions of autumnal fever ; which Doctor Becton has observed to 
be great, in proportion as a more than usually dry season reduces the water 
of the pools below its common summer-levels. Many cases are malignant. 

V. Wilson County. — The late Doctor Hoggf has given the following 
summary of the topography of this county, which lies between Rutherford 
county and Cumberland River: 

" Wilson county, containing an area of twenty-five miles square, is bounded 
on the north by Cumberland River, and intersected by twelve or fifteen small 
streams, at nearly equal distances from each other, running nearly a north 
course on the one hand into the Cumberland, and from south to south-west 
on the other hand, into Stone's River. The south south-east, and south- 
west sections of the country, after leaving the river ten or twelve miles, be- 
come hilly, or what we call very broken, terminating in an extensive ridge 
separating the small north and south streams which I have mentioned. In 



* Dr. Becton, in the Transylvania Journal, Vol. V., p. 157. 
t Western Journal, Cincinnati, Vol. I, p. 601. 



236 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

common seasons, the small streams or creeks, from the last of July until the 
middle of November, become almost dry or stagnant ; in consequence of which, 
the deposits from the previous floods are exposed to the sun during the hot 
weather. The soil on the high ground is rich and productive, wherever the 
rock does not project. The forest is luxuriant, and consists of beech, shell- 
bark hickory, elm, sugar-maple, walnut, and wild cherry; or of white, red, 
and Spanish oak, poplar, hickory, dog-wood, sassafras, and grape vines. The 
flat lands, which are not very fertile, are covered with oak, hickory, elm, ash, 
dog-wood, and cedar, with much grass and weeds." 

Having given this sketch of the medical topography of Wilson county, 
Doctor Hogg goes on to state, that autumnal fever, sometimes of a malig- 
nant type, is one of its annual visiters. 

VI. Residue of the Cumberland Basin. — On the south side of the 
Cumberland River, from Rutherford and Wilson counties eastwardly to the 
Cumberland Mountains, through the counties of Warren, White, Overton, 
and part of Smith and Jackson, the country is rolling or hilly, at last be- 
coming low-mountainous, and the streams are less liable to summer stagna- 
tion; ponds are few in number, and swamps still rarer. The river can 
scarcely be said to be alluvial, and its bottom-lands are narrow. 

On the north side of the Cumberland, from below Nashville upward to 
the point at which the river passes from Kentucky to Tennessee, the basin 
is narrow, and has substantially the topographical characteristics of the 
southern side. In traversing Sumner county, northwardly, from Nashville, I 
found it rolling or hilly, and dry, with a sub-stratum of Silurian limestone, to 
the margin of the adjoining basin. East and north-east of that county, the 
surface gradually becomes more rugged, to the Cumberland Mountain, in 
which the river has its sources. At what stage of this ascent up the flanks 
of the mountain, autumnal fever ceases, I am not informed. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF GREEN RIVER. 

I. Outline Views. — The distance, along the Ohio, from the mouth of 
Cumberland to the mouth of Green River, is one hundred and thirty-five 
miles ; but no town of any note stands on the left or southern bank of the 
river, except Henderson, with the medical topography of which I am not 
acquainted. The basin of Green River comprehends what is, by some, 
called Southern Kentucky, by others, the Green River Country, by others, 
the Barrens, from its embracing large tracts of undulating land nearly desti- 
tute of trees. The thirty- seventh parallel passes a little south of the center 
of this basin, the whole of which lies within the state of Kentucky, and be- 
longs to the Illinois coal formation. Only the north-western or lower half, 






part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 237 

however, contains beds of coal; the other rests on the carboniferous lime- 
stone, which underlies the coal measures. 

The bed of Green River for some distance up, is bordered with rich allu- 
vial bottoms, which are not, to any great extent, subject to inundation. The 
river, through nearly its whole length, has been converted into pools by 
lock- dams, of which, in reference to their influence on the health of the 
inhabitants, I cannot speak. 

The surface of this basin is either undulating or hilly. In some places it 
verges on the mountainous, especially to the north-east, where Muldrow's 
Hill separates it from the basin of Salt River. 

The Green River Basin is comparatively free from swamps ; and its nar- 
row bottom-lands are not, in general, so low as to be, by reason of inunda- 
tions, uncultivable. There are, however, two sources of autumnal fever: 
First y The pools formed in the beds of streams nearly dried up in summer; 
Second, Natural and artificial ponds, preserved or made, to afford an ade- 
quate supply of stock-water. 

As, on leaving the Tennessee Basin and entering the Cumberland, we find 
the cultivation of cotton decreasing, and that of the graminece increasing, so, 
in passing from the latter into the Green River Basin, about north latitude 
thirty-six degrees thirty minutes, the cotton-field is no longer seen, but is 
replaced by tobacco and hemp. 

II. The Barrens. — When treating of the Cumberland Basin, a refer- 
ence was made to the region called the 'Barrens/ part of which spreads 
into that basin, while the remainder lies in the one we are now studying. 
According to Doctors Owen and Norwood,* this peculiar tract of country 
has for its sub-stratum the carboniferous limestone of the Illinois coal basin, 
overspread with a deep layer of loam, colored red with oxyde of iron, and 
abounding in fragments of chert or petrosilex, which were once imbedded in 
the rocks, whose gradual disintegration has generated the loamy covering. 

I am indebted to my colleague, Professor Short, of the University of Louis- 
ville, for the following topographical description of this district.f Although 
his observations were chiefly made in the western part, I am assured, they are 
substantially applicable to the whole. The following is his account : 

"When I first went to Hopkinsville, where I practiced medicine from 1817 
to 1826, the aspect of the barrens was very much the same with that pre- 
sented by the prairies of Illinois ; and, I suppose, the characteristic feature 
of both — destitution of timber — is in both cases attributable to the same 
cause — the annual ravages of fire; which, fed by the tall grasses, and dead 
herbaceous plants, in autumn, is so intense as to destroy all the ligneous 
growth which may have sprung up during the preceding spring and summer. 
The vegetable productions of both these regions — barrens and prairies — 



* Researches among the Prot. and Carb. Rocks of Central Kentucky, 
t MSS. penes me. 



238 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are very similar ; the grasses being, for the most part, various species of An- 
dropogon and Panicum, and the herbaceous vegetation consisting, chiefly, espe- 
cially in autumn, of the various composite — Silphium, Aster, Solidago, Eupa- 
torium, &c. ; while along the water-courses, in both regions, the arborescent 
species are very much the same ; as they are, also, in certain woodland tracts, 
called by the people 'groves.' This difference, however, obtains, between the 
barrens of Kentucky and the prairies north of the Ohio, viz, that the former 
are superimposed on a bed of limestone, which is wanting in Illinois. The 
limestone of the barrens, too, is of a peculiar kind, and very different from 
that of northern Kentucky. Instead of being regularly stratified, or disposed 
in horizontal layers, it seems amorphous and irregular; generally found at 
very different depths beneath the surface, and covered with a red, tenacious 
clay containing chert, or else projecting above the surface in misshapen 
blocks. This limestone, moreover, is exceedingly cavernous ; and ' sinks,' or 
depressions, are frequently met with, which lead to apertures in the rock. 
Indeed, in many parts of this district, large streams disappear from the sur- 
face, take subterranean courses for miles, and again emerge into day. The 
barrens of Kentucky are, moreover, much more rolling, and uneven on their 
surface, than the prairies of Illinois ; and you nowhere meet with those exten- 
sive tracts of level surface, so common in the large prairies of that state. By 
cultivation, and the prevention of destroying fires, the barrens are losing, 
yearly, their once peculiar features ; for, no sooner are the fires kept out for 
a few years, than the surface becomes clothed with a dense growth of timber — 
oaks and hickories — so dense, indeed, as to stifle entirely all herbaceous 
undergrowth. 

"Marshes, in the proper sense of that term, are exceedingly rare among the 
barrens. Indeed, within the limits of the three counties in which I practiced — 
Christian, Todd, and Trigg — I know of but one marsh of any magnitude ; 
and that I shall never forget, from the circumstance of finding in it the Cya- 
mus luteus, the most magnificent of all aquatic plants. Around the mar- 
gins of this marsh, in the shallow, muddy water, were growing thickets of 
Decodon verticillatum, Cephalanthus occidentalism Rosa Carolina, and other 
semi- aquatic shrubs. 

" The streams, in the western part of the barrens, run in deep rocky 
beds ; the banks being often precipitous, and ten or twenty feet above the 
ordinary level of the water ; thus they rarely overflow their narrow bottoms. 
In fact, I do not know any part of that region which is inundated, except it 
be where the streams have been dammed for the erection of mills . There is, 
however, another source of marsh effluvium, that, no doubt, exerts a material 
influence on the health of the inhabitants; which is, the number of ponds, 
some of them natural, but many more artificial, which are found throughout 
the barrens ; for no sooner are the apertures in the limestone closed, either 
by accident or design, than the ' sinks,' surrounding them become filled by 
rains ; and the tough, red clay preventing all percolation, these ponds con- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 239 

tinue steadily to increase in area and depth, until, if not drained, they rise 
to the surrounding brim. In this way are these ponds constantly forming ; 
and there is scarcely a farm to be found in the whole region, where a number 
of them do not exist, some to the extent of several acres. They are subject, 
of course, to various fluctuations, and expose a large surface of mud, as they 
dry up, in times of drought. The running streams, moreover, become very 
low, in the latter part of summer and in early autumn ; but, as before ob- 
served, their beds being rocky, they are comparatively harmless, except where 
they arc obstructed by dams. 

" During the nine years that I resided at Hopkinsville, there was every 
year a very general prevalence of autumnal fever ; beginning, commonly, in 
July, and continuing to October. The worst cases wore an obscurely- 
marked intermittent form, attended by deep congestions of the viscera. They 
sometimes extended far into winter." 

I am informed by my colleague, Professor Yandell, who has lately visited 
the barrens several times on geological explorations, that the fevers of au- 
tumn are annually increasing ; which he ascribes to the increase of ponds. 
Thus while the common, the legitimate influence of settlement and cultiva- 
tion, is to abate the frequency and violence of our intermittent and remittent 
fevers, here, as an exception, is a district in which art has, undesignedly, con- 
tributed to their greater prevalence. 

I shall extend this article no farther than to add, that the barrens extend 
westwardly, from near Glasgow, in Barren county, through Edmondson, "War- 
ren, Butler, Logan, Todd, Christian, and Trigg counties, to the Cumberland 
River, and embrace the towns of Bowling- Green, Russellville, Hopkinsville, 
and several others of less note. 

III. The Mammoth Cave. — The barrens and the basin of Green River 
enjoy the distinction of including the celebrated Mammoth Cave, the most 
remarkable of the numerous caverns in which the limestone immediately 
beneath the Illinois coal formation abounds. The interest of this cave is not, 
however, to etiology, but to practical medicine ; for it does not cause dis- 
eases, and has been proposed as a residence for their cure. It may, there- 
fore, receive a notice in this work, with the same propriety that certain 
salubrious localities and regions for travel have been indicated. 

The Mammoth Cave consists of a labyrinth of subterranean cells, united 
by winding apertures, corridors, and broad avenues, in which the traveler 
may wander an indefinite distance, without threading all its mazes. Indeed, 
as the carboniferous limestone is essentially cavernous, it is extremely pro- 
bable that all its cells are connected with each other, and that subterranean 
journeys might be performed throughout the whole tract of country called 
the Barrens. Some apartments of this cave are small ; others of a breadth 
and hight eminently fitted to raise emotions of wonder and sublimity in the 
visiter, whose torch throws a dim light on rocky ceilings more than a hun- 
dred feet above his head. Stalactites, alabasters, and crystallized gypsums, 



240 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

as white and variegated in form as flakes of snow, decorate the slowly-de- 
caying walls of other apartments ; while streams and pools of pnre water are 
animated with fish, whose eyes, from the utter darkness of their habitation, 
have not been perceptibly developed. The atmosphere of this labyrinthine 
excavation, is said not to be damp to the feeling ; but I have not met with 
any observations on its dew-point. Various processes of natural chemistry, 
perhaps, absorb the moisture of the air, and convert it into the water of 
crystallization. Besides the formation of crystalline carbonate and sulphate 
of lime, the nitrate of lime is constantly generated; out of which salt- 
petre was formerly manufactured, by the aid of wood- ashes.* These caverns, 
at the time the rocks were deposited, were probably filled with soft or decom- 
posable materials ; which have since been dissolved or washed away ; but 
the work of enlargement is doubtless still going on, by the slow conversion 
of their walls into nitrate of lime, a soluble salt.f 

The temperature of the deeper parts of the cave, is said to be fifty-nine de- 
grees Fahrenheit, throughout the year.f. In winter, a current of air descends 
into the cave ; in summer, escapes from it ; often with such velocity as to 
extinguish the lamps of those who are entering. This is apparently the only 
mode in which the external atmosphere modifies that of the cavern. The 
air of the cave has not been analyzed. Its sensible qualities are simply those 
of freshness. No difficulty of respiration, or headache, is produced by the 
atmosphere of any apartment, and the lights which visiters carry burn 
brightly in every part. Hence, we see, there is no addition of carbonic acid 
gas, or other mephitic air. Dead animal matter does not become putrid, but 
undergoes desiccation. There are no reptiles of any kind. Neither light 
nor sounds make their way into the deep recesses. They who have visited 
this great excavation, speak of wandering and clambering for a whole day 
without fatigue. They regard the atmosphere as invigorating. It may be 
that it holds saline substances in solution, which, entering the blood by the 
lungs, favor its aeration, and thus ward off the fatigue of exertion ; or the 
mental excitement may support the strength of body. 

When salt-petre was manufactured there, it was observed that the health 
of the operatives was excellent, and that many 'ailing' or 'weakly' persons 
became sound in health, and experienced increase of flesh. The oxen, also, 
that were employed, not only continued in good health, but became fat. 
With these facts before their eyes, the people near the cave have long be- 
lieved that it might be made an advantageous abode for invalids, especially 
those affected with pulmonary diseases, as they would escape all vicissitudes 
of temperature. It was not, however, until within the last few years, that cot- 
tages were erected, and sick persons publicly invited to make it a place of resi- 



* Doctor S. Brown, in Transactions of American Philosophical Society, 
f Western Journal, Louisville, October, 1847. 
X Rambles in the Mammoth Cave, 1844. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 241 

dence. This enterprise was undertaken by Doctor Croghan, of Louisville, 
who, having become its proprietor, was sanguine in the anticipation that it 
might be made signally beneficial to consumptive patients. Some experi- 
ments have been made, but the results, I believe, have not been encouraging. 
The mere seclusion of a patient from the changes of the weather, is not a 
positive influence, and by no means to be relied upon to arrest a malady 
which may occur independent of such vicissitudes. Then the solitude and 
silence, the darkness, the smoke, the atmospheric repose — for the wind is 
perceived only at the entrance — the want of exercise, the absence of many 
other exciters and sustainers of our mental and bodily activity, arc counter- 
acting agencies, not to be forgotten in a candid estimate. To render a 
sojourn in these subterranean cells effective in the removal of diseases, the 
patients should have occupation, like those who once made salt-petre there ; 
and to recommend such an abode to those who are too ill to labor, and are 
in need of medication, would seem injudicious, if not absurd. To what forms 
of chronic disease such a residence is, in fact, best adapted, cannot, I think, 
be determined a priori. I would conjecture, however, that chronic bronchi- 
tis, and functional disorders of the stomach, bowels, liver, and spleen, would 
be more certainly relieved than any others. To these I would, conjecturally, 
add subacute ophthalmia, obstinate ulcers, and other chronic affections of 
the skin. As to phthisis, if the patient could engage in hard labor, and the 
tubercular transformation of his lungs had not advanced very far, it might, 
perhaps, be arrested; but if he had reached the latter stages of the disease, 
he would do well to remain at home. 

A more favorable opinion may be given of visits to the cave, than of a 
constant residence in it. As a place of resort for invalids who require exer- 
cise, with change of scene, it has much to recommend it ; for its ' wonders 
are past finding out,' and, for several weeks, an inquisitive invalid might find 
exercise and interest in threading its labyrinths, while the weather was either 
too cold, or too hot, or too wet to admit of his taking adequate recreation in 
the open air. To all such it may be announced, that the munificent proprie- 
tor has taken care to provide comfortable, and even elegant accommodations, 
near the portals of the cave. 



SECTION VI. 

THE LEFT BANK OF THE OHIO, FROM GREEN RIVER TO SALT 
RIVER : BASIN OF THE LATTER. 

I. The River. — The length of this portion of the Ohio River is about 
one hundred and sixty miles. In ascending it, we cross the thirty- eighth 
parallel of latitude. The general character of the bed and banks of the river 
is the same that was set forth at large in Section II of this Chapter. At 
several points the river has cut through beds of coal ; it also traverses the 
16 



242 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

underlying carboniferous limestone, which, in certain places, presents mural 
precipices, bearing red cedars. As we advance upward, the second bottoms 
become more elevated, and the lower alluvial lands are rather less subject to 
inundation. In Hancock county there is an expansion of the river-bottom 
to the width of seven miles.* 

There are several thriving villages on this bank of the river, of which 
Hawesville> where coal is dug, is the most noted. The whole, together with 
the country between them, are subject to intermittent and remittent fevers, 
but not to such a degree as to retard their growth or prosperity. 

II. Basin of Salt River. — The breadth of this little basin, unlike that 
of most through which we have traveled, is quite equal to its length. The 
river consists of two principal branches. The southern, bearing the name of 
Rolling Fork, interlocks to the south with the waters of Green River; the 
northern, known as Salt River, has its origin between the Kentucky River 
and the Ohio. Their union is but a few miles from the junction of the com- 
mon trunk with the Ohio, twenty miles below Louisville. Salt River proper, 
or the northern branch, has all its head-waters in an out-crop of the upper 
Silurian limestone, which emerges not far above Louisville, and extends to 
the Kentucky River at Frankfort. This region presents ravines and low 
winding ridges, having a fertile soil, with tolerable springs and very few 
marshes. But, as in the other basins where the geology is the same, the 
streams sink in summer and autumn into pools, and the country is not exempt 
from fever. The Rolling or southern Fork has its origin mainly in the car- 
boniferous limestone of the adjoining Green River Basin ; and much of the 
surface which it drains is hilly ; some parts low-mountainous. The immediate 
valleys or troughs of both forks of Salt River, present a considerable extent of 
bottom-land, which, with that along the common trunk, is occasionally inun- 
dated. Fevers, often malignant and fatal, prevail along these streams, espe- 
cially low down, where their common valley opens into that of the Ohio. 

III. Harrodsburg Springs. — These springs belong to the basin now 
under examination, being situated near the sources of Salt River. Unlike most 
of the mineral springs of Kentucky, which are found in deep valleys, these 
burst out near the summit-level of the country, at an altitude of near a thou- 
sand feet above the Gulf of Mexico. From near the springs, small tributa- 
ries of the Kentucky River and of Dick's River flow off to the east and north, 
and those of Salt River to the south and west ; a sufficient evidence of the 
relative elevation of the spot where they are found. In every direction, for 
several miles round, the country is as free from drowned lands, marshes, 
swales, and ponds, as any other equal area in the Ohio Basin. In fact, there 
does not seem to be a single source of malaria in their neighborhood ; and my 
colleague, Professor Miller, who practiced medicine nine years in this locality, 



* Collins's Kentucky. 



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part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 243 

has assured me, that intermittent and remittent fevers are far less prevalent 
here than in the Barrens. 

The town of Harrodsburg, in the suburbs of which we find the springs, was 
the first-settled spot in the state of Kentucky ; and consequently the soil has 
been under cultivation since the month of June, 1774; that is, nearly seventy- 
five years ; a period quite sufficient to diminish those elements on which au- 
tumnal fever remotely depends. I am the more careful to set forth these facts, 
because most of the watering-places in the West, from being in valleys, are 
scourged in August and September with bilious fevers ; and because the inva- 
lids of the South-west, especially those who have been made such by its fevers, 
cannot have their constitutions repaired by sojourning at springs which are 
situated in malarious localities. 

Harrodsburg Springs are not only in the oldest-settled spot in the valley 
of the Ohio, after Pittsburgh, but they issue from strata which, I am informed 
by Professor Yandell, rest upon the very oldest formations known in the Ohio 
Basin. Considered in reference to chemical character, they are magnesian 
limestone. 

Desirous of publishing an accurate account of the composition of these 
waters, I desired Doctor C. H. Raymond, of Cincinnati, to visit and analyze 
them ; which he did in the month of October, 1848, selecting the two foun- 
tains from which invalids are chiefly supplied. The following are the results 
with which he has furnished me : 

THE GREENVILLE SPRING. 
Ingredients in a pint of the water, stated ingrains and hundredths, Troy. 
Bicarbonate of magnesia, - - - - - - -2.87 

Bicarbonate of lime, ------- 0.86 

Sulphate of magnesia ( crystallized ), ----- 16.16 

Sulphate of lime ( crystallized ), - - - - - 11.06 

Chloride of sodium, a trace. 30.95 



THE SALOON, OR CHALYBEATE SPRING. 

Quantity of water the same. 

Bicarbonate of magnesia, ------- 0.43 

Bicarbonate of lime, ------- 4,31 

Bicarbonate of iron, - - - - - - - -0.50 

Sulphate of magnesia (crystallized), - 27.92 

Sulphate of lime ( crystallized ), 10.24 

Chloride of sodium, - - 1.20 

44.60 



The bicarbonate of iron in this spring is sufficient to impart to its 
salts a light fawn-color. The water of both springs is limpid. Doctor 



244 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Raymond could not detect either free carbonic acid or sulphureted hydrogen 
gas.* 

It will be seen by these analyses, that every tumbler of the water of the 
Greenville Spring contains within a fraction of sixteen grains of saline mat- 
ter, more than half of which consists of magnesian salts ; that every tumbler 
of the water of the Saloon Spring contains twenty-two grains of saline 
matter, two-thirds of which are sulphate, with a small quantity of bicarbonate, 
of magnesia ; and that in the same quantity of the water there is a quarter 
of a grain of iron. The patient, who in one morning drinks four tumblers of 
the water of the Saloon Spring, takes nearly a drachm of sulphate of mag- 
nesia, with other saline ingredients, and a grain of bicarbonate of iron. 

I shall follow these estimates no further, but proceed to say, that the 
water of the Greenville Spring is the better antacid — that of Saloon, the bet- 
ter tonic. Indeed, small as the quantity of iron is, it sometimes produces an 
uncomfortable feeling in the head, which is relieved by drinking at the other 
fountain. In reference to the excretions, the water from both acts upon the 
bowels, kidneys, and under proper regulations at night, upon the skin. Be- 
yond these sensible effects, it pervades the whole constitution, and many 
classes of invalids very soon feel a renovation of appetite, strength, and 
cheerfulness, although its primary effects seem to be sedative, not stimulant. 
I transcribe from the article in the Journal already quoted, the following 
remarks on the curative effects of these waters : 

" The cases to which they are, in a peculiar manner, adapted, are chronic 
inflammations, and obstructions in the abdominal viscera. Thus, they are 



* In the year 1823, while attached to the medical department of Transylvania Uni- 
versity, assisted by my ingenious and lamented friend, the late Doctor Robert Best, ad- 
junct to the Professor of Chemistry, I made a qualitative analysis of the water of the 
Saloon Spring ; which has ever since been before the public. ( See West. Jour, of 
Med. and Phys. Science, Cincinnati, June, 1828.) A want of faith in its accuracy, led 
me to propose a new analysis, by a much abler hand. The results then obtained were 
the following : 

Carbonate of magnesia, in a small quantity, 

Carbonate of lime, " minute " 

Sulphate of magnesia, - - - - - " large " 

Sulphate of lime, ------- « small " 

Sulphate of soda, " " " 

Iron ( probably in the state of a sulphate ), - a trace 

Sulphureted hydrogen, - - - - ' - -in a minute " 

It will be observed, that this analysis and that by Doctor Raymond give nearly the 
same ingredients ; and both nearly correspond with one made subsequently to mine by 
Professor Yandell. ( Transylv. Jour. ) Doctor R. has more properly regarded the car- 
bonates as bicarbonates, and ascertained that the iron is a salt of that kind, instead of a 
sulphate; he likewise found the soda to be combined with hydrochloric acid, instead of the 
sulphuric ; finally, he could not detect any sulphureted hydrogen ; which may, per- 
haps, sometimes be present in minute quantities, and sometimes absent. In his exami- 
nation, subsequent to my own, Professor Yandell detected that gas in small quantities. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 245 

eminently serviceable in such cases of dyspepsia as are attended with suba- 
cute gastritis ; in almost every kind of hepatic disorder, except when the 
liver is indurated, and, consequently, incurable ; and in constipation, so con- 
stant an attendant on diseases of the stomach and liver. They are almost 
equally beneficial in chronic inflammations of many other parts of the sys- 
tem — especially of the serous and fibrous membranes. In tonic dropsies, in 
rheumatism, and in various affections of the periosteum from febrile metas- 
tases, from syphilis, and from mercury, they have often effected a cure, when 
other means had failed. In several urinary disorders they have done equal 
good. In chronic diseases of the skin they have also been found useful, 
when the patient has been subjected to a regimen that has determined them 
to the surface. In pulmonary complaints they have been found serviceable; 
but not in the same degree as in disorders of the abdominal organs ; and 
their use in those maladies requires discrimination. In chronic pleurisy, and 
the early stages of subacute bronchitis, they have performed cures ; but in 
vomica, tubercular suppurations, and hepatization of the pulmonary tissue, 
they are injurious, and, if persevered in, may even prove fatal. When they 
have rendered occasional assistance in these affections, it was chiefly by cor- 
recting a morbid condition of the digestive functions, so often associated with 
them. In sick headache they occasionally do good ; but many cases of that 
obstinate malady are attended with such an enervated condition of the ner- 
vous system, that their sedative operation becomes prejudicial." 

The experience of multitudes, since these remarks were published, twenty 
years ago, has, in the main, confirmed their accuracy, and even added to the 
catalogue of maladies which have been palliated or removed. 

The Harrodsburg waters have, by exportation, been extensively distribu- 
ted over the South-west, and even found their way into use in several of our 
garrisons. The salts obtained by their evaporation have long been employed 
by the people, and also by many physicians, who have found them more effi- 
cacious than the officinal sulphate of magnesia. 

It is proper to say something of what art has done to make this an accept- 
able residence to the infirm, and to the friends who may desire to accompany 
them. To this end, the enterprising and courteous proprietor, Doctor Chris- 
topher Graham, through a period of twenty-five years, has devoted himself, 
with a liberality only equaled by his taste and diligence. Within that 
period, his permanent expenditures have exceeded two hundred thousand 
dollars, and he is still inventing new means for comfort, amusement, and the 
beneficial use of the water ; among which are baths, both cold and warm, the 
latter of which, from the high degree of saline impregnation, cannot but 
prove valuable in a great variety of cases. 

A topographical map ( PI. X) of the grounds around the principal spring, 
including the various improvements, has been made at my request, by Cap- 
tain Fuller, Topographical Engineer, the inspection of which will render a 
description of them unnecessary; and I need only say, that while the waters 



246 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are perhaps adapted to as great a variety of infirmities as any now in use 
in any country, the accommodations which have been created will, from the 
reports of travelers, bear an advantageous comparison with any to be found 
either in America or Europe. Such is the spot which, in the midst of a 
highly cultivated society, may be added to the wild scenes on the Tennessee 
River, the Mammoth Cave, the Upper Mississippi, and the Great Prairies, 
already recommended as places of beneficial resort for various classes of 
invalids. 

But the attractions of the Harrodsburg locality are not confined to its 
medicinal waters and its munificent accommodations ; for, although it lies in 
a region of fertile and gently rolling country, which would seem to promise 
nothing rare or romantic in nature, it is by no means destitute of objects 
and scenery which the eye of taste must regard with the deepest interest. 
About fifteen miles to the south-east are the ' Knobs,' where, on a plain, 
the basis of which is the black or Devonian slate, may be seen a scattered 
and picturesque group of slate-clay pyramids, or rude, truncated cones, 
rising from one to two hundred feet in hight. At a less distance to the east, 
is the gorge through which Dick's River precipitates itself into the Ken- 
tucky. Lastly, at the distance of eight or ten miles to the north, the be- 
holder finds himself on the verge of a chasm, as deep, and dark, and wild, 
as that of Niagara below the Falls. In this profound ravine, with walls of 
the oldest transition marble, and a garniture of mingled evergreen and de- 
ciduous forest trees, the Kentucky River quietly winds its way, and, by its 
very repose, seems to say that its work of excavation is finished. 



SECTION VII. 

FALLS OF OHIO — LOUISVILLE. 
I. Topography. — In ascending the Ohio River from the mouth of Salt 
River to the Falls, the course is but a few degrees east of north — the dis- 
tance about twenty miles. In traveling from one point to the other by land, 
the journey is over a plain, the elevation of which is above high-water mark, 
and its breadth from three to five or six miles. From every part of this 
plain, which extends to the river on the west, the blue range of Silver Creek 
Hills may be seen, running parallel with the river on its western or right 
side, while a lower range, called the 'Knobs,' is seen to terminate the plain 
on the opposite or eastern side. Thus between Salt River and the Falls, 
there is an ample terrace, elevated nearly as high as the second bottoms of 
the river, already described in Section II of this Chapter. It cannot, how- 
ever, in strictness, be classed with those deposits, which, geuerally sloping- 
back toward the hills, and composed largely of gravel, pebbles, and bowlders, 
retain but little water on their surface; while this, although it presents 
many beds and ridges of sand or sandy loam, so abounds in clay, that the 



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part i.j INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 247 

rains are but slowly absorbed, and, at the same time, it is so level as to pre- 
vent their readily flowing off. Thus, in times long gone by, they accumula- 
ted in the depressions on its surface, and overspread it with ponds and 
limited elm and maple swamps; which dry up in summer and autumn, but at 
other seasons send out small streams that make their way into Salt River, 
and into the Ohio, both above and below the Falls. The middle and 
southern portions of this plain, where the natural cisterns were, and still are, 
of greatest extent, is called by the ominous name of the 'Pond Settlement.' 
The area of the entire plateau cannot be less than sixty square miles ; the 
whole of which lies to the summer-windward of the city of Louisville, which 
is built on its northern extremity, opposite to and above the Falls. The site 
of the city itself was swampy, with shallow ponds, and although more than 
seventy years have elapsed since the commencement of settlement, speci- 
mens of both may be seen within two miles to the south and west of the city 
quay ; for the draining of which a trench has been dug, as may be seen in 
PI. XL Even the streets of the southern suburbs, show a soil retentive of 
moisture and disposed to swampiness, while the surface is so level as to render 
all draining difficult. To the south-east of the city, the creek called Bear- 
grass descends from the higher lands, and being joined by streams which 
originate on the plain, flows to the north along the base of the low hills, 
until it reaches the river-bottom, when it turns to the west, and, like a nar- 
row canal, makes its way for a mile nearly parallel to the river, which it 
finally joins at the middle of the northern margin of the city. The water 
in the estuary of this creek is generally foul and stagnant ; and the slip of 
bottom between it and the river is sometimes overflowed. A quarter of a 
mile from the mouth of Beargrass, opposite the lower part of the city, is the 
head of the Louisville and Portland Canal, which, after running two miles, 
enters the Ohio below the Falls. The bed of the canal is in solid rocks, the 
removal of which has given it high and stony banks ; but on each side, and 
especially between it and the river, after the first mile from its head, the 
bottom is so low as to be subject to annual inundation. On this bottom, 
immediately above the junction of the canal with the river, stands the old, 
declining village of Shippingport. Below the junction, on a bank so high 
that even its most depressed portions are inundated only by the greatest 
floods, is the newer and more growing town of Portland; in the rear of 
which, to the south, there are many small ponds and swamps, situated on the 
upper terrace. 

II. Geology of the Falls. — Reference has been already made to a 
range of hills on the western side of the Ohio. Their altitude is between 
five and six hundred feet above low-water mark. They constitute the final 
out-crop, to the east, of the fine-grained sandstone, with beds of limestone, 
which underlie the Illinois coal basin. At the base of these hills there is an 
out-crop of black or Devonian slate, and from beneath it the limestone of 
the Falls emerges. This limestone, as Doctor Shumard informs me, belongs 



248 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

to the Devonian group, but is far Larder and more indestructible than the 
slate which rests upon it. IVith these facts before us, the explanation of 
the production of the Falls is not difficult. Flowing over the limestone from 
the east, and reaching the softer slate, the water would excavate it more 
rapidly, and very soon a descent from one formation to the other would be 
established. The depth of this descent is probably still on the increase. 
The entire fall at this time is twenty-five feet nine inches. Above the 
rapids, the extreme rise of the river, from low to high-water, is forty feet 
two inches ; below, sixty-four feet five inches.* The general level of the 
great terrace on which the city stands is twenty-four feet above high-water 
mark, which being four hundred and seventeen feet above the sea, makes 
the elevation of the Louisville plateau four hundred and forty-one feet. 

After the few words which have been said on the geology of the Falls, the 
explanation of the origin of the plateau which has been described, will be 
easily made. The spot it occupies was once covered by a deep bed of black 
slate, which has been washed away or decomposed, and left, in part, to con- 
stitute the present materials of the plain ; and, like those left by all dis- 
integrated slates, they abound in argillaceous matter, which prevents the 
rains from sinking into the earth, and thus swamps and ponds are genera- 
ted, f Had an equal amount of sandstone been decomposed, a dry and 
sterile plain would now occupy the place of that which has been described. 
Thus it is that geology illustrates topography. In most parts of this 
plateau, excellent hard water is obtained by sinking wells. 

III. The City of Louisville is in N>. Lat. 38° 3', and W. Lon. 85° 
30'. Its position in reference to the river, the Falls, the estuary of Bear- 
grass, and the pondy terrace to the south, may be seen in PL XL In former 
times, a large portion of its dwelling-houses were built with basements above 
the ground, to avoid the dampness of the surface. The change in that 
fashion, which is going on, indicates the progressive drying of the soil. The 
houses are chiefly of brick. Several of the streets are unusually wide. No 
parts of the city are very compactly built. Its spread has been up and 
down the river, much more than from it, as the swales and ponds in its rear 
have limited its extension in that direction. The descent of the streets near 
the river is such as to admit of successful drainage; but, at the distance of 
a few squares from the bank, the levelness is so great as to interfere mate- 
rially with the discharge of the contents of the gutters into the sewer 
which has been dug behind the town, the outlet of which is into the Ohio 
some distance below the Falls. The fuel of the city, formerly wood alone, 
is now chiefly coal. It has no hydrant system, and well-water is in univer- 
sal use. Its manufacturing establishments are not sufficiently numerous and 
extensive to merit the attention of the etiologist, with the single exception 



* Colonel Long, U. S. Topographical Engineer, MSS. penes me. 

t Contributions to the Geology of Ky. By Doctors Yandell and Shumard. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 249 

of hemp-carding and spinning. Louisville was originally settled by emi- 
grants from Virginia, but at the present time its population includes people 
from most of the states, and also from various kingdoms of Europe, of whom 
the Germans arc the most numerous. 

IV. Autumnal Fevers. — From the earliest period of its settlement, the 
whole plateau, from the Falls to Salt River, has been infested with autumnal 
fevers, intermittent and remittent, simple and malignant. They still prevail, 
but wherever clearing, cultivation, and draining have extended, they have 
signally diminished. Some portions, however, have repelled those who, set- 
tling upon, might have transformed them, and still remain unreclaimed. 
Louisville itself offers a beautiful example of the influence of civic improve- 
ments, in destroying the topographical conditions on which these fevers de- 
pend. For a long time, when its population was small and scattered, its 
streets unpaved, and its out-lots overspread with small swamps and shallow 
ponds, the annual invasions of autumnal fever were severe ; and in 1822, a 
sickly year over the West generally, it was scourged almost to desolation.* 
With increasing density of population, however, and the consequent draining, 
cultivation, and drying, a great amelioration has taken place; and fever, 
especially the intermittent form, is now a rare occurrence in the heart of the 
city; but as we advance into the suburbs, the disease increases. Thus a 
difference of a few squares, gives a striking difference in autumnal health, f 

To the east, the people on both sides of Beargrass are peculiarly subject 
to fever ; and to the west, those of Shippingport, situated, as we have seen, 
in a low river-bottom, are equally liable. 



SECTION VIII. 

BASIN OF THE KENTUCKY RIVER. 

I. Ascent of the Ohio Eiver. — The distance from the Falls to the 
mouth of the Kentucky River, is sixty-two miles ; the course, in a direct 
line, nearly north-east. The river-bottoms, on the left or Kentucky side, 
do not present any important town, or any remarkable locality. The hills 
at first are low, but rise gradually, and are composed of the Devonian lime- 
stone, which emerges at the Falls; to which succeed out-crops of upper 
Silurian, or gray cliff, and then lower Silurian, or blue shell limestone. 
Immediately above the junction of the Kentucky with the Ohio stands the 
old village of Port William, now called 

II. Carrolton. — The extensive bottom on which it is built, consists of 
a narrow terrace along both rivers, liable to spring inundations, and a higher 
and broader plateau, which in the rear is depressed, and was formerly a 



* J. P. Harrison, M. D., in the Phil. Jour. 

f Contributions to the Geol. of Ky. By Doctors Yandell and Shumard. 



250 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

swamp, covered with semi- aquatic shrubs and herbaceous plants. By ditch- 
ing and destroying the natural vegetation, this tract of forty or fifty acres is 
now dry and reduced to cultivation. From Doctor Mason, my authority for 
this fact, I learn that formerly the people living adjacent to this swamp suf- 
fered greatly from fever, especially intermittents, which even overspread the 
village ; but since the abatement of the paludal nuisance, the disease has 
almost disappeared, notwithstanding the shores of the two rivers remain 
nearly in the condition in which they were when the disease prevailed. 

III. G\en.eral Character of the Kentucky River. — From the sources 
of this river in the Cumberland Mountains, to its mouth, the direct course 
is nearly north-west ; but it does not flow on that line. For the first half 
of its length it runs nearly west ; through the second half, almost north. 
In ascending it, for the first thirty or forty miles the bottoms are of such 
width as to admit of cultivation, and, in general, so elevated as not to be 
overflowed. These bottoms gradually narrowing, the opposite hills approach 
each other, and, before we reach Frankfort, the capital of the state, pre- 
sent a ravine with mural precipices ; a conformation which continues for a 
great distance, and has been already pointed out in treating of the Harrods- 
burg Springs. Beyond this ravine, the upper parts of the river are found 
among the flanks of the Cumberland Mountains, in the Appalachian coal 
formation. The lower strata found in the walls of the ravine, belong, as I 
am assured by Doctors Yandell and Shumard, to the oldest limestone met 
with in the southern Interior Valley, as it underlies the blue Silurian lime- 
stone of Natchez and Cincinnati. Of course, except near its mouth, the 
alluvial grounds of such a river can present nothing of interest to the medi- 
cal topographer ; but the river itself deserves attention. The fall through 
its lower half is so inconsiderable, that the high floods of the Ohio River 
exert an influence as far up as Frankfort, seventy-five miles. From this 
approach to a horizontal bottom, the river formerly presented, in summer 
and autumn, a series of pools and ripples, from the margins of which exha- 
lations arose which generated autumnal fevers. A few years since the state 
of Kentucky constructed a series of dams and locks, which have created a 
slack-water, navigated for the distance of nearly one hundred miles. Thus, 
the river, except when in flood, presents a series of long and deep pools, 
which do not sink so low in times of drought as the natural pools, and con- 
sequently there is less exposure of foul margins to the sun. 

Anxious to ascertain the effect of this change in the condition of the 
river on autumnal health, I wrote to Doctor Drane, who resides in New- 
castle, a few miles from its left bank, and his reply was that it had not 
increased the annual sickness. I also wrote to Doctor W. C. Snead, of 
Frankfort, who answered the question as follows: "The slack-watering of 
the Kentucky River, has very materially improved the health of the people 
living along its banks. The old-fashioned fevers have almost entirely 
disappeared, and settlements that were once considered very unhealthy in 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 251 

autumn, are nearly exempt from the epidemics under which they suffered. 
I have paid special attention to this subject for the last seven years, and 
feel fully satisfied that the facts above stated are correct." Doctor Mason, 
of Carrolton, however, has informed me, that the people who reside along the 
first pool formed by a dam, only two miles from the mouth of the river, have 
been more affected by autumnal fever than before the erection of the dam. 
These discrepancies are resolved by referring to the character of the banks 
of the river. Opposite the first pool they are broad; where the observations 
of Doctor Doane were made, they are much narrowed, and at and above 
Frankfort they are narrower still. "Where the bottoms are widest the dams 
have done harm; where narrowest, good; where intermediate, they seem 
not to have produced any effect on health. 

IV. Frankfort. — The bottoms of the Kentucky River are so narrow, 
that throughout its whole length there is not a town entitled to the slightest 
notice, except Frankfort. The fourth lock-dam is about a mile below it. 
The bottom on which the town stands is north-east of the river, elevated 
above high-water mark, and has an altitude above the Glulf of Mexico of 
about four hundred and eighty feet. Its area is very limited, and hills up- 
ward of three hundred feet high closely environ it to the west, north, and 
east. Between the northern and eastern hills a small stream, with swaley 
borders, makes its way, through a valley disproportionately wide, to the river. 
This valley, I was told, opens into the river below the town, and seems to 
have been once the bed of a part of the river. To the south, on the opposite 
side, but a little above, there is a tract of bottom-land as large as that on 
which the town is built. It is less elevated than the town-plot, and some- 
times suffers inundation. This locality has always been subject to intermit- 
tent and remittent fevers, in which the people living in South Frankfort, and 
near the obsolete river-bed to the north-east of the town, have participated 
most deeply. The penitentiary of the state stands near the upper end of this 
outlet, and Mr. Joel Scott, who was its keeper for nine years, informed me 
that intermittents occurred among the convicts every autumn. According to 
Snead, just quoted, the conversion of the river opposite and above the town 
into a deep and permanent pool, has diminished the frequency of fevers. 

Frankfort is an old-settled town. Its Lat. is 30° 14' N. The inhabitants 
are supplied with hard water. 

V. Upland Portion of the Kentucky River Basin. — Every part of 
this basin is uneven, ridgy or hilly, rising in the east into mountainous. Swamps 
are almost unknown ; but it has some small natural ponds, and latterly, a 
much greater number formed artificially, not for irrigation, but for stock- 
water. This suggests that the tributary streams of the Kentucky River 
generally are apt to fail, which is the fact. In dry summers and autumns, 
the beds of many even become dusty, while all are reduced to the condition 
of pools, united by thready currents. As most of them have rocky beds 
and limited alluvial bottoms, this drying-up is not accompanied by the pro- 



252 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

duction, to any great extent, of autumnal fever ; and no region over which 
we have traveled, east of the Mississippi, is, on the whole, more exempt. It 
is a fact, however, that even those ridges which are separated by the most 
transient brooks, and where scarcely any surface-water can be seen after the 
summer solstice, remittent fever is not uncommon ; while in the neighborhood 
of the larger streams there are superadded mild intermittents ; the latter, 
however, are the more frequent of the two. This basin comprises the oldest 
settlements anywhere on the tributaries of the Ohio, except those of Western 
Pennsylvania, as they date back to the year 1774 ; and consequently its forests 
are extensively destroyed or thinned out ; and most of its surface was long 
since transformed from a wild to a cultivated state. Through all these con- 
ditions, consequent on its settlement, it seems to have been but lightly affected 
with autumnal fever, except on the banks of the larger streams. The special 
topography of a few localities will further illustrate the whole. 

VI. Danville. — This town, one of the oldest of the state, is situate only 
ten miles south-east from Harrodsburg, and two miles from Dick's River, a 
tributary of the Kentucky. As the seat of a college and of the State Deaf 
and Dumb Asylum, it has claims to a passing notice of its topography and 
autumnal health. The site is a flatted ridge, passing into a surface still 
leveler, especially to the south-east. There are some small ponds, both 
natural and artificial, in its neighborhood, but no marshes. Its rivulets and 
streams, like those in other parts of the basin, become sluggish or dry up in 
summer and early autumn. Like the neighboring town of Harrodsburg, 
already described, it is very slightly affected by autumnal remittent fever. 
Danville, just described, stands not far from the most southern portion of 
the great bend of the Kentucky River, mentioned in the general description. 
We must now cross the river to the north, and say something of the tract of 
country found within the bend. 

VII. Counties in or near the Great Bend of the Kentucky River. — 
The counties of this locality, are Clark, Jessamine, Fayette, Scott, and Wood- 
ford, which have ever been, and still are, regarded as the garden-spot of Ken- 
tucky. They are among the oldest-settled portions of the state, and their 
surface is nearly all inclosed. The natural herbage, cane-brakes, and shrub- 
bery are destroyed ; but many open forests have been preserved, and a turf 
of blue-grass flourishes beneath their shade. The sub-stratum of the whole 
is Silurian limestone, on which rests a deep stratum of loam and mold. Marshes 
are almost unknown, but artificial ponds are numerous. The streams, in 
summer, become stagnant, and many dry up. In Fayette, the central and 
most important county, much of the surface originally presented deep and 
almost level deposits of black soil, abounding in moisture, and overshadowed 
by dense cane-brakes. The organic matters contained in these beds, have 
long since, by cultivation, been thoroughly exposed to the action of the air, 
rains, and sun. This tract, so noted for its fertility, is drained by the Elk- 
horn, a tributary of Kentucky River; and has been made the subject of a 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 253 

paper in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, by the late 
distinguished Abbe Correa, Portuguese Minister to the United States, who 
was of opinion, that there had once been upon it a great deposit of vegetable 
matter, the decay of which had generated the deep stratum of mold. The 
chief prevalence of intermittent fever within the district we are now exploring, 
is along the trunk and branches of the Elkhorn, where it is not connected 
with alluvial ground, but with the reduced volume and slackened current of 
the water. 

VIII. Lexington. — The city of Lexington stands in Lat. 38° 2' N., 
and Lou. 84° 26' W. Its elevation above the sea is eight hundred 
feet. One of the upper branches of Elkhorn Creek passes through it, the 
gentle slopes towards which, cause a perfect drainage of the site; but the 
stream as it flows off to the west, sinks into pools, in summer and autumn, 
and thus creates a limited source of insalubrity, to the windward of the 
city. Moreover, in different directions round the city, the surface, although 
decidedly undulating, does not favor a rapid escape of the rain-water, and 
many of the brooks have a sluggish current with spongy borders. Never- 
theless, intermittent fevers are almost unknown, and remittents by no 
means common. Lexington is gradually becoming a summer-residence for 
southern families, for which its topographical condition gives it a decided 
fitness. A southern physician told me that, while a student, he spent 
eighteen months in that city, during which, without the use of medicine, an 
enlargement of the spleen — the result of intermittent fever — under which 
he had suffered for a considerable time, was entirely removed. 

Lexington was once the metropolis, not only of Kentucky, but of the 
West. The first Lunatic Asylum and the first University in the Valley of 
the Mississippi, were established there. The medical department of the 
latter was organized in the autumn of 1817, and then began those medical 
teachings in the Interior Valley, which are now conducted by so many per- 
sons at such distant points. Its alumni have become the founders of 
schools, the editors of journals, and, largely, contributors to the work in 
which this testimony to a pioneer institution is recorded. 

IX. South of the Cumberland River, the prevailing agriculture is that 
of cotton ; north of that river, to the Kentucky River, of tobacco ; north of 
the Kentucky, of hemp. Wheat runs through the whole, as maize runs 
through every region from the Gulf of Mexico up to that we are now 
studying. South-east of Lexington, at the distance of forty or fifty miles, 
begin the slopes of the Alleghany Mountains, and the Silurian limestone 
disappears beneath the shales and sandstones of the Appalachian coal 
formation. Of the prevalence of autumnal fever in that portion of the 
Kentucky River Basin, I am not informed. North of Lexington for about 
twenty miles, the topography remains nearly unchanged ; then the surface 
becomes deeply cut, and of course rugged. The Silurian limestone is cov- 
ered with clay bearing a thin layer of soil. Surface-water is scarce. The 



254 TH E PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

principal stream, Eagle Creek, a tributary of the Kentucky, sinks low and 
becomes pondy. On the ridges, except near the stream, intermittents are 
almost unknown, but remittents occur more or less every year. Over this 
kind of surface we reach the Ohio, between the mouth of the Kentucky 
River, and that of Licking eighty-five miles higher up, and nearly half a 
degree farther north. Between the two there is no locality that merits 
special notice. 



SECTION IX. 

BASIN OF LICKING RIVER : NORTH-EAST KENTUCKY. 

I. Licking River may be compared with Green and the Kentucky, to 
which it is parallel in course, and approaches in size and the area of its 
basin. Its sources are among the outliers of the Cumberland Mountain, 
immediately north of those of the Kentucky River ; its junction with the 
Ohio is opposite Cincinnati. Its southern tributaries interlock with those 
of the Kentucky River, its northern with the brooks and rivulets which 
flow into the Ohio. Commencing in the Appalachian coal formation, it 
pours its waters into the Ohio, over the lower Silurian, or blue shell lime- 
stone of Cincinnati. I may add, that it flows a greater distance through 
that formation than any other affluent of the Ohio River. Almost every- 
where it winds tortuously through a ravine, embracing narrow alluvial 
grounds, or none at all, until it approaches the Ohio, where, like those of the 
other tributaries, they widen. Its bed and banks are generally composed 
of rock. Its current is unequal, and in summer and autumn it presents 
alternate pools and ripples. Thus, in some places where it winds and 
labors among the hills, the surface of stagnant water becomes quite as great 
as if the country were flat and pondy. In the spring of the year, its 
freshets often overflow its banks. Nearly all its tributaries conform so ex- 
actly to its model, that a separate description is unnecessary. 

The surface of this basin, as far up as the eastern out- crop of the Silurian 
limestone (which is nearly as far as we find much population), is rolling 
and rather arid, but has scattered mill-ponds, and is beginning to abound 
in artificial ponds, on which the agricultural population rely for stock-water, 
as permanent springs are scarce, and wells not only difficult to be dug 
through the hard Silurian strata, but often unproductive of much water. 
More than half of this basin has but a thin covering of mold, resting on a firm 
stratum of yellow clay, containing very little sand; but the remainder is as 
fertile as any portion of the Ohio Basin. The predominant trees of the 
former variety of soil, are oak ; the latter is, or rather was, clothed in trees 
and shrubs which flourish on the richest soils of the middle latitudes, over- 
shadowing the most northern cane-brakes found in the Great Interior Val- 
ley. Among the forest trees I may designate two as abounding, and which 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 255 

are almost as characteristic of a locality but little infested with autumnal 
fever, as the cypress and liquidambar are indicative of the opposite condi- 
tion, — they are the blue ash (Fraxinus quad 'rang ulata) and prickly- shelled 
buck 03-0 (jEscidus Ohioensis). 

Some portions of this basiu, as the counties of Mason, Nicholas, and Bour- 
bon, which constitute its center from north to south, are among the oldest- 
settled and most populous parts of the state of Kentucky, but the infertile 
soils are still but thinly peopled. 

Of autumnal fever it may be stated, that the intermittent variety is lim- 
ited to the neighborhood of the water- courses, where it appears annually in 
a simple and mitigated form. The remittent variety occurs in the same 
localities, and also on the dryest ridges, between which there are no stag- 
nant waters. Its character is commonly simple or inflammatory, tending to 
a continued or typhous type. But I may express this fact in a more specific 
manner. It is instructive to travel along the valley of the Licking, and its 
tributaries — Stoner, Hinkson, Johnson's Fork, and the North Fork — and 
find intcrmittents every autumn, while the intervening tracts of low- ridgy 
and arid surface between them, remain exempt, but are liable to remittents. 
In the once flourishing, but now decayed town of Washington, Doctor Bay- 
less, a native of the place, informs me intermittents are absolutely unknown; 
but remittents occur more or less every autumn. There is so little surface- 
water, that the inhabitants have sometimes been compelled to haul water 
from the Ohio, at Maysville, a distance of four miles. 

To the catalogue of anomalies presented by our autumnal fever, I may 
add two, which, it is true, are multiples of known irregularities, rather than 
novelties. 

1. In the year 1795, a family settled in the woods, one mile out of the 
village of Mayslick, in Mason county, on dry blue -ash ridges, remote from 
all stagnant water, and remained entirely exempt from autumnal fever until 
the fall of 1800, when three children were seized, about the same time, 
with simple tertian intermittents, which proved obstinate, but not violent. 
The neighbors around remained unaffected, and the disease did not again 
occur in the family. 

2. The village just named was situate under nearly the same topograph- 
ical circumstances. It was settled in the year 1788, and its inhabitants re- 
mained free from autumnal fever, with the exception of sporadic cases, until 
the autumn of 1806, when an endemic remittent, manifesting a typhous ten- 
dency, arose and prevailed for two months, affecting part of the inhabitants 
of almost every house in the village, with many in its vicinity.* By a 
careful examination, I ascertained that the topographical circumstances of 
the village were the same that year that they had been before, except what 
resulted from a great drought ; the very condition which is said to preserve 
dry localities from autumnal fever, and promote it in the wet. 

II. The Blue Licks. — This singular locality deserves a passing notice. 

* Drake, in Barton's Med. and Phys. Jour., Vol. Ill, p. 85. 



256 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Its center, twenty-four miles south from the Ohio at Maysville, is traversed 
by Licking Biver, on the banks of which are the Salines, vulgarly called 
' Licks,' from the practice which the herbivorous animals of the forest had 
of licking the saline earth around such springs. The brine of these foun- 
tains is so dilute, that salt is no longer manufactured from it.* 

The characteristic of this locality is the absence of the stratum of soil and 
loam from the Silurian limestone, and a great deficiency of forest trees. 
The surface presents little else than dark moss-covered rocks. In latter 
years, however, groves of red cedar are beginning to overspread and in- 
crease its wildness. At what time and from what cause this tract lost its 
earthy covering, and became denuded of trees, or whether they had always 
been kept from growing there, cannot be told. Many years ago, the late 
Colonel James Morrison, of Lexington, informed me, that he first visited 
this spot in 1775, at which time the buffalo or bison (Bos Americanus) fre- 
quented it in such numbers, that they had formed roads to it from various 
parts of the country. They were accustomed to remain in the vicinity of 
the springs ( chinking the salt water ) for many days, on each visit, and to 
their depredations and trampings, with the action of the rains, he ascribed 
the formation of this desert in the midst of a. fertile country. The discov- 
ery of the bones of the mastodon, and other gigantic extinct herbivorous 
animals, near the springs, shows that they, also, had frequented this locality. 
The Blue Licks are now resorted to as a watering-place. Muriate of soda, 
with abundance of sulphureted hydrogen gas, is the predominant ingre- 
dient of the water ; which is shipped in barrels, and extensively consumed 
over the West and South. 

In former times, when salt was manufactured here by furnace-heat, au- 
tumnal fever seems to have prevailed but little. Latterly, however, the 
sluggish river which winds round the springs, generates intermittents, which, 
nevertheless do not become prevalent until the latter part of summer, when 
watering-places are not much frequented. As some etiologists have fixed 
upon sulphuretted hydrogen as the efficient cause of autumnal fever, it may 
be asked, whether the intermittents of this locality should not be referred 
to that gas. The answer is, that the river is also present, and that the 
disease occurs with still greater violence in other places along that stream, 
where no sulphureted hydrogen is disengaged. 

In concluding this account of the Licking Basin, I may remark that, in 
ascending towards the sources of the river, to the margin of the coal basin, the 
country becomes so barren and broken, that its population is sparse, and that 
but little is known to me of its autumnal health. That little indicates it to 
be good. 



*The medical historian may perhaps be pardoned, for turning aside from his legiti- 
mate path, to say that, it was while attempting to make a little salt for his venison, at 
this place, in the year 1778, that the renowned Ohio Valley pioneer, Daniel Boone, was 
captured by the Indians ; and that within this locality, in 1782, they fought a bloody 
and victorious battle with the first settlers of Kentucky. 






part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA 257 

III. Banks of the Ohio north of the Licking Basin. — For nearly 
a hundred miles the Licking basin extends almost to the hills, from which 
you may look down upon the Ohio River. Let us descend upon the banks 
of that river. On either side of the mouth of Licking, are the towns of 
Newport and Covington ( PI. XIII), which, however, belong to the Cincinnati 
locality, and can be best noticed in connection with that city. In ascending 
the river from this point, its left or southern bank presents the usual suc- 
cession of bottoms, alternating with those of the opposite side, and mostly 
elevated above ordinary river freshets. 

Augusta, an old village, and the seat of a college, stands on one of these 
high bottoms, with hills in its rear ; and is but little infested with autumnal 
fever. The next locality above which merits a description is that of — 

Maysville. — This ancient landing-place of most of the immigrants to 
the state of Kentucky, has a historical importance that entitles it to atten- 
tion ; a claim which is strengthened by its being the most considerable town 
of North-east Kentucky. Its site is a narrow but high bottom, the surface 
of which is never reached by ordinary floods of the river ; a small stream 
enters the Ohio at the upper end of the town, beyond which is a wider and 
lower bottom; but both lie to the leeward of the town. The bold and 
closely adjacent hills arc composed of old Silurian limestone. On the op- 
posite side of the river, there is a bottom of considerable width, which is 
sometimes overflowed. The autumnal fevers of Maysville and its vicinity 
are of a mild character. 

The Ohio River above this town continues to present nearly the same 
banks and hills as below, until we ascend about twenty-five or thirty miles, 
when the latter become more lofty, and show by their outlines and aspect a 
change of geological character. We here leave the Silurian limestone ( which 
dipping south-eastwardly sinks beneath the surface), and enter the Devo- 
nian sandstone and slate which underlie the Appalachian coal formation; 
and henceforth, as long as our exploration of the south side of the Ohio 
Basin continues, we shall travel over carboniferous and sub -carboniferous 
formations, with aspects of surface so different from most of those on which 
we have been looking, as to constitute it a new region. Before entering it, 
however, we must recur to some general views of the one we are about to quit. 



SECTION X. 

GENERAL REMARKS AND CONCLUSIONS. 
Having completed a survey of the fertile and populous part of the basin 
of the Ohio south of that river, it will be proper, before leaving it for 
another part of the basin presenting very different characters, to recapitu- 
late some of its topographical and geological features. 

I. Its southern and western boundaries are the sources of the streams 
which enter the Tennessee River through its left bankj the Ohio River 
constitutes its northern and a part of its western boundary ; while to the 
17 



258 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

east it is bounded by the great out- crop of shale and sandstone which has a 
line of bearing from the Ohio River, above Maysville, to the Tennessee 
River, near Huntsville, the course being nearly south south-west. Imme- 
diately east of this high and abrupt margin, we come to the western side of 
the Appalachian coal formation. 

II. Much of the largest limestone region of the Interior Valley of North 
America lies west of this out- crop, in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. 

III. The creeks and rivers more generally flow in narrow ravines than 
those of any other portion of the Great Valley, and have more limited allu- 
vial bottoms. 

IV. While, as intimated in the first section of this chapter, the surface 
of that portion of the Ohio Basin which lies north of the river, is extensively 
buried up with drift or transported materials (much of it brought from a 
great distance in the north ), the region we have been exploring has none ; 
the trough of the Ohio River being its southern boundary. 

V. The deposits of organic matter in all parts of the region we have 
explored, are comparatively limited in depth and area. 

VI. Swamps, marshes, and sloughs are almost unknown ; but ponds and 
pools, both natural and artificial, are common in every part. 

VII. Copious and permanent springs are scarce; and the greater part of 
the countless number of brooks which irrigate the country in spring, dry up 
between the summer solstice and the autumnal equinox, or subside into 
stagnation. 

VIII. When we compare this great region of transition and secondary 
rocks, with the cretaceous and tertiary regions lying between it and the Grulf 
of Mexico, we find instructive evidence of the influence which the geological 
constitution of a country exerts on its medical topography and hydrography ; 
each of the two regions having a characteristic surface of deep interest to the 
physician, which is clearly referable to its geology. 

IX. In the region we have explored, it was found that, as we ad- 
vanced from south to north, there was a diminution in the prevalence of inter- 
mittent fever, which, at the same time, became more simple ; there was also, 
but in a less degree, a diminished prevalence of remittent fever, and a gradu- 
ally increasing tendency to assume a continued type. Although change of 
climate is a manifest cause of this modification, it is not, I presume, the only 
one ; for we must, also, admit a telluric influence. 



SECTION XI. 

THE OHIO RIVER, FROM MAYSVILLE TO BIG SANDY RIVER. 
As intimated in the last two sections, when we ascend the Ohio to the dis- 
tance of twenty-five or thirty miles above Maysville, the hills which from 
near Louisville are composed entirely of Silurian limestone, gray and blue, 
begin to show caps or summits of Devonian slate and sandstone, and at length 
are composed of those formations down to the water's edge. As we continue 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 259 

to advance, a conglomerate or pudding-stone takes their place on the high 
hill-tops, and soon replaces them to the depths of the valleys. These changes 
result from an eastern or south-eastern dip of all these formations, beginning 
in the region between Cincinnati and Maysville, while west of that line the 
dip is in the opposite direction. Beyond the out-crop of conglomerate ( which 
shoots up into lofty pinnacles) come the great deposits of iron ore, the salt 
wells, and the coal measures of the Appalachian formation, which we first met 
in North Alabama and East Tennessee. From this signal change of geolo- 
gical structure there results a topographical change, which is obvious to the 
eye of the ascending voyager ; but the country on each side displays it, even 
more than the trough or immediate valley of the river. This continues sub- 
stantially the same as it was from Louisville to Maysville ; but both the river 
and its valley are perceptibly diminished in width, and, on the whole, the bot- 
tom-lands are less subject to inundation, except at the junction of some of the 
principal tributaries. 

South of this section of the Ohio, the country is rugged ; has an elevation 
of three or four hundred feet over the limestone country farther west ; and is 
little fitted for cultivation, and but thinly peopled ; characteristics which it pre- 
serves through to the Tennessee. T know but little of its autumnal diseases, 
which are undoubtedly of a mild character, compared with those along the 
lower portions of the rivers which originate in this sub-alpine belt. 



SECTION XII. 

BASINS OF THE BIG SANDY AND GUYANDOTTE RIVERS. 

The mouths of these rivers are but ten miles apart, and in their general 
course they run nearly parallel, with interlocking tributaries. The former, 
which is the larger of the two, makes a part of the dividing line between 
Kentucky and Virginia. Its junction with the Ohio is about ninety miles 
above Maysville. The natural historian of the coal region ( which includes 
these rivers) is the able and indefatigable Doctor Hildreth, of Marietta, 
Ohio,* who from personal observation gives us the following description: 

" The space occupied by the tributary branches of these two streams, covers 
an area of about one hundred and twenty miles of latitude, and one hundred 
miles of longitude. Their head- waters rise a little north of the thirty-seventh 
degree, and interlock with those of the Clinch and Holston Rivers, and some 
of the western tributaries of the New River or Kenawha. Their extreme 
branches descend from the most elevated peaks of the Cumberland group of 
mountains, and from the flat mountains or table-lands found between the 
heads of the Holston and the Guyandotte. In their descent from this ele- 
vated region, they pass through some of the most wild, broken, and pictu- 
resque country to be found in the west. Immense deposits of sandstone 
rocks, piled up in enormous masses to the hight of fifteen hundred or two 

* Silliman's Journal, Vol. XXIX, No. I. 



260 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

thousand feet, compose all the center part of this region. The streams are 
confined to narrow ravines and valleys, so deep as hardly to admit the rays 
of the sun at noon- day. Except near the borders of the larger streams, this 
whole district is a perfect wilderness. The scanty population which is widely 
scattered over its surface, obtain their support by hunting and digging the 
roots of the ginseng, an article as highly prized by the Chinese, as their more 
delicate teas are by us. This beautiful plant grows with great luxuriance 
and in the most wonderful abundance, along the rich virgin soil of the hill 
and mountain sides, composed of the disintegrated sandstone and the decayed 
leaves of the forest, which have been accumulating, undisturbed, for ages. 
For thirty years these hills and forests have furnished a constant supply of 
thousands of tons of this plant to the traders stationed at remote points along 
the larger streams. * * * The hills and mountains, although steep and 
broken, are covered by an immense growth of forest trees, of all the species 
common to the climate, which here attain an elevation and a magnitude not 
seen in any other place ; rich mountain sides in a temperate climate always 
affording a heavier and taller growth than the lowlands. * * * It is 
but a few years since the bottom-lands on the Sandy were clothed with cane; 
and as late as the year 1805, boats visited that stream as high up as they 
could navigate, until checked by the falls, for the purpose of collecting the 
stems of this gigantic grass to be manufactured into reeds, &c. Since the 
ingress of domestic animals, the cane has wholly disappeared, except in some 
inaccessible recesses." 

As Doctor Hildreth has said nothing of the autumnal fevers of this alpine 
region, which extends through Eastern Kentucky and Western Virginia to 
the upper valley of Tennessee River, I wrote to a gentleman of Ohio, Mr. 
George A. Warder, who had traveled up and down the valley of the Big 
Sandy ; and although his answer is not full on that point, I will give an ex- 
tract from it, as further illustrating the medical topography of a region but 
little known, although nearly surrounded by old settlements : 

" I have passed up and down the Big Sandy River several times, and at 
various seasons of the year. The main river is about one hundred and fifty 
miles in length, rising in the mountains of South-western Virginia, and 
flowing a northerly course to the Ohio. The alluvial lands on the head 
streams are very narrow, and would not be considered worthy of cultivation 
in Ohio, but as the mountains are sterile, these small bottoms are occupied. 
As you descend, the valley widens to about a mile ; from within sixty miles 
of its mouth the farms increase in size, and have a rich, warm, sandy soil. 
From the junction of the Louisa Fork with Tug Fork, twenty-five miles 
above the mouth, there is so little fall, that every considerable rise in the 
Ohio River affects this stream; and as there are a number of creeks empty- 
ing into it, every time a rise in the Ohio occurs, the back-water fills the out- 
lets of these streams. The Sandy River is subject to very great and sud- 
den rises; and I have been told that it has risen in one night sixty feet 
above its usual level, of course overflowing the bottom-lands and doing 
much damage. This can easily be accounted for, as the river is short, rises 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 261 

in the mountains, and lias a great deal of fall from its sources to the main 
trunk, which has very little. I do not remember ever having seen ponds 
of stagnant water anywhere along the valley. The upper part of this val- 
ley is very healthy ; and I never saw or heard of ague and fever there ; — 
but as we descend the stream, we might suppose its borders liable to that 
disease, yet I did not witness it. The water is beautifully clear, and is gen- 
erally used by the inhabitants for drinking and household purposes, as there 
arc but few springs. I believe there is no limestone from the source to the 
mouth of the stream, its course being entirely through sandstone." 



SECTION XIII. 

BASIN OF THE KENAWHA RIVER. 

I. General Description. — This alpine river, one of the greatest tribu- 
taries of the Ohio, has its origin, by many large streams, among the sum- 
mits of the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia and North Carolina, at an 
elevation of from two to three thousand feet above the level of the sea. 
The principal and longest stream, called New River, begins in the granite 
escarpment of the Blue Mountains, within the latter state, and takes a 
course nearly north. The Greenbrier, which belongs to the former state, 
first joins it, and then succeeds the Gauley, when the common trunk assumes 
the name of Kenawha. Between the mouths of Greenbrier and Gauley 
Rivers, the distance is seventy miles, in passing through which New River 
descends more than seven hundred feet. Soon after their being joined by the 
Gauley, the united waters are precipitated twenty-two feet, from a ledge of 
sandstone. These are the ' Great Falls,' whence the river flows with a 
gentler current to the Ohio, at Point Pleasant, seventy miles below. From 
its utmost source in North Carolina, this river, pursuing a north-west 
course, has boldly cut its way through several mountain chains, and thus 
develops some of the wildest and sublimest scenery within our Great Valley. 
On this, however, we must not dwell, but proceed to direct our attention to 
such localities as are of interest to the medical topographer. 

II. Valley of the Greenbrier. — This, in the opinion of Doctor Hil- 
dreth, was once the basin of a lake. To the east and west it is bounded by 
the mountain ranges denominated Alleghany and Greenbrier, which are 
thirty-five or forty miles apart in the south, where New River, cutting 
through both ranges, traverses the valley nearly at right angles to them, and 
on its way from one to the other, receives Greenbrier River. To the north- 
east, at the distance of one hundred miles, these mountains, by gradual 
approximation, coalesce, and there Greenbrier River has its beginnings. 
These sources are two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and the 
junction of the stream with New River is at the altitude of thirteen hun- 
dred and twenty-five feet. Thus, the average elevation of the basin may be 
taken at sixteen hundred feet, while the mountains which bound it are as much 
more. Over its whole surface there is a thick calcareous deposit, resting on 



262 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

sandstone, with sinking springs, and caves containing salt-petre earth. The 
soil of the valley is calcareous, and abounds in decomposed vegetable mat- 
ter. Its surface is hilly, with some spots called 'levels.' The celebrated 
White, Blue, Red, and Salt Sulphur Springs of Virginia lie in this valley. 

III. Valley of the Gauley. — " This stream is about one hundred miles 
in length, and, at its mouth, more than one hundred yards in breadth. It takes 
its rise in the spurs and sides of the Laurel, Greenbrier, and Gauley ranges 
of mountains. The country through which it passes is mountainous, and 
broken into lofty precipitous hills of sandstone rock. 'The cliffs of Gauley' 
are second only in hight and grandeur to those of New River ; extending 
for many miles on each side of the stream, at an elevation of five or six hun- 
dred feet. The river itself is precipitated over falls and rapids for a consi- 
derable part of the course ; and its bed is so filled with huge blocks of sand- 
stone rock, as to prevent any navigation on its waters." 

IV. Glades. — " Toward the heads of this river, the mountains spread out 
into table-lands, known by the name of 'glades.' They lie in long narrow 
patches, at an elevation of seven or eight hundred feet above the water-courses, 
with an elevated ridge or border along their sides, through which, at intervals, 
are found gaps for the water to pass off, down immense precipices, to the streams 
below. They are destitute of heavy timber. The more elevated and dryer 
portions produce fine crops of barley, oats, and potatoes, while the more wet 
afford good meadows, and the swampy places produce cranberries in abun- 
dance. The soil is black, based on yellow clay ; indicating that these were, 
at some remote period, the beds of lakes or ponds." 

V. Autumnal Fevers. — As the valleys of New River and the Green- 
brier, with the table -lands or glades of the Gauley, have an elevation of from 
sixteen hundred to two thousand feet above the ocean, with moist soils, abound- 
ing in organic matter, and are comprehended between the parallels of thirty- 
seven and thirty-nine degrees of north latitude, they afford appropriate locali- 
ties for ascertaining the influence of elevation on autumnal fever in those 
latitudes. Unable to visit them, I have sought, by correspondence, to obtain 
the desired information ; but of twelve letters written to physicians in that 
region, two only have been answered. Doctor ]W\ L. Bondurant, of Poca- 
hontas county, high up Greenbrier River, in north latitude thirty-eight de- 
grees fifteen minutes, writes as follows : " The surface of our soil is fertile, 
especially that of the Greenbrier bottoms, which are low and annually over- 
flowed. On or near these bottoms there are scattering cases of intermittent 
fever every year; but remittent is much commoner, and often assumes a 
congestive type, terminating fatally in four or five days." From Doctor 
David M. French, of Giles county, far up New River, in about north latitude 
thirty-seven degrees fifteen minutes, I have received the following: "The 
valley of New River is at an elevation of from two to three thousand feet 
above tide-water. The general aspect of the country is mountainous. The 
soil of the parts which are sufficiently level for cultivation, is rich, productive, 
and peculiarly adapted to the growth of grass. Our climate is dry, but sub- 
ject to great variations. Remittent fever is almost unknown among us; and 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 263 

intermittents are rare occurrences. They happen only in wet seasons, and 
are always mild." By Professor Rogers, of the University of Virginia, whose 
geological survey of that state carried hirn in the region now under conside- 
ration, I have been favored with the following facts : "Along New River, 
from the mouth of Gauley up to the Blue Ridge, I have noticed cases of au- 
tumnal remittent and intermittent fever. These I have observed more com- 
monly in the open districts, as in Monroe and Giles counties, than where the 
river traverses the mountains ; but in no part of this region do they prevail 
as generally as in the Kenawha valley below. The extent of river-terrace or 
bottom-land is not so considerable in this upper valley of the river; but where 
such deposits occur they are covered with a productive soil, well charged with 
organic matter. The same remarks, as to health and soil, apply perhaps 
more strongly to the Clinch, and other streams flowing into the Tennessee 
River." 

It would appear, from these observations, that an elevation of eighteen 
hundred or two thousand feet, in the latitude of thirty-seven or thirty-eight 
degrees north, is not sufficient entirely to prevent autumnal fever in localities 
which contain fertile soil abounding in organic matter. 

VI. Lower Valley of the Kenawha. — From the Great Falls to its 
mouth, the Kenawha gradually widens, and its valley expands from half a 
mile to nearly a mile. The hills which bound it have, in the upper part, 
rather a sharp outline, with an elevation of seven or eight hundred feet ; but 
they gradually sink to two hundred and fifty, and at the same time become 
more gentle. Two lateral valleys, through which Coal and Elk Rivers flow 
into the Kenawha, have the same topographical character with the principal 
valley. Its bottoms, composed of the debris of the coal formation, are, on the 
main, above high-water mark and well cultivated. Near the Ohio, however, 
they are more depressed, and as Doctor Couch and Doctor Shaw, of Point 
Pleasant, at the mouth of the river, informed me, are subject to inundations 
which leave, on receding, ponds and sloughs, abounding in decomposable 
matter. In descending the river early in July, I observed, that when re- 
duced in volume, it becomes a line of pools and rapids. 

The people who live near the mouth of the Kenawha suffer more from 
autumnal fever than those who inhabit the neighboring bottoms of the Ohio. 
Their elevation above the sea is about six hundred feet, or one-third as much 
as the altitude of the mountain localities which have been described. Their 
latitude is a little less than thirty-nine degrees north. Above the estuary of 
the river, up to the Great Falls, the fever is scarcely ever epidemic, and 
malignant cases are almost unknown. 

VII. The Salines. — These extend ten or twelve miles up the valley, 
beginning at Charleston, about fifty miles from the Ohio. The width of the 
valley may be about half a mile ; its course nearly north and south. The 
ranges of hills which bound it on either side rise from five to seven hundred 
feet above the bed of the river; and are composed of the sandstones, shales, 
and coal-beds of the carboniferous formation. The river-terraces are in 
general so high as not to be submerged, except in extraordinary floods. The 



264 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

number of fountains is' great, and they have been created by deep Artesian 
borings, from some of which there is a copious escape of hydrogen gas. As 
the brine is not evaporated by solar, but culinary heat, a vast number of fur- 
naces, supported by bituminous coal, are night and day in blast. Some of 
them, however, are maintained by the combustion of the hydrogen gas which 
rises with the water. The peculiarities of this locality are, first, the escape 
of that, gas into the atmosphere ; second, the development of a great deal of 
caloric ; third, the copious diffusion of the gases generated by the combustion 
of coal ; fourth, the elevation of immense volumes of steam, holding salt in 
solution. Now, what is the effect of all this on the prevalence of autumnal 
fever among the agents and operatives? The answer given by the medical 
gentlemen of the valley is, that those persons are not quite as liable to the 
disease as the people who reside away from the furnaces. The inhabitants 
of Charleston appear to suffer but little from it. 

VIII. The Kenawha Basin, taken as a whole, is too rugged and unpro- 
ductive to admit of a dense population. The inhabitants will be chiefly in 
its narrow valleys and mountain glades. Much of it must forever remain a 
wilderness. 

The Little Kenawha, which joins the Ohio sixty or seventy miles above 
the Great Kenawha, so closely resembles it in geology and topography, that a 
separate description is not necessary. Above the mouth of this river, where 
we find the town of Parkersburg, the left bank of the Ohio presents nothing 
of interest to the etiologist until we reach the old town of Wheeling; which, 
however, I shall describe in connection with the banks of the river above, 
after having first completed the survey of another, and the last hydrographi- 
cal basin south of the Ohio River. 



SECTION XIV. 

BASIN OF THE MONONGAHELA RIVER. 

I. Outline Description. — The Monongahela is the southern of two 
nearly coequal rivers, which unite at Pittsburgh to form the Ohio. Its basin 
lies between that of the Kenawha and that of the Alleghany, north of the 
former and south of the latter. An account of it will finish the description 
of the southern half of the Ohio Basin. 

The Monongahela River is composed of four subordinate streams: First, 
The West Branch, which originates in the south-west, where it interlocks 
with the sources of the Little Kenawha, and of Elk River, a tributary of 
the Great Kenawha. Its course is nearly north-east. Second, The East 
Fork, or Tygart's Valley River, which interlocks, in sources, with the Gauley 
and Greenbrier, and running north unites with the West Branch. Third, 
Cheat River, lying further east, originating on the slopes of Cheat Moun- 
tain, where it is connected with the head of Greenbrier River, whence it 
runs northerly to join the common trunk of the last two branches. Fourth, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 265 

The Youghiogheny, north-east of the Cheat, which flows to the north-west, 
and joins the common trunk below that stream. 

Every part of the Monongahela lies within the coal measures of the Ap- 
palachian carboniferous formation, and it has the distinction of being the 
largest river of the Great Interior Valley that begins and ends within those 
measures. Coal is found in every part of the basin, and the rocks are sand- 
stone, shale, and that limestone which is found within the coal series. 

The surface of this basin is less elevated and rugged than that of the 
Kenawha, yet its south-eastern portion is mountainous, with some cultivable 
valleys and table-lands or glades. The remainder, which has a population 
of considerable density, is characterized by Doctor Hildreth in the following 
terms : * 

"The streams are turbid, and tortuous in their course; and as they de- 
scend to the valley, they become slow in their progress. The springs are 
few and small, and readily affected by the droughts of summer. The hills 
are irregular in their bight, and in their arrangement, but they are generally 
very fertile, covered with a rich argillaceous soil to their very summits, and 
produce a luxuriant vegetation, such as is usually found only on rich allu- 
vions ; they are invariably clothed with forest trees of the most lofty bight." 

Neither the assemblage of small rivers which constitute the Monongahela, 
nor the main trunk itself, can be regarded as alluvial, for their bottoms are 
in general narrow. Some of the tributaries, however, flow for a distance in 
the broad synclinal axes or valleys which lie between mountain ranges, of 
which the following is an example : 

II. Tygart's Yalley. — " One of the most interesting spots in the topo- 
graphy of this region," sa} r s Doctor Hildreth, f "is Tygart's Yalley. It lies 
near the heads of the 'Yalley River,' twenty miles south-east from Clarks- 
burg; Beverly, the county seat of Randolph, lies in this valley. It is 
about seventy miles long, including that portion on Leading Creek, and in 
breadth it varies from one to three. Its boundaries are formed by ranges of 
the Cheat and Laurel Mountains, rising to a great hight, and affording many 
proofs that this valley has once been occupied by a lake. The accumulated 
waters, rising above the elevation of the Laurel range, have here forced a 
passage, and the Yalley River, and Leading Creek, have formed for them- 
selves channels in the bed of this ancient lake. This passage is about three 
miles in length, and from three to four hundred yards in breadth, cut down 
to the base of the mountains. The cliffs of rock on each side are of a 
stupendous hight, not less than one thousand feet, affording a most grand 
and picturesque view, and may not inappropriately be called 'the gates of 
the mountain.' The fissure in the rocks and strata on each side correspond ; 
affording sufficient evidence of their former junction. The rock itself is of 
the coarsest conglomerate sandstone. Additional evidence of this valley 
having formerly been the bed of a lake, is also found in the fossils brought 
up in excavating the earth for wells. * * * The base of the valley 

* Silliman's Journal, loco citato. f Ibid. 



266 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

rises very gradually as it advances toward its head in the Cheat Mountains. 
The river meanders through its whole length with a calm and placid surface. 
Environed by ridges of lofty mountains, and shut out from the strife and 
tumult of the surrounding world, this valley affords, at certain seasons of the 
year, all the natural and picturesque beauties of the fabled valley of John- 
son. Here may be found nearly all the rare and curious shrubs and flow- 
ering trees indigenous to the western country. * * * Numerous water- 
falls and rapids, below the ' gates of the mountain,' give to this sequestered 
spot, by their noisy contrast, a still greater air of tranquillity. In the dis- 
tance of twenty-five miles, the river has a descent of several hundred feet, 
as it passes down the broad plateaus of the mountains into the valleys 
below. Much of this descent is made up of rapids and ripples, but in other 
places it forms perpendicular cascades, and pitches over the sandstone rocks, 
which generally form its bed." 

III. The G-lades of Cheat and Laurel Mountains. — We have already 
noticed the glades around the Gauley Basin. Those which are found in the 
region we are now exploring, belong to the Cheat and Laurel Mountains, 
and are described by Doctor Hildreth as follows : * 

" The whole face of the country becomes elevated, and between the ranges 
of mountains we meet with long but narrow strips of level land, here called 
'glades.' They, in some respects, resemble the prairies of the west, being 
clothed with a scanty growth of forest trees and shrubs, but are composed 
of a rich vegetable soil, well suited to the growth of grain, potatoes, and 
grass, but are too much elevated and subject to late frosts, for the successful 
cultivation of Indian corn. They were, without doubt, once the beds of 
lakes, and have uniformly a stream of water passing through their most de- 
pending portions. The table-lands of Mexico are here represented in minia- 
ture. The glades were once portions of the original bed of the ocean, before 
the mountain ranges were lifted up, or 'brought forth,' — but at that period 
were elevated with the ranges to their present hight. Being surrounded by 
ridges, they, for a long time, remained covered with water, until, by accumu- 
lations from the adjacent highlands, the water forced a passage through 
some less elevated spot, and draining off by degrees the accumulated flood, 
its bed was eventually laid bare, which bed now forms a modern glade." 

IV. Buchanan. — The town bearing this name is situate about the 
thirty-ninth degree of north latitude, on the left or west bank of a small 
river of the same name, which discharges its waters into the East Branch 
of the Monongahela. In its rear, to the west, as I am informed by Mr. 
White, a student of medicine, there is a considerable tract of bottom, which 
is liable to overflows, and continues swampy; yet neither intermittent nor 
remittent fevers occur. 

V. Clarksburg. — This is one of the oldest towns of the Monongahela 
Basin. It is scatteringly built on a small tract of uneven table -land, on the 
left bank of the West Branch of the Monongahela. The stream sinks very 

* Silliman's Journal, loco citato. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 267 

low in summer, lias a rocky bed, and but little side- alluvion. Its elevation 
above the sea is between eight and nine hundred feet. That of the imme- 
diately surrounding hills is about two hundred more. The region in which 
this tov>n is situated is rugged, with narrow valleys, transient streams, no 
swamps or ponds, and but few springs; — the sub-strata are shale and sand- 
stone, with seams of coal and very little limestone. On traversing this region 
from the west, I was told by the people that ague or intermittent fever is 
unknown, or nearly so ; but that every fall they have ' the fever,' by which 
they meant remitting bilious fever, tending to a continued type. In Clarks- 
burg, I conversed with the venerable octogenarian, Doctor Williams, who 
had resided there forty-seven years, and he assured me, that ague and fever 
had never prevailed through that long period, and had scarcely ever occur- 
red sporadically, in the town or its vicinity. Even along the West Branch 
of the Monongahela, he had never seen a case. Every year, however, he had 
witnessed more or less of remittent fever. This representation was con- 
firmed by Doctor McCally, who had also practiced in Clarksburg for many 
years. The agues he had seen were contracted elsewhere ; but remittents 
occurred scatteringly every autumn, on hill and valley alike, and were, now 
and then, moderately epidemic. 

VI. Kixgwood. — From Clarksburg to Kingwood the general course of 
the road is to the north-east. It crosses the East or Tygart's Valley Branch 
of the Monongahela. I found the country dry, the streams transient, and 
the springs neither numerous nor permanent. Between the west and east 
branches of the river, the surface is hnTy, though not more elevated than 
around Clarksburg; but beyond the latter branch, the hills become loftier, and 
the general surface at length rises into low-mountainous. The chief popu- 
lation is in the narrow valleys, where remittent fever occurs to a moderate 
extent ; but intermittent is almost, if not quite, unknown. 

Kingwood, like Clarksburg, is seated on a piece of table-land elevated 
about two hundred feet above Cheat River, which flows a mile and a half 
from it, on the north-east. Beyond the river is Cheat Mountain. The site 
of Kingwood is, by estimate, twelve hundred feet above the sea. The sur- 
rounding country, in its aspects and vegetation, is wild and alpine ; composed 
of carboniferous shales and sandstones, deeply cut into ravines ; and overspread 
with lofty forests, which embrace kalmias, laurels, rhododendrons, pines, and 
chestnuts ; while its cool and darkly embosomed waters abound in speckled 
trout ( Salmo fontinalis), unknown at a lower level, or further west in the 
valley of the Ohio. It is almost unnecessary to say, that in this region ague 
and fever does not occur. All with whom I conversed (including Doctor 
Kidwell and the Hon. Mr. Brown, of Kingwood ), testified to this fact. It 
is, indeed, a popular opinion there, that localities which abound in trout are 
exempt from ague. Mild remittent fevers, however, occur occasionally every 
autumn, in that as well as other parts of the Monongahela Basin, but not to 
the same extent as in its western portions. 

VII. Smytiifield, on the Yougiiiogheny. — This humble village is situate 
on the right bank of the river, where it is crossed by the National Road, near 



268 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the eastern base of the Laurel Mountain. The bottoms of the stream, like 
those along the other branches of the Monongahela, are of limited extent. 
They are less elevated, by two or three hundred feet, than the plateau on 
which Kingwood stands. From Doctor Fetter, who had resided in this loca- 
lity for five years, I learned that he had seen but one case of intermittent 
fever. It occurred on the river bank, a mile below the village. Remittent 
fever is, however, a yearly visitor, and appears on the mountain-flats as 
much as in the valley. Once it assumed an epidemic character, but it has 
generally been sporadic. 

VIII. Lower Basin oe the Monongahela. — The lower portions of this 
valley., and that also of the Youghiogheny River, are no longer mountainous, 
but constitute a hilly and rolling plain, which stretches off to the Ohio River, 
from the base of Laurel Hill, the most western of the Appalachian group. 
Monongahela county, in Virginia, and the counties of Greene and Fayette, 
with large portions of Washington, Westmoreland, and Alleghany, iu the 
state of Pennsylvania, compose the civil divisions of this limited, but 
not unimportant, district, which is, properly, the beginning of cultivable 
country, in coming into the basin of the Ohio from the east. It is 
traversed by the National Road from the foot of Laurel Hill, through 
Uniontown, Brownsville, and Wheeling, to the Ohio. That portion which 
lies near the mountain is more depressed and level than some others. 
In advancing to Brownsville on the Monongahela, the surface seems to 
rise and become more rugged. The river, at Brownsville, is seven hun- 
dred and thirty-six feet above the sea, and the surrounding hills appear to 
be, at least, four hundred more ; giving them an altitude of nearly twelve hun- 
dred feet. Farther west the country rises, almost imperceptibly, to the hight 
of fifteen or sixteen hundred feet, at Hillsboro, and then sinks gradually to 
Wheeling, where it does not exceed eleven hundred feet. The principal 
ravines which have been cut through this district, are those in which the two 
principal rivers approach and unite, the Youghiogheny yielding up its name, 
and contributing, by its waters, to prepare the Monongahela for more equal 
union with the Alleghany, in forming the Ohio River at Pittsburgh. The 
ravines through which" these rivers flow are generally narrow, and compre- 
hend, of course, but little alluvial bottom, — the common character of all the 
streams of the district. A series of locks and dams has produced slack-water 
in the Monongahela, from Pittsburgh to Brownsville; between which the 
difference in level is thirty-two feet. 

Much of this district has a calcareous basis and a fertile soil. Its springs 
are neither numerous nor permanent. It has no swamps, nor any ponds, 
except those produced by mill-dams, or the subsidence of the streams until 
they degenerate into pools connected by feeble currents. Chartier Creek, 
which originates near Washington and flows into the Ohio a little below 
Pittsburgh, has wider alluvions than the Monongahela, and some of them 
show small ponds and sloughs ; on the whole, however, this district may be 
placed among the dryest in the basin of the Ohio. Being one of the oldest- 
settled portions of the basin, its forests have been extensively destroyed. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 269 

My information concerning its liability to autumnal fever is the following. 
At Uniontown, near the base of the mountain, I learned from Doctor H. 
Campbell and Doctor Fuller, that intermittent fever is nearly unknown in 
that part of the district, and that patients coming with it from other locali- 
ties often recover without the use of medicine; but remittent fever occurs 
sporadically every autumn, and in the year 1819, Doctor Campbell saw it 
epidemic. In some cases remissions were distinctly marked, but in others 
they were obscure, and there was a tendency to a continued type. At the 
Fair Chance ironworks of Mr. Oliphant, seven miles south of Uniontown, 
near the base of the mountain, intermittents among the operatives were never 
thought of. At Brownsville, which is built on steep river-hills, that remind 
one of Vicksburg, Doctor Stanley, Doctor Lafferty 3 and Doctor Jones, through 
periods of fourteen, eleven, and four years, had never seen a case of ague and 
fever, until after the construction of locks and dams for slack-water naviga- 
tion created a pool, the head of which was near the town. These cases, ob- 
served by Doctor Stanley, were, however, few in number, and were accompa- 
nied by chills only. Cases of ague from a distance had sometimes proved 
obstinate ; and periodical neuralgias of the brow are not uncommon. Re- 
mittent fever is of annual recurrence here, but not, strictly speaking, epidemic. 
It has frequently shown a tendency to the continued form. In Washington, 
Doctor Lemoine, in a practice of twenty-five years, had seen but five original 
or indigenous cases of intermittent fever, two of which were of the town, in a 
house which had water in the cellar throughout the summer ; the other three 
were near a mill-pond. Doctor Wishart, in the course of a long practice, had 
seen very few cases, except those contracted abroad. Doctor King had seen 
a case, in June, in a man who had sojourned in an aguish locality the preced- 
ing fall, without then having an attack. All these gentlemen testify to the 
annual occurrence of remittent fever, but not as an epidemic, except in the 
neighborhood of some of the streams which abound in ponds. It often 
assumes a typhous character, and never terminates in an intermittent type. 
To this testimony I may add that of Doctor Reed, who, although not in 
practice, had long been an attentive observer in this locality. In the neigh- 
borhood of West Alexandria, between Washington and Wheeling, among the 
sources of Buffalo and Wheeling Creeks, where the surface is tortuously 
rolling and low-hilly, with good springs and without swamps or ponds, Doctor 
Davidson, in a practice of eight years, had never seen a case of ague or inter- 
mittent ; and even remittents appear to be replaced by continued fever ; which 
prevails more in autumn, however, than in other seasons of the year. These 
observations, extending through this district from the mountains to the Ohio 
River, a distance of seventy miles, will be sufficient to show the degree to 
which it is affected by autumnal fever. 

IX. Wheeling. — The course in which we have traveled, has brought us 
back to the Ohio River, at the town of Wheeling. The direction of the 
river at this place is nearly south-west. The town stands on its left bank, 
above high-water mark, on two alluvial terraces — a lower and an upper — 
neither of which is very wide. The lower is composed chiefly of sand and 



270 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

gravel, the upper of sandy loam. These terraces are traversed by Wheeling 
Creek, which divides the town itself into South and North Wheeling. The 
creek originates not far to the south-east, where it interlocks with a tribu- 
tary of the West Branch of the Monongahela. As it approaches the town it 
winds among the hills, has narrow bottoms with high banks, not liable to in- 
undation ; but it receives the back-water of the Ohio when in flood. Immedi- 
ately opposite the town, there is a large island, which is so elevated as to 
admit of being highly cultivated. Beyond this island, the hills press hard 
upon the river, and have an opening or ravine from the west, through which 
Indian Creek makes its way to the river. Thus, Wheeling, for a river town, 
is favorably situated, as to the conditions which generate autumnal fever. 
The elevation of its site is about seven hundred and sixty feet above the sea; 
that of the surrounding hills, not far from eleven hundred. As to ventila- 
tion, it cannot be acted upon with effect, except by winds from the north- 
east, or south-west and west. 

Wheeling, in N. Lat. about 40°, is one of the oldest towns of the Ohio 
Basin ; its population is about ten thousand souls ; it has many factories 
and consumes a vast quantity of sulphuro-bituminous coal, drawn from the 
adjacent hills. 

When Doctor M. H. Houston,* to whom I am indebted for most of these 
particulars, removed to Wheeling, in 1831, and for two years afterward, in- 
termittent and remittent fevers prevailed to a considerable extent, and were 
much commoner on the upper than the lower terrace ; owing, no doubt, to 
the latter having the densest population. After an invasion of epidemic 
cholera, in 1833, these fevers nearly disappeared, and have not since returned, 
except in the mildest degree. When at Jefferson City, Missouri, (p. 168) 
Doctor W. A. Davison, who had practiced medicine in Wheeling from 1837 
to 1840, confirmed this statement, by saying that he found the fevers of au- 
tumn, in his present locality, decidedly more frequent and dangerous than he 
had found them in Wheeling. A comparison of the topography and relative 
ages of the two towns will explain this difference. Doctor Houston is una- 
ble to designate any topographical changes cotemporary with the cholera of 
1833, except a more general paving of the streets, and the substitution of 
hydrant- water for well-water. The same gentleman has noticed that, in 
such portions of the hill-country around Wheeling as have a clay surface 
with a prevalence of oak trees, the fevers of autumn are of a more violent 
character, than in any other part of this locality. 

X. From Wheeling to Pittsburgh. — The distance between these places 
is ninety miles. In ascending from the former to the latter, the voyage, for 
half the distance, is directly north, then north-east, and then, for thirty 
miles, south-east. Thus, a kind of promontory is formed, the surface of 
which is deeply cut with ravines, giving hills, the summits of which are 
about eleven hundred feet above the sea, until we approach Pittsburgh, when 
they rise still higher. As a general fact, there is no marsh and very little 



* MSS. penes me. 



PLXII 




U . 1 T/l, ' Tt - 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 271 

bottom-land in this peninsula, except along the Ohio and the lower portions 
of Chartier Creek, where there are sometimes partial inundations. On the 
upland portions, the exemption from intermittent fever is as great as that of 
the Monongahela Basin from Uniontown to Washington, of which, topo- 
graphically, this tract is a continuation. No important town stands on the 
left bank of the river above Wheeling. The most noted is Wellsbueg. I 
know of nothing peculiar in its topography. Doctor Grafton, with whom 
I met in Millersburg, Kentucky, resided nine years in Wellsburg, during 
which he saw but one case of indigenous ague and fever. Remittent fever 
prevailed to some extent, and in one autumn almost assumed an epidemic 
character ; but other autumns passed without a single case. 



SECTION XV. 

PITTSBURGH AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. 

I. The western metropolis of Pennsylvania belongs equally to the banks 
of the Monongahela and the Alleghany Rivers, as it stands on the promon- 
tory or point of land above the junction by which they form the Ohio 
(PZ. XII). An account of its topography will finish the description of the 
southern half of the Ohio Basin and introduce us to the northern. 

The latitude of this city is 40° 35' N. ; its longitude 80° 14' W. The 
low- water elevation of the adjoining rivers, is seven hundred and four feet 
above the sea, and one hundred and forty above Lake Erie ; the different 
plains or terraces on which the city and its surrounding towns and villages 
are built, vary in elevation from a few feet below high-water, to forty or fifty 
above it. The neighboring hills rise to different hights, up to four hundred 
and sixty-seven feet above the rivers, making the general summit-level of the 
surrounding country about eleven hundred feet above the ocean. An inspec- 
tion of the topographical map ( PI. XII) will afford important aid in the 
study of this locality. 

On the south or left-hand side of the Monongahela River, we see a range 
of steep hills, rising almost from its margin to the hight of four hundred 
and sixty-five feet above low-water. They continue in this proximity for 
several miles below the city; but above it recede, so as to give a tract of 
argillaceous bottom-land, on which the manufacturing town of Birmingham 
has been erected. Most of it rises above the highest floods of the river. In 
front of it, is the first of the series of dams and locks which extend up the 
river to Brownsville. 

For a long period of time the town was limited to the point of land above 
the junction of the rivers, which, as I was informed by Mr. Ichbaum, and 
other old citizens, abounded in ponds and sloughs, now filled up and built 
over. In the rear of the town the hills are near, and soon after reaching 
their summits the observer finds himself in the dry bed of what was once a 
small, shallow lake, tortuously stretching off to the north-east, under the 
name of East Liberty Valley. Its elevation, as I was informed by Edward 



272 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Miller, Esq., Civil Engineer, is one hundred and seventy-five feet above the 
Pittsburgh plain, which would make it about nine hundred and fifty feet above 
the sea. The hills which surround it rise about one hundred and fifty feet 
higher, that is, to the general level of the country. A deep stratum of loam 
with rich soil overspreads the bottom of this obsolete lake ; on which huge 
water-worn bowlders are scattered, indicating the fact, that this locality be- 
longs to a different geological and topographical region from that of the south 
side of the Monongahela River. Before leaving this spot, I may remark, 
that Judge Wilkins, who resides in its midst, assured me that intermittent 
fevers do not occur among its inhabitants, and that remittents are extremely 
rare. This exemption should perhaps be ascribed, in part at least, to the 
great length of time it has been cultivated, for an elevation of nine hundred 
and fifty feet, and a latitude of forty degrees thirty-five minutes, are not 
sufficient to countervail the morbific influence of a fiat and fertile surface, 
abounding (originally) in organic matter, and adequately supplied with 
moisture. 

When we look from the hills to the south of this locality, up the valley of 
the Monongahela, we see a deep ravine, with abrupt and closely- approxima- 
ted hills, in harmony with the general character of the upper portions of the 
Ohio Basin on the south side of the river ; but when we look down, to the 
north and north-west, upon the Alleghany River, we find it meandering 
through broad alluvial and diluvial bottoms, with hills of gentler slope. On 
examining these plains we soon discover that they are not ( like those to the 
south ) composed merely of the disintegrated strata through which the river 
has flowed, but abound in sand, gravel, pebbles, and bowlders, detached from 
rocks of a much older geological date, than the carboniferous, among which 
they are deposited ; and have, like the bowlders in the dried- up little lake 
just described, been transported hither by vast currents from the north. 
Such is the valley which stretches up the Alleghany River from Pittsburgh, 
and through which the Pennsylvania Canal has been excavated. Three 
miles from the city, on the left bank of the Alleghany River, stands the 
United States Arsenal. The bottom over which the road to this military 
post lies, presents some brick-ponds, and is partially overflowed in ordinary 
river floods; but these spots are to the north-east or leeward of the city. 
Captain Harding, who commanded the station, and Doctor Bay, an aged 
army surgeon, assured me, in 1847, that autumnal fevers are almost un- 
known among the soldiers and operatives of the arsenal; and the people of 
the adjoining village of Lawrenceville enjoy, I believe, nearly an equal ex- 
exemption. The road to the arsenal passes over a terminal basin of the 
canal, in the northern suburb of the city. The water in this basin, from the 
absence of an outlet, is stagnant, and foul in appearance; yet, as Doctor 
Addison and Doctor Speer assured me, it has not generated either intermit- 
tent or remittent fevers, in those who reside around it. 

The bottom which has been described, lies on the east or Pittsburgh side of 
the Alleghany River ; but below, a still wider bottom becomes developed on 
the opposite or right side, which continues for three miles down the Ohio. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 273 

This, as may be seen on the map, is the site of Alleghany Town. A narrow 
strip of this bottom lying along the shore, both above and below the junc- 
tion of this river with the Monongahela, is so low as to suffer inundation, 
and displays a foul and wet surface, which, in some places, is pondy, though 
on a small scale. The canal which, by an aqueduct, supplies the basin on 
the opposite side of the river, continues through the upper half of this bot- 
tom, when it discharges its water into the Alleghany. In its rear, there is a 
higher terrace — an old or second bottom — which, like other plains of. 
the same geological age along the Ohio River, abounds in rolled and 
polished fragments of the primitive rocks of the north. This terrace does 
not, however, extend back to the hills, which lie at the distance of nearly 
a mile, but soon declines into a kind of superficial valley, through which 
it is obvious the Alleghany, or a part of its waters, when of much greater 
volume than at present, once flowed to the Ohio, two or three miles below 
its present junction with the Monongahela. Of course this ancient bed is 
not as free from watery surface as that part of the plain which has not been 
thus cut down. 

Immediately below the junction of the Alleghany with the Monongahela, 
near the right-hand shore, there were formerly two islands, the upper strata 
of which have been washed away till they are no longer visible, except when 
the river is low. The surfaces which are there exposed abound in sand. 
Opposite to them, at a short distance from the river, an oval eminence rises 
one hundred feet above the plain, and has been made the site of a public 
theological seminary. It was an island when a part of the Alleghany flowed 
to its north. Its composition is the same as that of the surrounding hills, of 
which it is at once a remnant and a monument. 

A mile below is the village of Manchester, partly built on portions of the 
plain which are, to some extent, liable to submersion when the Ohio is up ; 
and also retain water in shallow ponds, after rain. In proceeding farther 
down the river the higher terrace disappears, and the adjacent hills come 
nearer to the river. The surface of the lower bottom still remains so high 
as to escape all except extraordinary floods ; but a permanent swamp over- 
spreads much of its breadth, and stretches with it along the river, becoming 
wider as it advances. Near the upper end of this swamp the United States 
commercial hospital has been erected. Opposite the swamp is Bruno's 
Island — a part of the bottom cut off from the rest by the current. 

From the junction of the Monongahela and Alleghany, the Ohio or common 
trunk takes a direction nearly north-west, with the hills on the south side 
approaching it closely for several miles from the city. Thus the south and 
south-west winds flow down upon Pittsburgh and its progeny of villages, from 
a terrace four hundred feet above them. When the west and north-west 
winds prevail, they come over the hospital- swamp, and bear its exhalations 
into the towns above ; by which Manchester and the south-western part of 
Alleghany Town suffer much more than Pittsburgh ; which is more remote, 
has the Alleghany River interposed to its windward, and is compactly built, — 
conditions favorable to protection against paludal influences. 
18 



274 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

All the physicians of Pittsburgh and Alleghany Town with whom I con- 
versed, agree in representing that the intermittent fevers of this locality may 
be traced up to the low grounds and the swamp to the west and north-west ; 
being more frequent near them, in proportion to the population, and diminish- 
ing as we recede from them. Doctor Smith, of Alleghany Town, assured me 
that, although there is much wet and foul surface about the termination of 
the canal, it does not seem to produce intermittent fever; so true is it that 
swamp is the prolific source of that form of fever, and that towns have great 
capacity for resisting it. Remittent fever prevails over the same tract with 
intermittent, and also beyond ; for it occurs in Pittsburgh, where intermittents 
are now nearly unknown, and, indeed, seem never to have prevailed to much 
extent. 

While the north-east and north-west winds, traversing the valleys of the 
Alleghany and Ohio Rivers, ventilate Pittsburgh and its villages very effectu- 
ally, the winds of summer, from south-east to south-west, have but little power 
in that way; but, at the same time, they bring less of impure air than they 
carry into any other town on the banks of the Ohio. 

In connection with ventilation, I must refer to the factitious atmosphere, 
generated in this locality by the combustion of stone-coal. Coal-Hill, the 
rampart on the south side of the Monongahela, abounds in strata of the very 
best bituminous coal, in horizontal beds, above the level of the city and its 
faubourgs. To this, in a great degree, may be ascribed the establishment 
of factories requiring fuel, for which this place has become so famous. Of 
their number it is neither possible nor necessary for me to speak ; but the 
quantity of bituminous coal consumed in this locality is greater, I suppose, 
than in any other on the continent. The amount, as I am informed by Doctor 
Denny, is estimated at ten millions of bushels annually. As yet, very little 
of the smoke arising from these fires is consumed, and consequently it escapes 
in immense volumes, carrying into the atmosphere its carbonaceous matter, 
carbonic acid, carburetted hydrogen, and perhaps sulphurous acid, all of 
which hover over the city and its environs the longer, from the obstacles to 
free ventilation which the surrounding hills oppose. 

As in other towns of the West, through the early periods of settlement, the 
people of Pittsburgh, previous to the year 1827, drank well-water; since that 
time they have drunk the water of Alleghany River, supplied through a 
system of hydrants. To this time, however, the inhabitants of Alleghany 
Town, nineteen thousand in number, and those of the other faubourgs, use 
well-water chiefly. 

Pittsburgh is the oldest Anglo-American town in the basin of the Ohio. 
In 1754, the French from Canada built Fort du Ques?ie, at the junction of 
the two rivers which form the Ohio. In 1758, they were expelled by the 
colonists, and the name was changed to Fort Pitt. In 1760, the buildings 
for residence were commenced; and in 1765, a town-plot was surveyed. 
The present population of the city and its suburban towns and villages is 
estimated, as Doctor Denny informs me, at eighty-five thousand, of which a 
plurality, I believe, are Irish, either by birth or extraction. 



fart i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 275 



CHAPTER X. 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED. 



MEDICAL TOPOGRAPHY OF THE REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSIS- 
SIPPI: BASIN OF THE OHIO ON THE NORTHERN SIDE OF THE 
RIVER. 



SECTION I. 

BASIN OF THE ALLEGHANY RIVER. 
I. A line drawn through the center of this basin, from Pittsburgh to the 
middle sources of the Alleghany River, would run •foout north north-east, 
traversing two degrees of latitude, and ascending through seven hundred 
feet of altitude, from low-water mark at Pittsburgh. In many places the 
immediate valley expands into broad alluvial and diluvial bottoms, abound- 
ing in the debris of primitive northern rocks, but in other places wild and 
rugged hills compress it on both sides. The country west of the river bears 
considerable resemblance, in aspects and altitude, to that west of the 
Monongahela, but is more broken. To the east of the Alleghany it has a 
sharper and loftier hilliness, which graduates into the Chestnut Ridge, and 
other outer ranges of the Appalachian Mountains ; though the elevation 
attained is nowhere as great as that of the region in which the Cheat River 
branch of the Monongahela has its origin. All the large tributaries of the 
Alleghany, except French Creek, are found on its eastern side. The shorter 
descend from the western slopes of Chestnut Ridge ; others originate in the 
valley between it and Laurel Hill; while some have their sources beyond 
the latter, in the western escarpments of the Alleghany range, and cut 
through both the other ridges. Of this kind is the Kiskiminitas or Cone- 
maugh, which enters the Alleghany thirty miles from Pittsburgh, and by its 
valley affords a passage for the Pennsylvania Canal through both the Chest- 
nut Ridge and Laurel Hill — as the valley of the Youghiogheny is expected 
to afford a way through the same for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. 
These hydrographical facts show that Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill are not 
boundary mountains of our Great Valley, but are really included in it. Its 
true limits are, in fact, the Alleghany Ridge in Pennsylvania and northern 
Virginia, while in the southern part of the latter state, and in North Caro- 
lina, the Blue Ridge is its actual terminus or rim. The medical etiologist of 



276 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i . 

the Interior Valley Las, then, within his own jurisdiction, a broad alpine 
region, running through eight degrees of latitude, with a mean elevation of 
fifteen hundred feet above the bed and banks of the Mississippi, to which it 
is parallel; and the time will come when a comparison of the two belts, in 
the physiology and diseases of their inhabitants, will be regarded as a work 
of deep interest. Unable to visit any part of the region lying between the 
Alleghany River and the Alleghany Mountain- crest, or to meet with publi- 
cations illustrating its medical topography or diseases, I must content my- 
self, at this time, with indicating it to others, as a field comparatively unex- 
plored by the physician. Of the other, or western side of the Alleghany 
Basin, I can say something from personal observation and inquiry. 

II. From Pittsburgh to Franklin, at the mouth of French Creek, the 
road, running nearly north, passes over a country of ridges with occasional 
plateaus. The streams have more of interval or bottom-land than those of 
the Monongahela Basin. The general elevation of the country is about the 
same as around Pittsburgh. The whole distance is within the carboniferous 
formation, but the seams of coal are thin, for the margin of the formation 
lies but a little further north. From Doctor Dewolfe and Doctor McJun- 
kin, of the town of Butler, thirty miles from Pittsburgh, I learned that, 
although intermittent fever is almost, if not absolutely, unknown in the 
town ( notwithstanding there is a stream and mill-pond close to it on the 
south-east ), still there are parts of the country in which that disease occurs 
in a much more decided manner. Remittent fever is not uncommon, and 
often shows a leaning toward a continued type. 

III. Franklin. — The site of this town, once the place of a French mili- 
tary post, is a beautiful diluvial terrace, at the junction of French Creek 
with the Alleghany River, on the south or right-hand side of the former, and 
more in connection with it than with the latter. The plain is extensive 
enough for a large town, and neither subject to inundation nor infested with 
swamps. Its elevation above the sea cannot vary much from eleven hundred 
feet, nor that of the surrounding hills from four hundred more, making 
their general level fifteen hundred feet. French Creek flows down an allu- 
vial and diluvial valley, which, at an ancient geological period, conveyed a 
large river. Several years since it was locked and dammed, the effect of 
which on the autumnal health of the inhabitants was bad. From Doctor 
G-illet I learned that intermittent fever, generally of a tertian type, prevails 
in this valley every year ; commonly mild, but sometimes accompanied with 
protracted coldness and reluctant reaction. It does not extend to the pla- 
teaus of the hills. Remittent fever is less common, and often terminates in 
the other variety, instead of a typhous condition. In the last week of July, 
I was shown cases of intermittent fever by Doctor Gillet. 

IV. Warren. — Up the Alleghany for seven miles, to the mouth of Oil 
Creek, the river is closely compressed by the hills. Oil Creek flows through 
a broad valley. At its mouth the road ascends high and barren hills of 
conglomerate, the rock which underlies the coal basin, — from which we have 
now escaped, after having repeatedly entered and traversed it, from the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 277 

Tennessee River, in the thirty-fourth degree of north latitude. From the 
summits of this out- crop, the elevation of which cannot be less than seven- 
teen hundred feet, we gradually descend, over plateaus and ridges, into the 
valley of the Alleghany, which, from this point, for a great distance down 
( as I was told ), is very narrow, the river struggling through a labyrinth of 
hills, covered with pine, hemlock, and chestnut. Ascending the valley from 
this point, it continues narrow for several miles, when we approach the 
mouth of the stream called Broken Straw, where it becomes as broad as that 
of the Ohio. The elevation of this alluvial plain is eleven hundred and 
sixty- seven feet above the sea.* On passing this spot, the bottom contracts 
a little for six miles, when we reach the town of Warren, on the right or west 
bank of the river, in latitude forty-one degrees fifty minutes north, at an ele- 
vation of eleven hundred and eighty-five feet ;f the conglomerate and sand- 
stone hills around, attaining, by estimate, the altitude of sixteen or seventeen 
hundred feet. These hills, in every direction, are destitute of a single stratum 
of limestone, and the water which they supply is soft. Warren is situated on a 
beautiful semi-lunar bend of the river, within which, on the opposite side from 
the town, there is a low, broad, wooded bottom, subject to inundation. The 
site of the town is a diluvial terrace, elevated above high-water mark of the 
river; but having some portions of its back part swaley, from springs which 
burst out of the adjoining hill. Immediately above the town, the outlet of 
Chautauque Lake, called Conewango Creek, joins the river from the north. 
The water of both streams is dark- colored, a sign of its having flowed 
through or from tamarack swamps. Near their junction, there are patches 
of bottom, which are overflowed by the freshets of the Alleghany. Warren, 
the most beautiful of all the mountain villages, is one of the emporia of the 
pine-lumber trade. As to intermittent fever, Doctor Sargent and Doctor 
Irvine assured me that it is nearly unknown ; nor does it occur on the broad 
bottom at the mouth of Broken Straw. Remittent fever prevails to a lim- 
ited extent only. In a population of twelve hundred, there are, in sOme au- 
tumns, four cases at one time. They are so mild and manageable, that 
neither of the gentlemen had seen a fatal case for twelve years. Nor is it 
replaced by typhus fever, which is quite as rare as the remittent. It is not 
easy to assign a reason for the very different prevalence of intermittent 
fever at Franklin and this place. 

V. Conewango Creek and Chatjtauque Lake. — In ascending the 
Conewango, which is but a mill-stream, its valley is seen to be as wide 
or wider than that of the Ohio, abounding in diluvial terraces of various 
elevations, and composed largely of pebbles and bowlders, many of which are 
granite, and have been transported thither from the north. For the first 
nine or ten miles the stream has a rapid fall. Then, suddenly, the valley 
widens to three times its previous breadth ; the rapid creek becomes a deep 
and sluggish canal; broad, low, flat, and fertile bottoms spread out; and the 
adjacent hills exchange their rugged aspect for one of gentle rotundity, and, 

* Reports on the Erie and Sunbury Railroad. By Ed. Miller, Civil Engineer, 
t Ibid. 



278 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

losing their oaks, and chestnuts, and whortleberries, present groves of sugar- 
maple, walnut, "beech, and other trees of a like kind, with which white pines, 
as lofty and abundant as on the poorer soils, are strikingly blended. This 
remarkable transformation of surface and scenery discloses two facts : — First, 
That we have passed through the final out- crop of the conglomerate, and 
come upon the Devonian sandstone and slate, which have emerged from be- 
neath ; Second, That we are in the bed of an obsolete or drained lake, which 
was once connected with Chautauque Lake, but at a little lower level. 
Through this dry lacustrine bed, the Conewango, which at times overflows 
portions of it, has an extensive meandering and circuitous course, in sight 
of which the road is continued over a series of high diluvial terraces and 
low slate ridges, until it reaches Jamestown, in the state of New York, at 
the eastern end of Chautauque Lake. The whole distance from Warren to 
this place is twenty miles, and the dividing line between Pennsylvania and 
New York crosses nearly equi- distant between them. 

I have spoken of the Conewango as an outlet of Chautauque Lake ; but 
it has an independent existence, and originates to the north-east of that 
lake, above the latitude of forty-two degrees, whence it descends into the 
obsolete lake-bed, and unites with the outlet of Chautauque Lake. The bot- 
tom-lands of this large creek and its tributaries, before it reaches that 
locality, are broad and depressed, covered with hemlock, and subject to 
inundation. They bear, in fact, a close resemblance to the wide, low, and 
wet interval lands of many of the smaller streams in the cretaceous and 
tertiary formations of Alabama and Mississippi, near which, as we have seen, 
autumnal fevers of the most malignant character are generated. 

Chautauque Lake is twenty miles long, and from one to three or four 
broad. Its figure is serpentine ; its western extremity reaches within fifteen 
or twenty miles of Lake Erie ; the country around it slopes beautifully down 
to its margin ; in some places terminating in a bluff bank, in others sinking 
to the level of the lake before reaching it, and thus creating swamps, into 
which rivulets discharge their waters, and on which those of the lake are 
sometimes blown. On a small stream called Goose Creek, which meanders 
through one of these swamps, I saw a mill-dam with a pond of the foul- 
est aspect. The altitude of this little lake is twelve hundred and 
ninety feet above the level of the sea, and seven hundred and twenty-five 
above Lake Erie, although so near it. The average hight of the surround- 
ing ridge-summits, is estimated by Doctor Hazeltine, who resides upon one 
of them to the south of the lake, at two hundred and sixty more, or fifteen 
hundred and fifty above the sea; which may be taken as the summit-level of 
the long belt of rolling table-land that stretches from a point considerably 
east of Chautauque Lake to an undefined termination far west; resting on 
the Devonian sandstone and slate, as on a broad terrace ; and constituting, 
beyond comparison, the most interesting region to be found at the same ele- 
vation east of the Mississippi ; with the sources of which river it corres- 
ponds in elevation. It is worthy of remark, that bowlders of granite of 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 279 

great size, as well as deposits of rolled pebbles, are found in the superficial 
valleys, and even on the highest ridges of this table. 

Jamestown, on the left-hand bank of the outlet of the lake, is built on 
the gentle slope of a low hill, and is free from any contiguous swamp, ex- 
cept some small tracts produced by a mill-dam near the town. The settle- 
ment of this place began in 1815. Its population is about two thousand. 

VI. Let us now turn to the autumnal health of this extensive and inter- 
esting locality. At a corresponding elevation among the waters of the 
Kenawha and Monongahela, we found neither lakes, ponds, swamps, nor allu- 
vial bottoms, of any considerable extent, and could not, therefore, ascribe 
the limited prevalence of autumnal fever there to mere elevation ; here, how- 
ever, we have the whole of these surface-conditions in latitudes the same 
with regions lying to the west, which are seven or eight hundred feet below 
this locality ; which regions, as we shall hereafter see, are greatly infested 
with autumnal fever. The difference, then, between this spot and others 
west of it, in regard to autumnal fever, can be ascribed only to difference in 
elevation. Let us inquire how great this difference is. From Doctor Hazel- 
tine, who came hither at the commencement of settlement, I learned that, 
for the first three years of his residence, he did not see a case of intermit- 
tent fever. The disease then made its appearance, and prevailed moderately 
for three years, and then began to decline. The type was mostly double 
tertian. Other diseases during that period displayed something of a period- 
ical character, and several enlarged spleens fell under his notice. Through 
the same period, remittents occurred, and were prone to end in agues. 
They, also, became fewer, pari passu with intermittents, and for several 
years he had not seen a case of either. He lived in Jamestown, but his 
observations were extended over the whole locality. 

From Doctor Elderkin, who has long resided on the margin of the Groose- 
Creek swamp, near the mill-pond which has been mentioned, I learned that 
occasional cases of both intermittent and remittent fever occur in their 
vicinity ; but neither disease has ever prevailed in that locality, although so 
well-fitted, topographically, to produce them; and in latter years their occur- 
rence has become still rarer. 

By Doctor Axtell, who had resided for twenty years in the obsolete lake- 
bed south of Jamestown, and practiced medicine there for the last five years, 
I was informed that, throughout the whole period, he had scarcely heard of a 
single intermittent. All that he had seen, amounting only to three or four, 
had been contracted elsewhere. Remittent fever occurs, but with great 
rarity. 

These various statements were strengthened by the observations of Doctor 
Hazeltine, junior, and of gentlemen out of the profession, as communicated 
to me on the spot. The Conewango and its branches, before that stream 
enters the obsolete lake-bed which has been described, flow through wide 
alluvial lands, abounding in hemlock swamps. In one of these valleys, that 
of the Little Conewango, stands the village of Randolph, fifteen or eighteen 
miles north-east of Jamestown ; at which, I was assured, they never have 



280 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

either intermittent or remittent fever. Nearly forty miles farther to the north- 
east, in latitude about 42° 20', at Ellicottville, on the banks of Great Valley 
Creek, a tributary of the Alleghany, the elevation being about fourteen hun- 
dred feet, I was assured by Doctor Williams, who had resided there nine- 
teen years, that intermittent and remittent fevers are unknown ; and Doc- 
tor Stanton, after a shorter residence, confirmed the statement, except that 
he had. seen what turned out to be continued fevers, commence with obscure 
remissions. 

We find, then, that in the latitude of 42° N., the topographical condi- 
tions which originate autumnal fever, are nearly overcome by a mean alti- 
tude of fourteen hundred feet; but we have previously seen that, in the 
basin of the Kenawha, among the mountains of Virginia, at an elevation of 
eighteen hundred feet, Professor Rogers saw many cases of intermittent 
fever. This is to be ascribed to the difference of latitude, that locality 
being about four degrees farther south than the table-land in the vicinity 
of Chautauque Lake. 

VII. French Creek. — The extreme sources of French Creek are hard 
by Chautauque Lake, on the rolling table-land just described, and also within 
a few miles of Lake Erie. Its course is first to the south-west, and then to 
the south-east, and the town of Meadville is included in the bend thus formed. 
Its eastern tributaries interlock with those of the Broken Straw and of Oil 
Creek, before mentioned as affluents of the Alleghany, which they join be- 
tween Franklin and Warren. The elevation of this little region is about 
fifteen hundred feet ; and many of the summits present extensive tamarack 
swamps,* but of its liability to autumnal fever I cannot speak. As French 
Creek descends from this elevation, passing near Waterford, the old French 
post of Le Bceuf, it appears like a dull, dark canal, meandering through wide 
interval lands, abounding in hemlock swamps, and in many places overspread 
with drift and bowlders from the north. The adjacent rounded hills are 
composed, like those near Chautauque Lake, of Devonian slate and sandstone. 
With this character it continues to Meadville. From that town down to 
Franklin, at its junction with the Alleghany, the valley of this creek presents 
wide alluvial bottoms, but the people living on them were generally exempt 
from autumnal fever: in the language of Doctor Ellis, that disease was 
scarcely known. During the years 1832, 1833, and 1834, however, the 
series of locks and clams already mentioned under the head of ' Franklin,' was 
constructed, converting the river into pools as far up as Meadville. The 
( apparent ) effect of this proceeding was the generation of intermittents and 
remittents, and their annual prevalence to such an extent, along the whole 
line of pools, that in 1843, the inhabitants destroyed all the dams. But the 
autumnal sickness continued to recur, and in 1844 spread on the neighbor- 
ing hills, many cases presenting a congestive or malignant character. In 
1845 and 1846 a similar state of things returned; but in 1847, the year of 
my visiting this locality, the fever was replaced by dysentery ; many cases of 

* Report on Erie and Sunbury Railroad. By E. Miller, Civil Engineer. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 281 

which, however, demanded the same treatment as intermittent fever. The 
average hight of this valley is about eleven hundred feet above the sea — 
its latitude 41° 30' N. According to Doctor Ellis, in the valley of French 
Creek, above Meadville, where locks and clams were not erected, and both 
the elevation and latitude are something higher, autumnal fever scarcely 
occurs. 

VIII. Meadville. — This is the most noted town within the basin of 
AJleghany River. It stands chiefly on a low, flat, left-hand bottom of French 
Creek, but has also extended upon a higher diluvial plain. A small stream 
traverses the lower terrace. Two or three miles above the town French Creek 
has been dammed, and a canal, supplied from the pond thus created, passes 
through the town, and is afterward, by a great detour to the west, made to 
terminate in Conneaut Lake, of which an account will be given presently. In 
summer and autumn nearly .all the water of French Creek passes along this 
canal, so that its bed, immediately to the south-west or windward of the town, 
would be nearly dry, but that a tributary enters from the west, below the 
dam. The elevation of the lower part of the town site is eleven hundred and 
forty-five feet ; that of the surrounding hills ( composed of Devonian slate 
and sandstone, capped with conglomerate ) is, on an average, four hundred 
and fifty-five feet higher, making their altitude above the sea sixteen hundred 
feet.* Its latitude is about 41° 40' N. As to autumnal fever, I was 
assured by Doctor Ellis and Doctor Yates, who had resided in the town 
nearly twenty years, that intermittent fever was almost unknown until after 
the excavation of the canal which passes through it. The water was let 
into it from the dam above the town, and suffered to stagnate in it, for the 
canal was not used. Then it was that the fever began to make its appear- 
ance, and has continued to return annually ever since. 

We have seen, in Sec. VIII, of Ch. IX, that the erection of locks and dams 
on the upper part of the Kentucky River, although three degrees farther 
south, and six hundred feet nearer the level of the sea, was not followed by 
an increase, but a diminution of autumnal fever. To what shall the differ- 
ence of effect be ascribed? I know of nothing but the comparative topo- 
graphy of the two valleys. The upper Kentucky River flows through a 
rocky trough, with deep shore-waters, and margins generally free from 
organic matter; but French Creek runs in a broad alluvial valley, many 
parts of which were doubtless overspread with sheets of shallow water 
resting on a soil abounding in decomposable materials. 



* Rogers's Third Annual Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania. 



282 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION II. 

BASIN OF BEAVER RIVER — CONNEAUT LAKE — BEAVER AND ERIE 

CANAL. 

I. General Description — The region designated by these titles, lies 
west of the Alleghany Basin, in Pennsylvania, and east of the Muskingum 
Basin, in Ohio. It brings us upon a lower and leveler surface; which is, in 
fact, a continuation on the north side of the Ohio, of the region between 
Brownsville and Wheeling. The eastern portions of this basin have a hill- 
elevation on the Ohio Biver in the south, of twelve hundred feet, rising gra- 
dually, as we go back, to fifteen hundred, but declining to eleven hundred, and 
even one thousand, as we pass to the west from Butler and Crawford counties, 
Pennsylvania, into Trumbull county, Ohio. The water-levels of the canal 
and principal branches of the Beaver, rise from seven hundred to eleven hun- 
dred feet.* We shall see that these details make a necessary element of the 
medical topography of this region. East of Beaver Biver, the more elevated 
surface is rugged ; west of that river it becomes much leveler, and presents 
us with the eastern extremity or commencement of a flat water- shed, which 
extends westwardly ( gradually becoming lower ) until it reaches the sources 
of the streams which flow into the Mississippi. 

The Beaver, and its great elementary branches Shenango and Mahoning, 
flow through wide valleys which abound in alluvial and diluvial terraces. 
Many of them originate in extensive swamps, which impart a dark color to 
their water, and large tracts of bottom-land, annually overflowed, are left 
with sloughs and shallow ponds. Autumnal fever prevails throughout. 

II. Canals and Conneaut Lake. — A canal ascends the Beaver Yalley, 
from its junction with that of the Ohio, thirty miles below Pittsburgh, to the 
town of New Castle, about thirty miles up, where the Mahoning, the She- 
nango, and the smaller Neshanock unite. The common trunk there bifur- 
cates ; and while the western branch passes up the Mahoning for Cleveland, 
the other continues up the Shenango, directly north, to the town of Erie. On 
its way it passes hard by the western end of Conneaut Lake, which is on the 
summit-level, and supplies both extremities of the canal with water. Of the 
damming-up the outlet of this lake, and the introduction of water by a feeder 
from above Meadville, I have spoken in the last Section. This proceeding, 
as Doctor Ellis informed me, raised the surface of the lake eleven feet, and 
caused the overflow of its banks with shallow water to the extent of several 
thousand acres ; much of which, in summer and autumn, when the streams 
supplying the lake were low, was laid bare by the drawing off to supply the 
canal. At the same time, the water in the broad alluvial outlet of the lake 
became stagnant, from the arrest, by the dam, of the current into it. In 
addition to this, near the south-west portion of the lake, there was a tree- 
swamp through which the Shenango passes, and a dam was thrown across 
both the stream and the lower or south end of the swamp, the trees on which 

* Pennsylvania and Ohio Geological Reports. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 283 

were cut down. In this way a shallow supplementary reservoir was 
created. 

The effects of this breaking-up of the natural relations- between the land 
and water, were of the most disastrous kind, and by no means limited to the 
inhabitants living near the margins of the water, but were felt for several 
miles off, in all directions. They were, however, much worse on its shores 
than at a distance. In visiting this locality with Doctor Ellis, we came to 
the village of Evansburg, near the dam at the head of the natural outlet of 
the lake, and found it literally depopulated. But two or three persons were 
seen in its streets. In continuing our drive beyond, we passed through the 
midst of deserted plantations ; where, previously, as in the village, the in- 
habitants had enjoyed good autumnal health. AVhen we reached Hartstown 
a village on the Shenango, at the other dam, Doctor White confirmed all that 
I had been told, and added many details concerning the sickness of that part 
of this locality. While there I met with Doctor Bardwell, of Harmansburg, 
a village on the canal near the north-west extremity of the lake, who gave me 
a similar account; and has since, by letter, added, that the fevers and dysen- 
teries of summer and autumn had been rendered most malignant ; being 
accompanied by sloughing or gangrenous ulcers, hemorrhages, and a fatal 
sinking of the vital powers. He could not decide which had been most per- 
nicious, the shallow inundation of dry land, or the draining of swamp-surface 
into the canal, which had taken place in some parts of this devoted locality; 
which, it is proper to add, lies in north latitude 40° 35', and has an 
elevation above the sea of eleven hundred feet. 

III. Mercer. — Thirty miles south of Meadville and Conneaut Lake, 
stands the town of Mercer, on hill land, where the Neshanock has its 
sources, and whence it flows to the south-west, and joins the Shenango, at 
New Castle. From the valley of this stream, which makes its way through 
strata of crumbling shale and soft sandstone, within the coal basin (into 
which we have returned), there arise exhalations, which generate many 
cases of autumnal fever, both in and around the town. Doctor Magoffin, 
long resident there, has been accustomed to meet with malignant intermit- 
tents, and has seen dysentery, palpitatio cordis, and cephalalgia assume a 
distinctly periodical character. 

IV." Pulaski. — This village is seated on the left bank of the Shenango, 
which has alluvial bottoms. The canal passes through it, and there is, also, 
a dam across the river, creating a pond of remarkably black water. Doctor 
Wood, who came to the village in its infancy, thirteen years before my visit, 
informed me, in 1847, that for several years intermittents were unknown. 
The public works, which I have mentioned, were then constructed, and inter- 
mittents began to appear, and have spread over the adjoining hills. Mr. 
McGuffey, who resides a mile above the village, on the west or windward 
side of the mill-pond, informed me, that his family occupied that spot for 
thirteen years before a case of intermittent fever appeared among them, and 
it then began in the spring of the year. 

V. New Castle. — From Pulaski to New Castle, ten miles, the broad 



284 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [eook i. 

alluvial and diluvial valley of the Shenango has, in latter years, become in- 
fested With intermittents. The canal has caused an overflow of many low 
spots. New Castle stands on a dry plain, at the junction of the Shenango 
and Neshanock. Doctor Cossitt and Doctor Gamble informed me that 
intermittents had greatly increased in latter years. 

From these various testimonies it would appear, that the excavation of the 
Beaver and Erie Canal has been productive of much injury to the health of 
the inhabitants. 



SECTION III. 

BASIN OF THE MUSKINGUM RIVER. 

I. Transition from Beaver to Muskingum Kiver. — Although the 
sources of these rivers interlock, on the summit-level between the Ohio 
River and Lake Erie, their mouths are one hundred and fifty miles apart. 
Through that distance the course of the Ohio is south south-west. Its bot- 
toms are of the ordinary breadth and elevation for the upper part of the 
river, and do not merit further notice. On one of them stands the town of 
Steubenville, of which I am not able to say anything. The adjacent zone 
of upland demands a more extended notice. It is very narrow, for the 
Muskingum River presses it on the west. The counties which are compre- 
hended in it, are Columbiana, Jefferson, Harrison, Belmont, Monroe, and 
part of Washington; all in the state of Ohio. In topographical features 
this zone is an extension of the western part of the lower basin of the 
Monongahela River, in Pennsylvania and Virginia. The town of Wheeling- 
lies nearly opposite its middle. Most of its streams flow into the Ohio ; 
but the western part of each county, except Jefferson, gives origin to creeks, 
which, taking a western direction, with a sluggish current, become tributary 
to the Muskingum. They are flush in rainy weather, but dry up, or fall 
very low, in summer and autumn. Those of Columbiana county are the 
most permanent. The springs are sufficiently numerous, and tolerably dura- 
ble, but never copious; they commonly burst out above or below the coal 
seams. There are no ponds or swamps, and the bottom-lands are, in the 
main, too narrow and destitute of alluvion to exert much sinister influence. 
On the whole, this long narrow belt is one of the dryest in the Ohio Basin. 
Its surface is everywhere rolling or steep-hilly, with an average summit-ele- 
vation of eleven hundred feet ; while some parts of Belmont county rise to 
the altitude of twelve hundred and eighty-four feet, and are, therefore, 
among the highest in the state of Ohio. 

Doctor Thomas Carroll, to whom I am indebted for much of this informa- 
tion, and who practiced his profession for seventeen years in this district, 
and has written on its topography and diseases,* informs me, that in the 
whole time he did not see more than four or five cases of intermittent fever ; 

* Western Journal, Louisville, January, 1842. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 285 

and those, he thinks, were contracted elsewhere. Remittents, however, are 
not so rare, and often assume a typhous character. In his paper he re- 
marks : " Take the country for twenty miles west of the Ohio, and extend- 
ing from the Pennsylvania line to Marietta, and, I apprehend, no district 
between it and the Mississippi, has so great an exemption from these fevers ; 
and no country could be much better calculated to restore to perfect health 
constitutions partially, broken down by remitting and intermitting fevers." 
It is interesting and instructive to note this autumnal salubrity, in connection 
with dryness and elevation of surface. The mean latitude of the locality is 
39° 30' N., in which parallel, at a lower level, and with a different kind of 
surface, intermittent and remittent fevers prevail, in a very decided degree 
as they also do along Beaver River and its branches, up to Conneaut Lake, 
a degree further north. 

II. The Muskingum Valley up to Zanesville. — From Doctor Hil- 
dreth, of Marietta, I have received the following notices of the topography 
of the lower part of the Muskingum Basin. " The river from its falls, at 
Zanesville, passes nearly south-east, through a hilly region. In some places, 
its shores rest against the foot of the hills, or approach so near, that there 
is between them but a narrow strip of alluvion. In others, the bottoms ex- 
pand to the width of half a mile, but, on the whole, are much narrower than 
along the upper portions of the river. The back parts of most of these 
bottoms are lower than the front, and in many places, covered with water 
from the spring rains, or the river freshets, by which marshes and ponds are 
left through summer and autumn. In the progress of settlement many of 
these tracts have been ditched and drained, whereby a great diminution of 
intermittent and remittent fever has been effected. 

" The whole of this portion of the river has been subjected to slack- water 
improvements, on the effects of which I have made the following observa- 
tions. Where the banks are high and bold, the autumnal health of their 
inhabitants has been improved. The heads of islands and sand-bars, which, 
formerly, were exposed to the action of the sun, as the river fell in August 
and September, are now kept covered with water. Where the banks are 
low, and the back parts of the bottoms swaley, the keeping up of the sur- 
face of the river, by the dams, prevents the surface-water from flowing off 
after the rains of spring; and remaining to be slowly evaporated during the 
hot weather, the people are made more sickly. On the whole, however, the 
dams have done more good than harm to the health of the inhabitants. It 
has not been observed, that those who live near the dams, over which the 
water falls, are more unhealthy than those who live between them, which is 
contrary to what was the popular opinion. The inhabitants of the hills, 
only a few miles from the river, are never affected with intermittents, unless 
they sojourn on the bottoms. As to the geology of the lower part of the 
basin, from Marietta for some distance up, the hills are composed of soft 
argillaceous sandstone, of the coal formation, and the bottoms in a great de- 
gree of their detritus. Beyond this, we come to an out-crop of limestone 
from the south, which stretches off east and west, in its line of bearing, 



286 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

with a width of twenty or thirty miles. This rock gives a very different 
character to the hills, which, instead of being clothed with oak timber like 
those of the sandstone formation, produce sugar-tree, beech, poplar, and 
other trees and shrubs, similar to those which are found on the bottoms." 

The lower or southern part of the Muskingum Basin is uncommonly nar- 
row, as it is encroached upon by the Ohio to the east, and Hocking River to 
the west. 

III. Upper Muskingum Basin. — Immediately above Zanesville, this 
basin spreads out to the east and west, until it becomes broader than any 
other in the state of Ohio; and is watered by many beautiful streams, which 
flow through wide alluvial and diluvial bottoms, abounding in organic mat- 
ter. The largest of these streams are the Licking, which enters the Mus- 
kingum on its west side opposite Zanesville, and the Walhonding and Tusca- 
rawas, which, by their union at Coshocton, form the Muskingum. The two 
latter originate on the table-land which divides the waters of the Ohio from 
those of Lake Erie, about north latitude forty-one degrees. This table-land 
may be regarded as a continuation, at a lower level, of the table-land around 
Chautauque Lake, at the sources of the Alleghany River, in New York. 
This portion of the Muskingum Basin lies north of the coal formation, on 
Devonian slate and sandstone, and has a general elevation of one thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. It contains many ponds or small lakes, and 
numerous cranberry swamps, some of which are of great extent. 

The diluvial deposits, consisting of matters brought by ancient currents 
from the north, are in this region very broad, and not confined to the valleys 
( which near the sources of the streams are shallow ), but bury up much of 
the Devonian or sub -carboniferous strata of the uplands. In entering this 
region, we arrive, distinctly, at the prairies, which, as we shall hereafter see, 
stretch westwardly to the Mississippi River, becoming greater in extent, 
proportionally to the woodland, as we advance. The whole of the upper 
Muskingum Basin is not level. The greatest flatness of surface is found in 
the northern range of counties — Stark, Wayne, and Richland. South of 
these, as we approach the conglomerate which underlies the coal, the country 
becomes broken, and swales and marshes are fewer in number ; the streams, 
however, continue to flow through wide bottoms, which in many places are 
liable to inundation. As a general fact, it may be stated, that intermittents 
and remittents prevail over every part of the upper basin. 

After these general views, we must bestow some attention on a few 
localities. 

IV. Ohio and Erie Canal. — This canal, which passes from Cleveland, 
on Lake Erie, to Portsmouth, on the Ohio River, enters the upper Muskin- 
gum Basin, at the sources of the Tuscarawas, in the north, and passes out 
to the south, after traversing the valley of Licking. As it was excavated 
between 1825 and 1830, it is not practicable, at this late period, to ascertain 
the modifications of autumnal health which attended or followed that opera- 
tion ; and, as it has been carried along streams, through alluvial grounds, its 
present influence is so mixed up with theirs, as to defy analysis. As to the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 287 

health of the boatmen, I was assured by a number, that they are less sub- 
ject to autumnal fever than the people who reside on the banks of the canal. 
Their statements seemed to be made in good faith ; and if we admit the fact, 
we may conjecture, that the watery surface over which they constantly live 
exerts a protective influence. Where the canal leaves the Licking, to pass 
into the Scioto Valley, there is an extensive artificial reservoir, designed to 
supply water to the canal, of which it will be proper to say something. 

The Reservoir. — The latitude of this receptacle is very near forty de- 
grees. Its elevation above the sea eight hundred and eighty-nine feet. Its 
area several thousand acres. A part of this reservoir was a natural lake, 
the rest a wooded cranberry swamp. The surrounding embankment is com- 
posed of earth, taken from the surface without, so that there is an exterior 
belt of low ground, kept wet by percolation from the reservoir. From a 
portion of the inclosure the forest was removed before the water was let in, 
but left undisturbed on the other. Through the first summer after the sur- 
face was submerged, the trees maintained their verdure ; in the second, they 
had a sickly aspect ; and before the ensuing spring, were dead. When I 
saw them in 1840, they were dropping their decayed limbs into the water, 
and many of them had been blown up by the roots. The landscape wore a 
peculiar and melancholy aspect of desolation. By Doctor Ewing, and other 
gentlemen of the neighboring village of Hebron, I was assured, that the 
people in the vicinity of the reservoir have suffered less from autumnal fever, 
since its construction, than while the spot was a swamp. The reservoir is 
chiefly supplied by the South Fork of Licking Biver, most of whose waters 
are turned into it. Before this diversion, that stream, in the spring of the 
year, overflowed its bottoms, but not since ; and the people who live near it 
have become healthier in autumn than formerly. 

The contrast of this statement, with that in the preceding section, con- 
cerning the Conneaut Beservoir, is so striking, as almost to raise a doubt as 
to the accuracy of both; yet both were made by respectable physicians. 
Admitting their truth, we are admonished to regard some of the prob- 
lems of medical hydrology, as more difficult of solution than is generally 
supposed. 

V. Canton. — The upper Muskingum Basin has many flourishing towns, 
of which Granville, Newark, Mount Vernon, Mansfield, Wooster, Coshocton, 
Massillon, and Canton, are the principal ; but my notes are too imperfect for 
use, except in reference to the last, which is not the most important ; but its 
medical topography and autumnal diseases may be taken as representatives 
of the whole; for they are all built on alluvial or diluvial terraces. 

Canton stands in latitude 40° 38' N., at an elevation of about nine hun- 
dred feet above the level of the sea. The site of the town is the point of 
land immediately above the junction of the East and West Forks of Nimi- 
shillin Creek, an eastern tributary of the Tuscarawas. The plain is diluvial, 
and above the reach of inundations by the streams ; but the immediate banks 
of the streams are alluvial, wet, and swampy, while their currents are slug- 
gish. These low terraces were heavily wooded, when Doctor Stidler arrived. 



288 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

in the year 1828 ; but the trees have since been mostly felled, and the ground 
has become dryer. Much of the drift on which the town is built, has been 
brought from regions of primitive rock in the north, and rests on Devonian 
or sub- carboniferous sandstone. The country around is inclined to levelness, 
and abounds in natural ponds, mill-ponds, and swamps. In the early period 
of Doctor Stidler's practice in this place, both the village and the surround- 
ing country were greatly infested with intermittents and remittents, which 
were sometimes malignant ; but, under the influence of clearing and cultiva- 
tion, they are less prevalent. Still, in conversation with Doctor Whiting, on 
the 16th of September, I found that he then had thirteen patients with inter- 
mittent fever, all residing, however, in the country, on the borders of streams 
or marshes. He described cases of as malignant and fatal a type, as any which 
are generated on the banks of the Cahawba or Pearl River, eight degrees 
farther south, and six hundred feet nearer the level of the sea. Doctor Estep 
had observed that remitteuts were more frequent in the town than intermit- 
tents, and prone to become continued. 

VI. Zanesvillb. — This city, the population of which, with its fau- 
bourgs, West Zanesville and Putnam, is about nine thousand, stands in N. 
Lat. 39° 59', on a high diluvial terrace, which makes the east or left bank 
of the Muskingum River, adjacent to its fall's, and opposite the mouth of its 
large tributary the Licking. The elevation of the plain is seven hundred 
feet above the sea. It lies within the coal basin, and is surrounded by hills, 
which rise about two hundred feet higher.* The village of West Zanesville 
consists of a single street, above inundation, with hills in its rear. The town 
of Putnam stands on a wider bottom, which is also exempt from submersion, 
and is bounded by hills. Between them, near the mouth of Licking, some 
small portions of bottom are liable to occasional inundations. At the falls 
there are a dam and lock, from which a mill-race or canal has been dug across 
the most depressed part of the Zanesville plain, and gives some wet surface 
in the south-western suburbs of the city. The inhabitants are supplied with 
excellent well-water, and also with river-water, by a hydrant system. Their 
chief fuel is coal. The country around is broken, dry, and, except along the 
river, deficient in fertility. From Doctors Moorehead and C. C. Hildreth, 
whose communications have corrected and enlarged my personal observations, 
I learn that autumnal fever scarcely occurs in this locality. Through a 
period of fifteen years, the latter never saw it assume an epidemic character, 
and most of the sporadic cases had evidently been contracted elsewhere. 
Near the river margin of the plain, however, in the south-western suburb, 
where, as we have seen, there is some wet ground, Doctor Hildreth has ob- 
served the people to be more affected with that fever than elsewhere. 

VII. Licking River demands a notice. Near its mouth there is a dam, 
and a second, sixteen feet high, a few miles up the stream. The latter has 
created a pool several miles in length, from which, when the river is in flood, 
considerable tracts of alluvial terrace are overflowed. In one of these bot- 

* Ohio Geological Reports. 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 289 

toms, moreover, there is a pond. According to Doctor Moorehead, to •whom 
I am indebted for these facts, there is in this locality a decided prevalence of 
autumnal fever. 

The Muskingum Pool, formed by the dam at its falls, nine feet high, ex- 
tends up to the town of Dresden, a distance of fifteen miles. According to 
the observations of Doctor Moorehead, this pool has not had the slightest 
effect in producing autumnal fever ; but beyond it, at and above Dresden, 
where there are extensive bottoms, which suffer inundation and abound in 
stagnant surface-water, the inhabitants are infested with intermittent and 
remittent fevers. The facts connected with the Zanesville locality are of 
some importance in reference to the remote cause of autumnal fever, and 
recall those observed at Pensacola {pp. 52, 53 ). The summer heat and 
the atmospheric moisture are both as great, or even greater, in Zanesville, 
than up Licking Creek, or along the Muskingum above Dresden ; and yet the 
two latter localities are much sicklier; indicating that something beyond heat 
and humidity is required to generate autumnal fever. 

VII. Marietta. — The town of Marietta is built on a bottom common 
to the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, immediately above their junction. A 
small stream from the hills to the east, traverses the town-plat, and dis- 
charges its waters into the Muskingum. When the rivers are high, their 
waters are backed up this creek, and some portions of the plat are over- 
flowed. The greater part of the plain is, however, above the highest floods. 
On the opposite side of the Muskingum another and lower bottom consti- 
tutes the site of the newer town of Harmar, in early times the site of a 
fort. Between the two towns a dam and lock have been erected in the 
Muskingum, creating a pool, which extends several miles up the river, and 
makes a part of the slack-water system which has been described. Up the 
Ohio, above the town, there is an extensive and highly cultivated bottom; 
nearly opposite the town is the lower end of a long island. 

The low-water elevation of the Ohio at the mouth of the Muskingum is 
five hundred and sixty-six feet above the level of the sea, or two feet higher 
than the surface of Lake Erie. The plain on which the town is built rises 
from fifty to eighty feet higher, giving it an average of six hundred and 
thirty feet above the sea ; while the surrounding hills, present a mean eleva- 
tion of two hundred and seventy more, or an altitude above the ocean of 
nine hundred feet. These hills are composed of the soft sandstones and 
shales of the carboniferous formation. The latitude of the town is 39° 25' 
N.,— its longitude 81° 29' W. 

Marietta enjoys the distinction of being the first spot at which an Anglo- 
American settlement was made in the northern half of the Ohio Basin. 
Here, on the 7th of April, 1788, began the civil and political existence of 
the North-western Territory, since divided into the states of Ohio, Indiana, 
Illinois, and Wisconsin. Its original inhabitants were a colony from Massa- 
chusetts, and as the town has not grown beyond a few thousand, it presents 
no varieties of physiology. 

In the early period of its settlement, this locality was infested with au- 
19 



290 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tumnal fever up to the average degree ; but with the progress of cultivation 
and civil existence, that malady has suffered the usual abatement. 



SECTION IV. 

THE REGION BETWEEN THE MUSKINGUM AND SCIOTO RIVERS : 

HOCKING RIVER. 

I. From the mouth of the Muskingum to that of the Scioto, the distance 
by the Ohio is one hundred and seventy-five miles, while many of the upper 
tributaries of those rivers meander in the same localities. For a considerable 
distance they run nearly parallel ; then the Muskingum diverges to the east, 
and enters the Ohio ; which afterward flows far to the south-west and then 
to the north-west, before the Scioto, by a directly southern course, unites 
with it. The region between the lower portions of these two rivers is that 
now under examination. It has a long connection with the Ohio river ; lies, 
as it were, in a great bend ; but does not run very far back. If not the 
most elevated, it is the most rugged and sterile portion of the state of Ohio. 
G-eologically, it constitutes a part of the brim of the great Appalachian coal 
basin ; and when we pass out, at any point between north and west, we leave 
that formation and come upon the Devonian conglomerate sandstone and 
slate, which dip to the south-east, beneath the coal measures. This district 
abounds in iron, salt, and coal; and, of course, embraces large classes of 
operatives, exposed to whatever etiological influences belong to their respec- 
tive pursuits. The principal river of this region is the Hocking, which, origi- 
nating near its northern margin, where the surface is comparatively level, 
takes a south-east course and unites with the Ohio not far below the Mus- 
kingum. The alluvial bottoms of this tortuous stream, hidden, as it were, for 
much of its distance among* the hills, are wide, and many of them so low as 
to be subject to submersion when the river is swollen. The next in size, and 
only other considerable stream, is Racoon River, which joins the Ohio much 
lower down than the Hocking. It likewise is skirted with broad low bot- 
toms; which is also the case with a still smaller tributary, Symmes' Creek, 
which enters the Ohio further down. 

All these alluvial valleys are infested with intermittent and remittent 
fevers; while the hill- country, generally, is almost exempt, especially from 
the former. A few words concerning two or three towns of this region, must 
suffice. 

II. Lancaster. — This town is built on the left bank of the Hocking, 
near its source. The site is an alluvial plain, rising upon high diluvium. 
On the western or right side of the river, there was a low prairie, in which 
the stream meanders with a sluggish current. A canal now passes through 
the town. The substratum is Devonian slate. Autumnal fever formerly 
prevailed here to a decided degree, but has long been on the decline. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 291 

III. Pomeroy. — The site of this town is a narrow, Ohio-river terrace, 
encroached upon, in the rear, by soft, sandstone, mural bluffs. The terrace 
is above high- water mark. On the opposite side of the river, there is a 
wider and lower wooded bottom, in which there are some ponds! Two miles 
below the town, the terrace expands into a considerable plain, some portions 
of which are subject to inundation. Near the upper part of this plain is 
the mining village of Coalport, inhabited almost exclusively by the opera- 
tives who dig for coal in the adjacent hill. In the new town of Pomeroy 
autumnal intermittents are few and simple ; and the people of Coalport are 
almost as exempt ; but the inhabitants of the wide bottom below them are 
subject to that disease. 

IV. GtAllipolis. — This old, and, originally, French town, stands twenty 
miles below the last. It was settled in 1791, by immigrants from Paris. Its 
site, very nearly in N. Lat. 39°, is a high and ample alluvial or diluvial ter- 
race, so level that, in its natural state, the surface was pondy. Above the 
town there is a wide and lower bottom, the margin of which near the river 
is dry, but further back there are ponds and swales, especially in the vicinity 
of a small stream called Campaign Creek, which there enters the Ohio. In 
this part of the locality, as 1 was told by Doctor Maxon and Doctor Hib- 
bard, autumnal fever is much more prevalent than in any other. Immediately 
below the town, a creek, known by the name of Chiekamargo, enters the 
Ohio, having alluvial bottoms, which are subject to inundation when the 
river is in flood. Six or eight miles to the north-west of GJ-allipolis, Kacoon 
River and Campaign Creek approach within a few miles of each other. The 
table-land between them is called the Pine Plains, and includes the village 
of Porter. The streams have alluvial bottoms, portions of which are liable 
to submersion. From Doctor Sisson, one of the physicians of this village, 
I learn that autumnal fever invades every part of the plain, not even sparing 
the village. 

Yellow Fever. — Gallipolis is the only town of the Ohio Basin which has 
been charged with generating yellow fever. As much depends, in reference 
to the origin of that disease, on the truth of this imputation, it is necessary 
to inquire into the proofs. The plain on which the town is built was cov- 
ered by a heavy forest when the Parisian immigrants arrived, and its wet 
surface was charged with organic matter. As the trees were cut down, and 
the sun admitted upon the surface, the new-comers fell sick of the fevers 
which everywhere appear under such conditions, in the latitude and at the 
elevation ( about six hundred feet ) of this place. The summer and autumn 
of the year 1797, seem to have been seasons of great mortality ;' during which 
Mr. Ellicott* arrived there on his voyage to Natchez, and reported to the edi- 
tors of the New York Medical Repository, besides recording it in his journal, 
that the disease was yellow fever. Previously, and about the time of his 
visit, that fever had prevailed in Philadelphia and New York, and was held 

* Journal of Andrew Ellicott, Commissioner for surveying the boundary between 
the United States and Florida. 



292 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

by many physicians to be only the highest grade of our indigenous autumnal 
fever. At that time the malignant or congestive remittents, with which we 
are now familiar in the West, had not fixed the attention of the settlers ; 
who, before the invention of steamboats, did not seek the river-bottoms, as 
they have since. Mr. Ellicott did not describe this fever in such terms as to 
show that it really was identical with that which prevailed on the Atlantic 
coast. In looking at the whole matter, the proofs seem to me insufficient to 
sustain his declaration ; and I suppose the cases which led to it were exam- 
ples of what is now known over the West and South-west as the malignant 
remittent fever of the country. To this conclusion I am the more inclined, 
from having witnessed the autumnal fevers of sickly localities, on the banks 
of the Ohio, since the year 1800, without having seen a prevalence of yellow 
fever, though occasional cases have closely resembled that disease. It is the 
more important to be careful in the examination of this isolated epidemic, of 
( so called ) yellow fever, inasmuch as the adoption of Mr. Ellicott's report, 
precludes all further inquiry as to the local or indigenous origin of that dis- 
ease; I will, therefore, add, that the distance from the sea, and the elevation 
above its surface, not less than the rural instead of urban character of the 
infant village, all militate against the conclusion that the epidemic was yel- 
low fever. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF THE SCIOTO RIVER. 

I. G-eneral Views. — The Scioto is the longest and most central river 
of the State of Ohio. Its sources interlock with those of the Sandusky of 
Lake Erie. Its course is almost directly south. Originating among the 
upper Silurian or gray cliff limestone, in its progress it cuts the out- crop- 
ping Devonian sandstone and slate, and finally reaches the Ohio at Ports- 
mouth, in the midst of the conglomerate which makes the foundation of the 
Appalachian coal basin. Until it enters the last out-crop, its basin is com- 
paratively level, in many parts flat ; and this character of surface extends 
over more than five- sixths of it ; the elevation of which is from nine hundred 
to one thousand feet above the level of the sea. 

The larger part of the surface consists of dry and fertile lands, partly 
wood-land and partly prairie, but it includes several varieties, which deserve 
to be mentioned ; first, small lakes or ponds of clear, cold water ; second, wet 
or marshy prairies, generally the beds of filled-up ponds ; third, extensive 
wooded swamps, which become nearly dry in autumn ; fourth, sloughs, or 
\ slashes,' as they are called by the inhabitants, of small extent, oversha- 
dowed by water-maples and gigantic white elms, supporting a luxuriant growth 
of the Rhus toxicodendron, and generally drying up in summer. A specimen 
of the black soil from one of these sloughs, analyzed at my request by Doctor 
Raymond, gave the following results : 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 293 

IN ONE HUNDRED GRAINS OF BLACK SOIL, 

Organic extract, with a trace of nitrate of soda, - 2.5 

Carbonate of lime, ------- 5. 

Phosphates of alumina and iron, ----- 4.5 

Decomposed organic matter, - - - - - 36. 

Undecomposed " " ------ 18. 

Alumina, with a trace of iron and lime, - - - - 7. 

Silica, , - - - 26.5 

Loss, - - - -5 

100.0 



The limited elm and maple swales or shallow ponds, one of which afforded 
the specimen of soil which was analyzed, constitute one of the special features 
of this basin. I have seen them in but one other locality, and that, although 
topographically remote, is geologically identical. I refer to the Louisville 
plain ( see p. 247 ). That terrace, it will be recollected, is composed of the 
debris of black or Devonian slate, resting on gray limestone. Now, in tho 
upper part of the Scioto Basin we find the eminences capped with the same 
kind of slate, resting on the same variety of limestone ; the strata at Louis- 
ville cropping out to the west from beneath the Illinois coal formation ; those 
of the basin we are now examining from the south-east, from beneath the 
Appalachian coal formation. Disintegrated slate is, then, the nidus of these 
swales ; a fact which enlarges our views of the relation between geology and 
medical topography. 

Another feature of the upper or northern portions of this basin, as of the 
Muskingum (Section III), is an immense deposit of northern drift, by no 
means confined to the streams, and greatly obscuring the rocky strata. 

The Scioto, and nearly all its tributaries, flow through wide valleys, but 
little depressed below the level of the country, until we come into the lower 
or southern part of the valley, where the bottoms are still wide, but the val- 
leys are cut deep into the sandstone, slate, and conglomerate formations. 
Generally in the valleys there are two, and sometimes three terraces; the 
lowest of which may be called alluvial, is commonly wet, and frequently suffers 
inundation. The others are above high-water mark, consist chiefly of sand 
and pebbles, and may be regarded as diluvial. When the river, in the south, 
enters the hilly part of the basin, its bottom-lands continue of great width, 
and suffer under spring floods ; but those of the smaller streams become much 
contracted. Some points in this portion of the basin, are among the highest 
in the State of Ohio, as, for example, Hillsborough, in Highland county, 
which has an altitude of eleven hundred and four feet above the level of the 
sea, and also the conical summits of the conglomerate hills on the eastern 
side of the river, in the neighborhood of Chillicothe, and thence to the Ohio 
River at Portsmouth. 

As a general fact, it may be stated that every part of the Scioto Basin, 
from the beginning of its settlement, has been infested with autumnal fever, 
both intermittent and remittent, which, although mitigated in the long-cul- 



294 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tivatecl portions, is by no means extinct. A brief notice of a few localities 
may serve for the whole. 

II. Washington. — This inconsiderable village, the seat of justice of Fay- 
ette county, is situate near Paint Creek, a western tributary of the Scioto, 
at some distance from its junction with the river. The surface of the sur- 
rounding country is either level or slightly undulating ; prairies and wood-land 
are intermingled ; some of the former are wet and springy, while the latter 
are divisible into two varieties, open oak-lands with dry and thick soil, and 
compact diversified, forest, abounding in occasional ponds and shallow swamps, 
which dry up in summer and autumn. The substratum is the upper Silurian 
or cliff limestone, from which the Devonian slate has been swept off or disin- 
tegrated. The rocky strata are generally buried up in clay or gravel. The 
streams, consisting of the upper branches of Paint Creek, from the general 
levelness of the country, have a most sluggish current ; their low banks are 
badly defined, and subject to extensive inundations; while their beds are foul, 
and obstructed with decaying timber. The annual prevalence of autumnal 
fever, in such a locality, is what might be expected ; but my object is some- 
thing more than to make this known. 

An Epidemic. — This village stands on the north-east side of Paint Creek. 
About the year 1820, a mill-dam was erected a short distance above the 
town, which caused the inundation, to the depth of a few feet, of about 
sixty acres of bottom-land. As the stream generally fell too low, by the 
first of June, to admit of grinding at the mill, it was the custom of the pro- 
prietors to open the flood-gates and let the water escape, after which the 
copious showers of that month commonly washed away the recent deposits, 
and thus the health of the village did not appear to suffer. In the year 
1838, the owners did not let off the water until July, and no rains followed to 
wash away the silt. In a short time an offensive smell was wafted from this 
foul and drying surface into the village, which was to its leeward, and in the 
month of August the inhabitants began to sicken with remittent and inter- 
mittent fevers. In a population not exceeding four hundred, my informant, 
Doctor Henton, the principal physician, prescribed for nearly eighty, and the 
village lost eleven of its inhabitants. Those who lived on the streets nearest 
the pond suffered most. The people who resided in the vicinity, to the west 
or windward, did not suffer. No epidemic, so severe, had ever visited the 
village before. It did not cease with the autumn, but continued in the form 
of winter and spring fevers. In the two succeding years, up to the time of 
my visit in 1840, the water had been drained off the first of June, and much 
of the drift-wood and filth cleared away; apparently, in consequence of which, 
the epidemic had not recurred. 

III. Columbus, the seat of government of Ohio, stands on a broad ter- 
race, which stretches eastwardly from the Scioto River. A narrow slip of 
lower bottom than that on which the city is built lies between its western 
side and the river. There are no hills near the city on the left-hand side of 
the river, but on the right, after crossing the broad low bottom, subject to 
partial inundation, on which the town of Franklinton stands, we arrive at a 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 295 

range of hills or bluffs about one hundred feet high. Near the upper 
part of Columbus, a large affluent, called the Whetstone, pours its waters 
into the Scioto, through its left bank. To the east of the city, at the dis- 
tance of a few miles (without any intervening hills), flows Alum Creek, to 
join Walnut Creek, which afterward enters the river some distance down. 
From the lower part of the city, a canal, twelve miles long, passes down the 
river to join the Ohio and Erie Canal. Near the junction of these canals, 
the surface of the country is flat, wet, and extremely fertile, the consequence 
of which, as I learned from Doctor Grard, is the annual prevalence of severe 
and often malignant intermittent and remittent fevers. 

To return to the city, it may be said, that although its suburbs and 
vicinity are in many places wet, and everywhere abundant in organic mat- 
ter, the prevalence of autumnal fever has not been such as to prevent a 
rapid growth, which began in the year 1816, up to which time its site was a 
forest. 

The latitude of Columbus is 39° 57' N. ; its elevation above the sea, 
seven hundred and sixty-two feet. The State of Ohio has made here four 
establishments of interest to the physician — a penitentiary, a lunatic 
asylum, a school for the deaf and dumb, and a school for the blind. 

TV. Chillicothe. — The site of this town is a high alluvial or diluvial 
plain, on the west bank of the Scioto River, about fifty miles from its mouth. 
The valley here is wide, and presents, in the rear of the town, rounded or 
flatted hills, with an upper stratum of sandstone, and on the eastern side 
higher and more conical hills, capped with the overlying conglomerate. To 
the north, above the town, some portions of the plain are liable to inunda- 
tion, and near the base of the adjacent hill, to the north-west of the town, 
there is an extensive pond, supplied with water from the high lands. On 
the opposite side of the river, above the town, the bottoms are wide, and 
considerable tracts are subject to overflows from the river; which, moreover, 
divides into two channels, and forms a low and wet but grassy island in 
sight of the town. To the west, the plain juts up against the base of the 
slate and sandstone hills. To the east, it declines toward the river, and 
presents a tract of low bottom, from which the rains drain off imperfectly, 
and over parts of which the river rises in every high freshet. This bottom 
extends down the river to the south, and is traversed by Paint Creek, a 
large tributary, which flows in from the west, through a wide valley, with 
low bottoms. At and around the junction of this stream with the Scioto, 
south south-east of the town, the bottoms generally are depressed, and, 
although ( like the others which have been named ) they are now under 
cultivation, the river-floods and the spring rains give them a wet surface : 
which, together with their extreme fertility, produces a rank annual vegeta- 
tion. Finally, to the east, there is a mill-pond, at the distance of a mile and 
a half; and the Ohio and Erie Canal, with two or three locks, passes through 
the northern and eastern edge of the town. The redeeming circumstances in 
this otherwise unpromising topography, are the long range of hills directly to 
the south-west and west, or windward, of the town ; while the extensive and 



296 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

prolific sources of autumnal fever lie in such directions, that the winds of 
August and September do not often blow from them to the town. Never- 
theless, it is undeniable, that the inhabitants living along even the most 
populous streets, are liable to autumnal fever, while those of the suburbs, 
especially below the town, are much more affected by it. 

Chillicothe, for many years the seat of government of Ohio, is one of the 
older towns of the state, having been commenced in the year 1796. From 
its early medical historian, Doctor Peachy Harrison,* we learn, that for the 
first five or six years, it suffered very little from fever; but in 1801 a violent 
epidemic arose, since which, it has been more or less invaded in the summer 
and autumn of every year. Its latitude is about 39° 20' N. ; — its altitude 
above the sea, six hundred and forty-five feet. 

V. Portsmouth. — On each side of the Scioto, as it approaches the 
Ohio, there is an extensive bottom. That below the mouth of the river, to 
the west, is low, extremely rich in soil, abounding in rank weeds, and over- 
shadowed with trees — all of a kind which flourish best in wet situations. 
Every river-flood inundates this alluvial plain to such depth that it is uncul- 
tivable. The Ohio and Erie Canal, so often mentioned, passes through it to 
join the Ohio by the mouth of the Scioto. 

The terrace above or east of the river is so high, that only some limited 
depressions are liable to submersion. On this plain stands the town of 
Portsmouth. The river-beach in front is free from topographical nuisances. 
On the opposite side of the river, the bottom is narrow and closely com- 
pressed by a range of steep and very lofty sandstone and conglomerate hills. 

The latitude of Portsmouth is 38° 45' N.; — the low- water elevation 
of the Ohio above the sea four hundred and sixty-eight feet ; that of the 
terrace on which the town is built, about five hundred and forty. 

As might be expected, the low bottom, to the west or windward of the 
Scioto River and of the town, is a prolific and permanent source of insalu- 
brity; and fevers prevail more or less every autumn. According to Doctor 
Hempstead, t the experienced medical historian of this locality, the paludal 
influence is so great, that a large number of diseases assume more or less of 
a periodical type. 

West of the Scioto, there is no tributary of the Ohio of sufficient size to 
demand a notice, until we arrive at the Little Miami, distant about one hun- 
dred and ten miles. In running that distance the Ohio bears south of west, 
as far as Maysville, Kentucky, then west north-west. The tract of country 
lying in this great bend is hilly near the river, but formed into a kind of 
table-land at a short distance back, with an argillaceous surface. I can say 
nothing special of its autumnal fevers. 



* N. Y. Medical Repository, Vol. X, p. 6. 

t Proceedings of the Medical Convention of Ohio, 1842. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 297 

SECTION VI. 

THE MIAMI BASIN : CITY OF CINCINNATI. 

I. General Description. — The 'Miami Valley' is the familiar appel- 
lation of the united basins of the Great and Little Miami Rivers ; which 
comprehend the south-west angle of Ohio, and much of the south-east corner 
of Indiana. To the east, the upper tributaries of both these rivers inter- 
mingle with those of the Scioto ; to the west, all the longer tributaries of 
the Great Miami arise on common ground with the sources of White River, 
the largest affluent of the Wabash, the chief river of Indiana ; to the north, 
they interlock with the southern head streams of the Maumee of Lake Erie ; 
and here it is that the basin of the lakes penetrates farthest into that of the 
Gulf of Mexico. All the southern portions of the Miami Basin are com- 
posed of the older or lower Silurian limestone -— the blue shell — with a 
copious interlamination of marlaceous blue shale ; the northern parts of the 
basin rest on the newer or upper Silurian limestone, but much of it is buried 
up in drift or diluvium, like that of the upper basins of the Muskingum and 
Scioto. The whole of this portion is either level or undulating ; but on ap- 
proaching the Ohio River in the lower basin, deep ravines give rise to 
rounded hills, which do not, however, rise above the general level. Both 
the Miamies, as they descend to the Ohio, present troughs or immediate val- 
leys, which continue wide, and gradually deepen, down to the level of that 
river. Their descent from the water- shed between the Ohio and Lake Erie 
is so rapid, that the back-water of the Ohio is only felt ten or twelve miles 
from their mouths ; while on the opposite side of that river it produces stag- 
nation in Licking River to the distance of forty or fifty miles; and in the 
Kentucky, for seventy-five miles. 

The immediate valleys of the Miamies present several terraces or bottoms, 
rising over each other, and composed, like those of the Ohio, of transported 
materials from the north. In the spring and early summer, many of the 
lower bottoms are frequently overflowed. As these streams descend an in- 
clined plain, their currents are rapid, and they present but few stagnant 
pools, compared with the rivers of the opposite side of the Ohio, just re- 
ferred to. The upper portions of this basin abound in wet or marsh prai- 
ries, wood-land swamps, and ponds, or small lakes of pure water. The 
southern portions offer but little of either, on the uplands; but in the wide 
valleys of both the Miamies, and along all their larger tributaries, every 
variety of wet surface was found in spring and early summer, when settle- 
ments were first made : by clearing, cultivation, and draining, however, a 
much dryer condition has been produced. At the same time, mill-ponds have 
been greatly multiplied, and two canals, one from Cincinnati to Dayton, and 
thence to Lake Erie, and the other from the former city, to Brookville and 
Cambridge, in the State of Indiana, have been excavated. In the month of 
June they are annually emptied of water, and the mud accumulated in their 
bottoms, is scraped out upon their banks. The canal to Dayton, on starting 
from Cincinnati, takes up the valley of Millcreek, and, at the distance of 



298 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

twenty-five miles, enters the valley of the Great Miami. Through the 
whole distance, it traverses a fertile valley, from one to three miles in width, 
abounding in diluvial terraces and low alluvial bottoms, to which the 
present diminutive stream bears, in the volume of its waters, no assignable 
proportion. This valley is, in fact, the obsolete bed of one of those vast 
river- currents, which once flowed from the north into the trough of the Ohio 
River. At that time, the stream which is now called the Great Miami, 
divided into two mouths, at Hamilton, twenty-five miles north of Cincin- 
nati; and its eastern branch flowed through this valley, near the head of 
which, there are ponds, which resemble the crescent-lakes of the lower 
Mississippi, represented in PI. V. A few miles north of Cincinnati, this 
prong of the extinct river, again divided, and sent off a branch to the east, 
which entered the Little Miami not far above its mouth ; which river then 
was of great width and depth. This disparity between the present volumes 
of water and the broad valleys through which they flow, is a common char- 
acteristic of the rivers on the north side of the Ohio, from the Appalachian 
Mountains to the Mississippi; and, hence, the extent of bottom or interval- 
lands, in the region just indicated, is incomparably greater than in that 
south of the Ohio, which was never furrowed out by such currents. 

The general level of the hill- summits of the Miami Basin is not the same 
throughout. Along the Ohio River it is from eight to nine hundred feet ; at 
the sources of the Great Miami, from eight hundred and forty- two — the 
lowest depression at the St. Marys — up to fourteen hundred feet,* around 
Bellefontaine, through which the railroad from Cincinnati to Sandusky 
passes. This protuberance constitutes the highest land in the state of Ohio. 
As the valleys by which the Miamies reach the Ohio are troughs of excava- 
tion, the altitude of their bottoms increases regularly from the principal 
river, where they are about five hundred feet, up to the summits which have 
been indicated ; the bounding hills regularly diminishing in elevation above 
the streams. As to position, the Miami Basin extends from latitude 39°, 
to about 40° 30' N. 

Personal observations in the Miami Basin, for forty- eight years, that is, 
since the twelfth year of its settlement, enable me to say, that it has at all 
times been subject to autumnal fever; which, along the streams, has been 
both intermittent and remittent, while on the intervening hills and table- 
lands, the latter type has generally prevailed. 

From the earliest period down to the present time, these fevers have been 
of a simple or inflammatory character, though malignant or congestive cases 
have not been unknown. The progress of settlement and cultivation has 
diminished, but not put an end to their annual visitations. This effect is 
most perceptible in the towns, such, for example, as Hamilton, Dayton, or 
Springfield, which are at present less infested than in the early period of 
their settlement. The laborers, by whom the canals were excavated, suf- 
fered in autumn from fever ; but, living as they did, they would probably 

* Letters on Geology. By David Christy. 



ps-.xni 




part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 299 

have suffered in the same degree, if not engaged in that employment. It 
does not appear, that the inhabitants of the regions through which the 
canals were dug were injured by the process, or by letting in the water 
when they were finished; nor have I been able to collect any reliable evi- 
dence, that the annual emptying and cleaning out, have been productive of 
fever ; which should, perhaps, be ascribed to their receiving but little organic 
matter. The mud thrown out is, in fact, chiefly the debris of their earthy 
banks. 

One of these canals seems, however, to have given origin to autumnal 
fever in the summer and autumn of the present year, 1848. I refer to the 
Whitewater Canal, which runs along the river bank, from North Bend to 
Cincinnati — fifteen miles. From a break in its banks the year before the 
water was drawn off, and from its bottom abounding in shallow pools left 
exposed to the sun, through the seasons just mentioned, autumnal 
fever became epidemic along its whole length ( some cases assuming a 
malignant character), where it had hitherto, for many years, occurred 
but sporadically. 

The Miami Basin — taken as a whole, the oldest-settled portion of the, 
State of Ohio — embraces many flourishing and populous towns; but as 
their topography is much the same, being nearly all built on river terraces, 
I shall dismiss them with the general remark, that their suburbs and vicini- 
ties are much more infested with autumnal fever, especially its intermittent 
variety, than their interior and populous streets, and that even the former 
have felt the ameliorating influence of clearing and cultivation, to a very 
decided extent. 

II. City of Cincinnati. — When, on the 26th of December, 1788, the 
third landing for the permanent settlement of Ohio was made, where Cincin- 
nati now stands, there were already in the Interior Valley of North America 
( between New Orleans and Quebec ) more than thirty towns. In sixty years, 
the encampment of twenty-six men, by the side of a beaver pond, beneath a 
dense forest of beech trees, has grown into a city, which has a more numerous 
stationary white population than any other within the Great Valley ; and, in 
numbers, ranks as the fifth city of the United States. Such an unrivaled 
growth would, perhaps, justify an ample notice of its condition, even if the 
medical historian were not identified with it in feeling, interest, and early 
recollections. 

A glance upon the map ( PL XIII) will disclose, to the experienced eye, 
not, it is true, the social and political causes of this rapid development, but 
the favorable absence of many topographical conditions, the presence of which 
might have countervailed them. 

The site of the city, on the left bank of the Ohio River, consists of two 
plains or bottoms, one near the river, comparatively narrow, and composed of 
argillaceous alluvion ; the other in its rear, six or eight times as broad, dilu- 
vial, and made up, like the higher or second terraces generally, of pebbles, 
gravel, and sand, with a covering of loam and soil. The lower plain widens 
as it stretches down the river, and its back part, on the settlement of the 



300 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

town, was a narrow, shallow, and heavily-timbered pond or swamp, overflowed 
by ordinary spring floods of the river, which ascended upon it along the 
marshy rivulets by which that tract was partially drained into the Ohio, 
below the town. In 1793 the whole of the lower plain was submerged; 
and in 1832 and 1848 the inundation was repeated, upon every part which 
had not been raised, with materials washed by the rains, or hauled from the 
adjacent higher terrace. For many years after the settlement of the village, 
the drainage of both terraces was into the low grounds of this bottom, where 
it accumulated in part upon the surface, and partly in the numerous pits, 
formed by the manufacture of brick. From these foul accumulations, in 
summer and early autumn, a constant escape of gas through the superincum- 
bent water could be perceived. The extent of this tract, lying to the west or 
windward of the village, was sufficient to generate a great many cases of 
autumnal fever, chiefly of the remittent type, not a few of which every year 
proved fatal.* Had its surface been but a few feet lower, so that it could not 
have been reclaimed, the nuisances in which it abounded must have exerted 
a retarding influence on the progress of the city. But for the last twenty 
years the work of transformation by draining, filling up, and building over, 
has been steadily advancing, and with it a corresponding improvement of 
autumnal health. 

From the lower plain to the upper and older, the ascent is between fifty 
and sixty feet. With the growth of the town, the front margin of the latter, 
which was originally a bluff bank, has been graded to a gentle declivity, and 
the removed material used, as already intimated, to raise the back part of the 
lower bottom ; so that the drainage of the city is now chiefly by the streets 
directly into the river. 

The upper terrace, as was the case with the lower, slopes gently back from 
its southern or river margin, and, at the average distance of a mile, termi- 
nates against the base of the Mount Auburn range of blue Silurian limestone 
hills; whence, during rains, there descend upon it several torrents, which coa- 
lesce and flow nearly in the same direction with the river. To the east this 
terrace is terminated by the narrow valley of a hill-torrent, called Deer Creek. 
Up this valley, in early times, the back-water of the river, when in flood, 
ascended for half a mile ; and on its recess left a deposit of silt, which, how- 
ever, was to the summer-leeward of the town, and therefore never produced 
much effect on the health of the people. Beyond this ravine stands Mount 
Adams, between the base of which and the eastern margin of the city terrace 
the low ground has been raised above the highest river floods, a culvert has 
been formed for the creek, with streets extended across it, and the new sur- 
face built upon. The ravine, higher up, has a rocky bed and no bottom- 
lands. 

The Western Canal, from Lake Erie, generally called the Miami Canal, 
traverses the back part of the upper terrace, from north-west to south-east, 



* Drake : Notices concerning Cincinnati, 1810. 



part ;.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 301 

and descends into the Ohio by a series of locks through this valley, but does 
not seem to have generated fever. 

We must now turn to the western margin of the terraces. In stretching 
off in that direction down the river, both become wider and sink lower, until 
they are lost in the broad alluvial valley of Mill Creek, which stream, once a 
great river, joins the Ohio one mile and a half below the center of the city. 
Its banks are of mud, and portions of them are overflowed by river freshets. 
The work of elevation, by the transfer of gravel and pebbles from the upper 
terrace, is, however, going on with the rapid extension of the city in that 
direction ; so that the time seems to be at hand when the whole tract will be 
redeemed from all but the extraordinary floods which happen at distant 
periods, and of which there have been but three since the first settlement of 
the city. From that date down to the present time, the inhabitants of this 
locality have been subject to autumnal fever, while those farther east remained 
exempt. 

The Whitewater Canal, from Indiana, which is conducted up the river bank, 
crosses Mill Creek by an aqueduct, and traversing the lower terrace, terminates 
in a basin of stagnant water in the south-western part of the city, contributing, 
no doubt, to the prevalence of fever in that quarter. 

The river shore, from the mouth of Deer Creek to the mouth of Mill Creek, 
a distance of two miles and a half, presents but few nuisances. At the former 
point the stream has thrown out a quantity of silt, which, in low water, is 
laid bare to a limited extent ; from that spot to the other, the shore is free 
from natural sources of insalubrity, much of it being sloped and graveled 
down to low water. In front of the mouth of Mill Creek there is a deposit 
of silt, enveloping the trunks and limbs of trees, of which a considerable ex- 
tent is exposed in summer and autumn, and, lying to the windward of the 
city, may be regarded as the most permanent nuisance around it. Below the 
embouchure of Mill Creek, for two miles, and above that of Deer Creek for 
four miles, there is no alluvial bottom, and the river presses against the base 
of the limestone hills. 

We must now cross the Ohio, and speak of the towns of Newport and 
Covington, as promised when treating of the Licking River Basin. The 
mouth of that river is nearly opposite the center of Cincinnati. Above it 
stands the old but slow-growing town of Newport ; below, the young and 
more vigorous town of Covington. The position of these towns is repre- 
sented on PI. XIII. The bottom on which the former stands, is ample ; 
and, except a margin of its back part near Licking River, is elevated above 
the highest floods of the Ohio. Where the plain approaches the hills in its 
rear, there is some swaley ground, bearing semi-aquatic grasses, which be- 
comes dry in autumn. The Newport bottom extends up the Ohio three 
miles, as a dry, elevated, and sloping plain, and has become the site of a new 
village, Jamestown, opposite the village of Fulton. The Covington terrace, 
below the mouth of Licking, is still more elevated than that of Newport, 
and, with the exception of a ravine through its western margin, up which 
the waters of the Ohio ascend in high floods, is free from every insalubrious 



302 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

topographical condition. A range of dry hills rises boldly to its south-west, 
one of which almost touches the Ohio opposite the mouth of Mill Creek, re- 
ceding immediately afterward, and affording a broad, elevated, and arid 
bottom, on which another village, supplementary to the city, has been com- 
menced. The bottom-lands of Licking River above these towns, and 
directly south of them, are about a mile in width, but so elevated, that they 
are but partially overflowed by river-freshets, which leave behind them very 
few ponds or marshes. Finally : On the promontory above the mouth of 
Licking, the general government, since the year 1805, has had an arsenal 
and barracks; but the number of troops stationed there has generally been 
small, and no returns have been published in the army statistics. 

The prevalence of autumnal fever in Newport and Covington has at all 
times been in harmony with their topography as here described. In the lat- 
ter, the number of cases is smaller in proportion to the population than in 
the former ; which is what its topographical condition demands. The cases 
which occur are chiefly on the border which extends up the valley of Lick- 
ing. That valley lies to the windward of Newport, and exerts a prejudicial 
influence on the health of that portion of its people who live nearest to it ; 
but they are never seriously invaded. 

Let us now contemplate, as a whole, the locality we have been surveying 
in detail. First : As a general fact, where a tributary enters the Ohio, 
there is much low bottom ; but here, two join it, on opposite sides, and the 
extent of drowned land is very little. I have elsewhere intimated that Mill 
Creek, during the diluvial period, was a great river; and then it was, that an 
immense quantity of drift, in the form of sand, gravel, pebbles, and bowl- 
ders, was heaped up in this locality to such a hight that nearly all the ter- 
races are above the ordinary freshets of the Ohio. Second : The area of 
these terraces, including both sides of the river, is about six square miles; 
and their extent, taken in connection with their elevation above the river, 
gives this locality an advantage over every other, from the sources to the 
mouth of the river. Third : As a consequence of this topography, there is 
no other spot on the banks of the Ohio, where so great a number of persons 
could reside with as little exposure to the causes of intermittent and remit- 
tent fever. Fourth: From observations continued through forty-eight 
years, I am enabled to say, that while, in early times, autumnal fever, 
occurring every year, was seldom, except in some very limited spots, a vio- 
lent and frequent disease, it has regularly diminished; and that parts once 
infested have become exempt. So true is this of the central portions of the 
city, in latter years, that when a case of intermittent fever happens there, it 
is generally found that the patient had sojourned in the country. Of remit- 
tent fever, so much cannot be said, as occasional cases still appear on streets 
which are entirely exempt from the other variety. Fifth : The estimated 
population, within a circle having a radius of a mile and a half, is about one 
hundred and ten thousand ; and the extraordinary growth, which has assem- 
bled such a number in so short a time, must undoubtedly be ascribed, in 
part, to the slight prevalence of autumnal fever; by which we are instructed, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 303 

that medical topography has an intimate connection with the progress of 
population and civil improvement. 

Cincinnati has extended ( chiefly by a single street ) nearly four miles up 
the Ohio, with the river close on one side and the hills as close on the other; 
the bank rising above high water. This extension comprehends the villages 
of Fulton, Lewistown, and Pendleton. Beyond the last, to the mouth of the 
Little Miami River, two miles further up, there is a broad, alluvial plain, on 
which once stood the village of Columbia, the second settlement in the State 
of Ohio, made November 18th, 1788. Much of this bottom, especially that 
nearest the Miami, is subject to inundation in the spring of the year, and 
the inhabitants, chiefly agriculturalists, are subject to autumnal fever; which, 
however, is much less prevalent and violent than I saw it in 1803, and for 
many years afterward, when the locality was in transitu from dense woods to 
cultivated fields. 

Up the valley of Mill Creek, which is equal in width to that of the Ohio 
(although in summer there is scarcely the feeblest current of water), 
autumnal fever is an annual endemio-epidemic. This valley is not without 
second, and even third, bottoms or terraces, which are elevated and dry ; but 
it has also broad and low alluvions, on which the overflows of the stream 
and the spring rains leave sloughs filled with the decaying vegetation of its 
deep and fertile soil. To these surfaces we should ascribe the fever, which, 
limited to them in its origin, extends far beyond them in its spread ; as it 
frequently reaches, not only those who reside on the older terraces, but, also, 
the inhabitants of the neighboring bluffs. The malignant intermittents of 
the south are not, however, often met with in this locality, nor ever have 
been; and the chief mortality is from the remittent type, in its progress 
becoming typhous. 

The hill-lands around Cincinnati are, in all directions, of the same hight 
and character. In some places there are gently undulating table-lands ; but 
in general the country is rolling, and presents a countless number of knobs 
or tuberosities, covered with rich soil, resting on a clay or loam bed, embel- 
lished with numerous country seats. Permanent springs are scarce, and 
much of the well-water is of an inferior quality. Ponds, swales, and 
swamps are, of course, unknown; yet autumnal remitting fever, tending to a 
continued type, occurs more or less every year, and sometimes proves fatal. 
For many years after the first settlement of Cincinnati, the people sup- 
plied themselves with water from wells, and, also, from the river, as is still 
the case in Newport and Covington. But to these methods succeeded the 
present hydraulic system. The water is thrown by a forcing pump into 
reservoirs, exposed to the sun and rains, whence it is distributed, through 
iron and lead pipes, over the city. It often comes to the consumers 
turbid. The silt which it deposits in the reservoirs, a portion of which, re- 
maining in suspension, is swallowed with the water, no doubt varies consider- 
ably in its composition. A single analysis, of a specimen thrown out of the 
reservoir in the spring of the year, was made, at my request, by Doctor Ray- 
mond, and gave the following results in one hundred parts : 



49.84 


38.30 


2.00 


1.15 


0.52 


0.00 


3.50 


4.69 


100.00 



104 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Alumina, - 

Silex, 

Carbonate of lime, 

Do. Iron, -__-__ 

Phosphates of alumina and iron, ... 
Carbonate of magnesia, a trace, - 
•Vegetable mold (humus), - 
Other organic matter, - 



In general, during every flood, the water when distributed is turbid. 

For a long time after the settlement of Cincinnati, its only fuel was wood ; 
but this, to a great extent, has been superseded by bituminous coal, from 
the Appalachian Basin. At present, the amount consumed is greater than 
in any other locality in the Interior Valley, save Pittsburgh. This results, 
not merely from the great number of inhabitants, but also from the multipli- 
cation of their manufacturing establishments; some of which will come under 
review when referring to the causes of other diseases than autumnal fever. 
From the better ventilation of this locality, its atmosphere is, however, much 
less laden with the fumes of burning coal, than that of Pittsburgh. The 
natural facilities for this ventilation may be seen by referring to the map. 

Cincinnati stands in Lat. 39° 6' N., and Long. 84° 29' 30" W. The 
elevation of the surface of the river, at low water, above the level of the sea, 
is four hundred and thirty-one feet ; that of the lower plain about four hun- 
dred and ninety; that of the upper, five hundred and forty- three; that of 
the surrounding hills, on an average, not far from eight hundred and fifty 
feet. 

The population of the city presents many varieties of physiology. The 
original settlers were from various states of the Union ; and the armies of 
Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne, during the Indian wars, left behind them a 
still greater variety of persons. The subsequent immigration, although 
largely from the Middle and Northern Atlantic States, has been, in part, 
from the more Southern. In latter years it has been composed, still more 
than from either, of Europeans. The most numerous of these are Germans, 
next Irish, then English, Welsh, and Scotch. Very few French, Italians, or 
Spaniards have sought it out. Lastly, its African population, chiefly eman- 
cipated slaves and their offspring, from Kentucky and Virginia, is large ; 
and although intermarriages with the whites are unknown, the streets present 
as many mulatto, griffe, and quadroon complexions, as those of New Or- 
leans. Thus the varieties of national physiology are very great. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 305 

SECTION VII. 

NORTHERN BANKS AND HILLS OF THE OHIO RIVER, FROM THE 
GREAT MIAMI TO THE WABASH. 

I. General Characteristics.— It is a remarkable feature in the tribu- 
tary-hydrography of the middle section of the Ohio, on its northern side, 
that from the Great Miami to the Wabash, a distance of three hundred and 
seventy-five miles, there is not a single affluent which deserves the title of 
river, — n ot one that is more than a wet-weather hill-torrent, insufficient 
even for mill purposes, except in rainy seasons. In fact, at distances, vary- 
ing from ten to thirty miles, back from the Ohio, the streams flow off to the 
north, and have their confluence in the East Fork of White River, which, 
uniting with the West Fork, pours its waters into the Wabash. 

Here, then, is a long, narrow, serpentine zone, deeply cut by rivulets, 
which, descending to the south, enter the Ohio through its broad bottoms, or 
by other streams which flow to the north, in excavations which are less pro- 
found. Such a tract cannot abound in swamps or ponds, and the water- 
courses present but few wide alluvial bottoms. As a general fact, they sink 
to the level of the Ohio before reaching it ; and, therefore, near their mouths, 
become, in all its floods, receptacles of back-water, which on receding, leaves 
deposits of mud and drift-wood, which the subsequent rains generally wash 
out into the river. When, however, there is a June flood in the Ohio, the 
silt is apt to remain through the subsequent dry season, and prove a source 
of insalubrity. Hence, those who live near these foul estuaries, which 
mingle their influence with that of the river-bottoms, experience intermit- 
tent and remittent fevers, notwithstanding they are in the midst of a hilly 
country. In traveling on this zone from its upper to its lower extremity, we 
start upon the blue shell or old Silurian limestone ; then meet, resting on it, 
with the upper or cliff Silurian ; then with the Devonian limestone, support- 
ing the black slate, on which rests the fine-grained sandstone of the same 
group ; after which, we meet with the carboniferous limestone, and the higher 
strata within the Illinois coal basin. All these formations crop out to the 
east or south-east, from beneath that basin. Of course the mineralogical 
character of the surface, composed as it is of the debris of these different 
formations, intermingled with forest and herbaceous remains, varies accord- 
ing to the mineral constitution of the rocks ; and a similar remark is appli- 
cable to the water of the springs and wells. The whole tract is wooded, the 
trees varying in their species with the varieties of soil. The mean elevation 
of the zone may be taken at eight hundred feet, but the highest swells at- 
tain the altitude of one thousand feet. We must now say something of the 
most important localities. 

II. Lawrenceburg stands a mile below the mouth of the Great Miami, 
in the State of Indiana ; the dividing line between that state and Ohio, being 
the meridian of the mouth of that river. Its site is a bottom, so low that 
all parts not artificially raised, are subject to annual inundation. Above the 
town, to its east and north-east, are the wide, low, and annually inundated 

20 



306 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

bottoms, on each side of the estuary of the Miami, well known to generate 
autumnal fever ; but as they lie to the leeward of the town, their pernicious 
influence, in summer and autumn, is much less than it would otherwise be. 
Yet, doubtless, they contribute something to that prevalence of intermittent 
and remittent fever which is partly to be ascribed to the inundation of the 
greater part of the plain, on the front of which the town is erected, and 
partly to a valley-stream in its rear, called Tanner's Creek, up which the 
back-water in river-floods makes it way almost round the town. The main 
street, since it was raised, is four hundred and seventy-three feet above the 
sea — the hills at the sources of Tanner's Creek ten hundred and thirteen 
feet.* In the early period of the settlement of Lawrenceburg, these fevers 
were extremely prevalent ; but at present are so mitigated in frequency and 
violence, as to show very conclusively the influence of cultivation and town- 
construction, in destroying the topographical condition on which they depend. 
Within a few years, a branch of the Whitewater Canal has been brought 
through the town, but of its influence on autumnal health I cannot speak. 

Passing by Aurora, Rising Sun, and some other villages ( for all cannot 
be noticed ), we must devote a page to a larger and more important town 
than either. 

III. Madison. — This town, one of the oldest and most considerable in 
the State of Indiana, is situated on a diluvial, and dry second bottom of the 
Ohio River, but has, in front of its lower half, a narrow strip of alluvion 
which is subject to occasional inundation. The upper terrace is elevated 
about four hundred and seventy-five feet above the sea. Its breadth is not 
very great, for an amphitheater of Silurian limestone hills, rising four hun- 
dred feet higher, closely surrounds it. The back part of the terrace declines 
a little, and is somewhat cut up by ravines, which run into a common trough 
called Crooked Creek, in which the torrents from the adjoining hills some- 
times congregate so as to occasion a considerable inundation. This stream 
enters the Ohio two miles below the town, behind which it conducts the 
back-water of the river in every great freshet. The banks, however, are high, 
and, on the whole, the plain is not infested with any form of drowned lands ; 
the shore, in front of the town, is free from nuisances ; and the opposite hills 
of Kentucky approach close to the river, whose course to the south-west, on 
leaving the town, favors ventilation by the summer winds, which, in reaching 
it, do not pass over any paludal surface. Such a topography must admit of 
a favorable report, as to autumnal fever ; which, in fact, prevails here but to 
a limited degree. 

IY. Jeffersonville. — The position of this town may be seen on PI. XI, 
Ch. IX, Sect. YII. It stands about a mile above the Falls of the Ohio, on 
a terrace, the south or river side of which is forty feet above low water, and 
about four hundred and twenty above the sea. This terrace, like most others 
along the Ohio, declines from near the river, and is liable to inundations, so 
that in high floods the town becomes insulated. Both above and below it 

* Indiana Engineers' Reports. 



part. i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 307 

there are small streams entering the Ohio, which are the channels by which 
these overflows are effected. To the north and north-east, near the town, 
there are ponds skirted with marsh, one of which has been lately drained. 
The surface, like that of the plain on which Louisville stands, on the oppo- 
site side of the river, is argillaceous, and retains the water which rains or 
flows upon it. It will be observed that all the insalubrious surface lies to 
the summer-leeward of the town ; but the flats and stagnant waters near the 
mouth of Bear-grass Creek, on the opposite side of the Ohio, are directly to 
the windward of this town, with only the river intervening. Jeffersonville 
is also to the leeward of the Falls, and exposed therefore to any insalubrious 
gases which may be liberated by the agitation of the waters. Two miles 
north of the town, a water -shed, between the Ohio River and Silver Creek, 
commences and runs to Charleston, thirteen miles north. At its commence- 
ment this terrace is sixty feet above the level of the town, and its rise, after- 
ward, is about ten feet per mile. Doctor Stewart, to whom I am indebted 
for several of the facts in this article, informs me that autumnal inter- 
mittents and remittents are decidedly prevalent in Jeffersonville and its 
vicinity. 

The Penitentiary of the State of Indiana stands in the western part of Jef- 
fersonville. Doctor Colium, its physician, informs me that the convicts are 
every year invaded by autumnal fever, but in a degree rather less than the 
inhabitants of the town. 

V. New Albany. — The position of this town is below the Falls, nearly 
opposite Portland ( PI. XT). Silver Creek enters the river between New 
Albany and Jeffersonville, which are about six miles apart. Of this stream, 
Doctor Clapp ( by whom I have been favored with facts for this description ) 
says, " it presents no ponds or marshes, within ten miles of New Albany, 
except mill-ponds, and they cause but little overflow of the surface." As to 
the town- site, a narrow slip near the river, not very much built upon, it has 
been entirely overflowed but twice in thirty years. The upper terrace is 
fifteen feet above the highest freshets, and four hundred and twenty-six above 
the sea. Immediately to its west is a small stream called Falling Run, up 
which the back-water of the river ascends a short distance ; and about once 
in four or five years overflows a few acres. The bed of this stream is rocky, 
and its descent rapid. It flows at the base of the bold rampart called Silver 
Creek hills, which rises to an altitude of nine hundred feet over the sea, a&d 
four hundred and eighty above the terrace on which the town is built. This 
terrace consists of a bed of alluvion, thirty feet deep, resting on black or 
Devonian slate, which emerges from underneath the hills. 

Of all the towns around the Falls, New Albany is the least exposed to the 
topographical causes of autumnal fever; and from the best data I have been 
able to collect, it suffers least. From 1817 to 1822, the first five years of 
Doctor Clapp's residence in it, those fevers prevailed extensively, but have 
ever since been diminishing. 

YI. The Black-slate Valley-Plain. — A description of that portion 
of this plain which lies south of the Ohio River, was given in Sect. VII of 



308 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the last Chapter, p. 246. Its extension to the north side of the Falls has 
been announced, in speaking of the substrata on which the alluvial or dilu- 
vial terraces of New Albany and Jeffersonville rest. It remains to say, that 
this depression extends northwardly quite into the interior of Indiana. For 
twenty-three or twenty-four miles, it preserves a width corresponding with 
that from the mouth of Salt River to the Falls. The hills then approach so 
near to each other, that the plain becomes an isthmus, and has received the 
name of Collins' Gap. It afterward expands ; but to trace it farther would 
carry us too far beyond the limits of this Section. The approximate hills 
have an altitude, on the eastern side, of one hundred and seventy feet ; on the 
western, of five hundred feet. The former are composed of the upper Silurian 
limestone, which has emerged from beneath the black slate ; the latter of the 
sandstone which, farther west, overlays that formation. The disintegration 
of the slate, I may repeat, has produced this remarkable valley ; the surface 
of which is nearly five hundred feet below the general level of the country. 
Its principal stream, on the north side of the Ohio, is Silver Creek. When 
the French traveler, Volney,* visited the Falls, in 1776, his attention was 
strongly turned to this depression, which, he conjectured, was the bed of a 
drained lake ; a theory which is sustained by the undulating deposits, and, 
what Doctor McMurtrief calls ' planispherical accumulations' of sand, which 
in various places rest on the argillaceous debris of the slate formation ; a bot- 
tom which is almost water-tight, and has, consequently, given origin to the 
ponds and swamps which have rendered the whole tract unhealthy, in autumn, 
from the earliest period of its settlement. When the surface shall be com- 
pletely drained and cultivated, the health of the inhabitants will undergo a 
great amelioration. 

VI. Evansville, the commercial metropolis of south-west Indiana, stands 
a little below the thirty-eighth degree of north latitude, not far above the 
mouth of the Wabash River, and almost beyond the southern extremity of 
the hill-zone described in No. I, of this Section. I am indebted to Doctor 
Walker for the following account : 

" The plain on which the town is built has an elevation of about three hun- 
dred and seventy-two feet above the sea, and ten or twelve over the highest 
floods of the Ohio. It is situated on the extreme convexity of a short bend 
made by the Ohio, which, after having flowed many miles to the north-west, 
turns suddenly and sharply to the south-west, and then to the south-east, 
whence, making a detour round to the west, north-west, and even north, it 
resumes its general course and flows off to the west. A sluggish bayou, 
beginning a short distance below the town, constitutes the chord of this great 
segment, or rather, completes a rude circle, which incloses fifteen or sixteen 
square miles of low bottom, fertile, subject to inundation, and lying to the 
south-west or summer- windward of the town. The bayou itself is foul, and 
has low grounds on both its sides. As the river approaches the town it 

* View of the Soil and Climate of the United States : 1804, Philad. 
+ Sketches of Louisville. By H. McMurtrie, 1819. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 309 

divides into two channels, inclosing a long depressed island. The channel, 
which lies on the same side of the river with the town, and which reunites 
with the other but a short distance above it, is too shallow and obstructed for 
low-water navigation, and becomes foul in summer. Opposite the town, on 
the Kentucky side, there is an extensive bottom, which is liable to frequent 
inundations. The river-bottoms, commencing a mile below and half a mile 
above the town, are liable to submersions every four or five years, and are 
not destitute of ponds and sloughs. The terrace on which the town is built, 
stretches off to the north for many miles ; a sufficient evidence that, in reach- 
ing this locality, we have nearly escaped from the zone of hill-country de- 
scribed in No. I, of this Section. A mill-stream, called Pigeon Creek, tra- 
verses this valley, passes near the rear of the town, and joins the Ohio a short 
distance below. Its banks are generally so high, that neither its own floods 
nor the back-waters of the Ohio overflow them to much extent. 

The surrounding uplands rise from one to two hundred feet above the 
town- site, and present many tracts of table-land, abounding in swales and 
marshes. 

This locality, both in town and country, but much more in the latter than 
the former, is subject to autumnal fevers, which often assume a malignant 
and fatal character. Many topical affections, moreover, such as neuralgias, 
assume a periodical character, and afford additional evidence of autumnal 
insalubrity. 

With these notices we dismiss the river-zone, and travel into the interior. 
The region which must first receive attention, lies in the rear of that which 
has been described, and is comprehended in a small hydrographical basin. I 
shall treat it in the briefest manner. 



SECTION VIII. 

BASIN OF WHITE RIVER. 

I. General Hydrography. — White River is the largest tributary, and 
almost a coequal, of the Wabash, which it joins about one hundred and ten 
miles from the junction of the latter (following its meanders) with the 
Ohio. On the north it is surrounded by the Wabash; on the east its 
sources mingle with those of the tributaries of the Great Miami; on the 
south, it receives the water of streams which originate on the northern slopes 
of the hill-zone which has just been described. White River is composed of 
two great branches, called the East and West Forks, the former of which 
flows nearly parallel with the Ohio, while the latter pursues a more southerly 
course, until they unite not many miles above the junction of their common 
trunk with the Wabash. Nearly a third part of the State of Indiana — its 
southern and south-eastern — is comprehended in this basin, the eastern 
portion of which rests on Silurian limestone, while the western lies within 



310 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the great Illinois coal formation. Thus, its surface-rock is, in some parts, 
calcareous, in others, arenaceous, in others, schistose or argillaceous. 

II. The East Fork. — That division of the basin which is drained by 
the East Fork, is, in reference to its surface, a continuation of the lower or 
southern part of the Miami Basin; that is, it presents rounded wooded hills, 
not formed by elevation above the general surface of the country, but by 
valleys and ravines of excavation ; some of which have bottom-lands of con- 
siderable width, but, on the whole, narrow alluvions, more like those on the 
south than the north side of the Ohio River. The bodv and basis of these 
hills is the limestone already mentioned. In passing westwardly we leave 
this limestone, not to meet with it again in the Ohio Basin, and come to the 
Devonian slate, which stretches, northwardly from the Falls of Ohio, in a 
belt of more level land, with a more pondy and swampy surface; to this 
succeeds — still going to the west : — the rugged eastern margin of the coal 
formation, which, however, becomes more flat after we have passed the out- 
crop of sandstone which underlies the coal measures, and their associate 
shales, sandstones, and carboniferous limestones. 

Every part of the region drained by the East Fork of White River, is 
subject to autumnal fever, which is more frequent and severe in the neigh- 
borhood of the river and its larger tributaries, than upon the uplands. 

III. The West Fork — more correctly the north — is a longer stream 
than the East, running nearly south south-west, through two degrees of lati- 
tude, but not draining a greater surface. The region from which it flows is 
more level than the last, embraces many prairies, both wet and dry, and pre- 
sents along its streams much wide bottom-lands, with more of northern 
drift or transported materials on its surface. Thus, it is a continuation of 
the upper part of the Miami Basin. Its autumnal fevers are essentially the 
same as those of the East Fork. 

IV. Indianapolis, the capital of the State of Indiana, stands on the 
left or east bank of the West Fork of White Biver, in N. Lat. 39° 55', and 
W. Long. 86° 5'. The plain which constitutes its site is slightly undula- 
ting, with an average elevation of twenty feet above low-water mark, and 
about seven hundred above the level of the sea.* The principal part of the 
town is three quarters of a mile from the river. At a short distance above 
and to the north of the town, Fall Creek enters the river, which it reaches 
from the north-east. A smaller stream passes through the suburbs of the 
town, on the east and south sides, to join the river below. In summer and 
autumn this stream nearly dries up. Immediately north, there was formerly 
a pond, which discharged its superfluous waters across the town-plat ; but a 
ditch has been made to drain it into Fall Creek. East of the town, at the 
distance of a mile, is the margin of a slightly rolling tract of argillaceous 
ground, covered with beech timber. To the north, the country is a little 
broken; but we have there the wide alluvial bottoms of White Biver and 
Fall Creek. West of the river, the bottom is a mile in width, and so low as 

* Indiana Engineers' Reports. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 311 

to be overflowed in all high freshets. At the foot of the bluffs which termi- 
nate this bottom, there is a swale, or pondj belt, from ten to forty rods 
wide, overshadowed with trees and rank grass, or rendered foul with drift- 
wood and other organic matters, thrown into it by the river floods. Its 
length is about two miles. Beyond this, to the west and north-west, for 
several miles, there is a dry, old terrace of sand, gravel, and other northern 
drift, bounded by Eagle Creek. On one of the undulations of this plain, 
stands the Lunatic Asylum of Indiana.* On the terrace east of the river, 
between it and the town, there is a canal, designed merely for hydraulic pur- 
poses, with a lock through which the water is restored to the river. Every 
summer it becomes choked up with a luxuriant aquatic vegetation, which is 
destroyed by letting out the water in July or August. 

Doctor S. Gr. Mitchellf informs me that, on digging wells in the town, they 
first pass through four or five feet of soil and loam, then through fifteen or 
twenty feet of gravel, and afterward continue in white sand, as low down as 
perforations had been made. The same early medical historian of Indian- 
apolis tells us, that the settlement of the town was commenced in 1820, 
when the plain was heavily timbered with various kinds of trees. In the 
spring of 1821, these were extensively cut down, and immigrants crowded 
upon the spot, until, by midsummer, they numbered about six hundred. 
They were miserably lodged in open cabins, shanties, and even tents; and 
subsisted largely on fish and game, with very little salt. July and August 
were unusually hot and wet. Every thing molded. The luxuriant foliage 
of the fallen trees and trodden- down annual plants, underwent a rapid 
decomposition. Exhalations offensive to the smell arose. Many domestic 
animals died, and, in the latter part of July, intermittent and remittent 
fevers appeared. They commenced near the river, and extended eastwardly 
through the new village, assuming a malignant character. Before the epi- 
demic closed in October, nearly every person had been more or less indis- 
posed, and seventy-two, or about an eighth part of the population, had died. 
Many of the most malignant or algid cases commenced as simple intermit- 
tents. Since that time, Indianapolis has not experienced a severe visitation ; 
but its vicinity, especially to the north, remains, as its medical topography 
would lead us to expect, subject to annual invasions. 



SECTION IX. 

BASIN OF THE WABASH. 
I. General Survey. — Although White River is a branch of the Wa- 
bash, its size and slight connection with that river, made it convenient to 
describe it under a separate head. The basin of the Wabash above the 
mouth of its great affluent, is long, narrow, and curved round from south- 

f Doctor John Evans. MS. penes me. 

% Western Journal (Cincinnati), Vol. II, p. 443. 



312 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

west to north-east. The mouth of the Wabash is found in N. Lat. 37° 47 , 
and "W. Lon. 87° 45'; its most northern sources in Lat. 41 Q 15', and its most 
eastern in Lon. 84° 30'. Originating in the western part of the State of 
Ohio, it traverses Indiana diagonally, and joins the Ohio River between that 
state and Illinois, not far below Evansville. Its upper waters originate in 
ponds or small lakes, and extensive marsh-prairies, on the summit-level be- 
tween the Ohio Basin, and the basins of Lakes Michigan and Erie. Emi- 
nently an alluvial river, it everywhere has wide bottom-lands, many of which 
are subject to spring and early summer inundations, leaving behind them 
ponds, bayous, marshes, and swales, abounding in drift-wood, and other foul 
deposits. The fertility of these bottoms is great, and their vegetation luxu- 
riant. All the upper portions of the Wabash Basin are overspread with 
extensive terraces or plains of clay, sand, gravel, pebbles, and other trans- 
ported materials from the north, which bury up the rocky strata.* In the 
lower or southern portions of the valley, which are moderately broken, the 
amount of drift is much less, though it is abundant in the wide trough of the 
Wabash. It need scarcely be added, that such a region as has been thus 
comprehensively sketched, having an altitude not exceeding seven or eight 
hundred feet for its summits, while the bottom-lands of its streams are con- 
siderably lower, is liable to autumnal fever. That disease, in fact, prevails 
in every portion of it. But I must not dismiss it without giving an account 
of some of its more important localities. 

II. Lafayette. — I have received from Doctor Deming the materials for 
a descriptive notice of this locality. The town stands on the left-hand bank 
of an eastern bend of the Wabash, in Lat. 40° 18', at a hight of five hun- 
dred and thirty-eight feet above the level of the sea, and thirty-five feet 
above low water; an elevation which protects it from inundation. The 
upper strata of this terrace consist of sand and gravel, resting on a stratum of 
hard blue cla}^, in some places fifteen feet thick, which has to be passed 
through to obtain good well-water. Below this deposit, and in the hills, 
there are strata of sub-carboniferous limestone. The surface of the terrace 
is sufficiently undulating to favor draining. In the southern part of the 
town-plat there are a number of small streams, fed by springs, and there 
were formerly several acres of boggy marsh, which have been drained and put 
under cultivation. With the exception of this spot, there were no swamps 
or ponds near the town, on the east side of the river. In receding from the 
river to the east, an old or second bottom is encountered, the bluff margin of 
which has been sloped so as to present a gradual rise. The hill-land rises 
on the south side of the town to the hight of eighty feet — on the east, to 
one hundred and seventy feet — on the north-east, to one hundred and fifty. 
This semi-circle of highland is covered with timber, beyond which, east- 
wardly, lies the Wild-cat Prairie ; portions of which were swampy, but have 
been reclaimed, with a consequent great amelioration of autumnal health. 
Opposite the town, on the western side of the river, a low bottom, commen- 

* Doctor Owen's Second Geological Report. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 313 

cing a mile above, extends several miles below. It is annually inundated, 
sometimes to the depth of fourteen feet, and Doctor Deming has noticed, 
that its occasional summer-inundations are far more productive of fever than 
those of spring. The width of this bottom varies from a quarter of a mile 
to a mile. Lying to the summer-windward, this bottom, with the wet and 
swaley tract on the south side of the town, is no doubt the principal cause 
of the decided prevalence of autumnal fever, which annually occurs at this 
place. According to Doctor Deming, a large proportion of its diseases are 
intermittent and remittent fevers; many cases of the former, called by the 
people, ' sinking chills,' are decidedly malignant. So great, indeed, is the 
paludal influence, that almost all forms of disease, especially pneumonia, dys- 
entery, and epidemic erysipelas, manifest its effects. 

III. Terre Haute. — I have been favored by Doctor Read and Doctor 
Cloppinger, with facts for an account of this locality. The latitude of Terre 
Haute is about 39° 24' N. Its elevation above the level of the sea, is four 
hundred and eighty-three feet* — above high-water mark of the Wabash, 
twenty-five feet. At the distance of three miles east from the river, there is 
another terrace about fifty feet higher. The town stands on the left or 
eastern side of the river, and occupies a portion of the western margin of 
the plain just mentioned, which is known as the Fort Harrison Prairie. This 
terrace, which, from its elevation, suggested the name by which the town is 
known, extends several miles up and down the river. It belongs to the 
diluvial epoch, and rests upon the coal measures. According to Doctor 
Read, in sinking wells into it, they pass through soil, and then white sand, 
with occasional layers of gravel, to the average depth of fifty-five feet 
( which is beneath low- water mark of the Wabash ), when abundance of 
clear, cold, hard water is found, in a broad sheet or stream, making its way 
through the sand to the south-west, in the general course of the river. 
According to the same authority, there is, at the distance of half a mile east 
of the town, a depression of the terrace, to the extent of several thousand 
acres. Its length is parallel to the river, and it formerly received water 
from the higher ground, during rains, and was left with a swaley surface. 
That which flowed into it was, however, at length turned to the river, and 
the whole reclaimed and cultivated, with a favorable influence on the health 
of the inhabitants. Doctor Cloppinger did not observe that this swamjoy 
tract exerted any injurious effect on the health of the town, which lies to its 
west or windward; but the people who reside north of it suffered severely. 
On the opposite or western side of the river, there is a low, wide, heavily- 
timbered, alluvial bottom ; which is, every spring and summer, deeply inun- 
dated, giving to the river in high floods the width of a mile. These floods 
leave the surface wet and foul; and in the middle of the bottom, half a mile 
west of the river, there is a permanent swamp of about twenty acres, be- 
tween which and the town, there stands, however, a thick wood, which is 
supposed to exert a protecting influence. 

* Indiana Eng. Rep. 



314 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book j. 

Both the gentlemen whom I have quoted, testify to the great prevalence of 
autumnal fever in this locality, where all the varieties, from the most simple 
up to the most malignant, are met with. In summer and autumn all diseases, 
according to Doctor Reed, tend to periodicity, and, in winter, pneumonia is 
so greatly modified by the paludal influence, that bloodletting is sometimes 
followed by death. Both these physicians, moreover, testify to the fact, that 
persons living near the margins, and almost on the level of the paludal tracts, 
are less subject to autumnal fever than those who reside at the distance of a 
half a mile or a mile, and at a higher elevation. In support of this state- 
ment, Doctor Cloppinger has made a number of specifications, which I have 
not space to transcribe, and concludes by informing me, that Doctor Patrick, 
an old and intelligent physician, long resident at Terre Haute, has observed 
all that is here recorded. 

IV. Vincennes. — The site of this town, an old French village, settled 
more than a century since, is a beautiful diluvial prairie, from one to two 
miles in width, extending six miles along the Wabash River, on its left or 
eastern side. Most of the plain is sandy. The spot on which the town is 
built is not subject to inundations, but immediately below, and for three miles 
down, the bottom, before it was protected by a levee, was liable to submer- 
sion. About a mile and a half east of the town, there were several ponds 
and marshes, which, however, have been drained into the river, five miles 
below. Beyond these ponds there are bluffs, followed by clayey table-land . 
On the west, or right-hand side of the river, there is a belt of low timbered bot- 
tom-land, a mile in width, succeded by a prairie six miles wide, and of much 
greater length up and down the river, which, in high floods, is more or less 
subject to inundations, that leave ponds and marshes behind them. Such is 
the broad valley of the Wabash at this point. The elevation of its high or 
diluvial bottom-lands is about four hundred and fifty feet above the sea. The 
latitude of the town is 38° 43' N., its longitude 87° 25' W. Its population 
is two thousand five hundred, one-third of whom are descendants of the origi- 
nal French settlers. 

The inhabitants of the prairie on the west side of the river, are subject, in 
a decided degree, to remittent and intermittent fevers ; those on the eastern 
side are affected rather less, as to the number of cases, but more severely in 
degree. In latter years, malignant cases, late in autumn, have not been 
uncommon.* 

V. New Harmony. — This is the settlement made by Mr. Robert Owen, 
of Scotland, in the year 1824. Its latitude is 38° 11' N., its longitude 87° 
35' W. It stands on the left or south-eastern bank of the Wabash river, near 
a quarter of a mile from its margin, and about half a mile from a higher ter- 
race in its rear. " The bottom on which the town is built," says Doctor 
Murphy, " is considerably more elevated than the slip between it and the 
river. The whole bottom, from the river to the highest terrace, is about a 
mile wide, increases gradually in width, as we ascend the river, and is under 

* Doctor Joseph Sommes. MS. penes me. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 315 

cultivation. The level of the town site is about six feet above the highest 
floods of the river, and near four hundred feet above the Glulf of Mexico. 
The soil consists of rich vegetable mold, with a liberal admixture of sand, in 
consequence of which it dries rapidly after rain. The only standing water 
near the town is a brick-pond, to its south, which is sixty yards in diameter, 
and nearly dries up in summer. The water used by the inhabitants is from 
wells, which receive it by percolation from the Wabash, and, therefore, it is 
soft. To the north-west of the town is the river, the width of which is nearly 
a quarter of a mile. Half a mile below the center of the town the Harmony 
cut-off issues from the river, to join it three miles below; by which, from the 
circuitous course of the river, an alluvial island, fifteen miles in circumference, 
is formed to the west of the town. The whole of this surface is overflowed 
by river freshets, and ponds and sluices are left behind, but none of them lie 
near the town. It is covered by a dense forest, with luxuriant herbaceous 
vegetation, and none of it is under cultivation. Opposite the town is Fox 
Island, on the western side of which a portion of the Wabash flows, whenever 
it rises to a mean hight. This island is covered with forest trees and a cane- 
brake, and presents ponds and bayous, none of which, however, are near the 
town. It only remains to add, that to the south of the town there is a range 
of hills, and that the terrace on which the town is built stretches off some 
distance to the east, and is under high cultivation." 

It is, I suppose, generally known, that in prosecuting his great experiment 
on the community-system, Mr. Owen assembled around him, on this spot, a 
number of distinguished savans, who knew much more of the physical than 
of the moral world. Both the cultivators of science and of the soil were long- 
since dispersed ; and a common American town, with eight hundred inhabi- 
tants, now occupies ground consecrated to the new social system. They are 
subject to the fevers of autumn, which often display a malignant character, 
like those of the towns higher up the river. 

VI. Valley of the Wabash below New Harmony. — From New Har- 
mony to the junction of the Wabash with the Ohio River, the distance is 
fifty-five miles. According to Doctor Murphy, the valley is in general from 
three to five miles wide ; and there are but few spots in the whole distance 
which are not overflowed by the freshets of the river, to a depth varying 
from three to ten feet, until we approach the Ohio, when, from the back- 
water of that river, the inundation is often much deeper. These overflows 
often take place in summer, but do not seem to be the cause of insalubrity; 
on the contrary, dry and hot summers are the most unhealthy. On the other 
hand, Doctor Murphy has observed, that persons living off the river-bottoms 
and bluffs, on the uplands, are more sickly in wet summers than dry. In 
comparing the inhabitants in and near the valley with those who reside be- 
yond its influence, he has found the health and longevity of the latter supe- 
rior to those of the former. He has everywhere observed autumnal fever to 
be diminished by cultivation. The whole of this region lies in the coal 
basin. 

VII. Region west of the Wabash. — In passing the river to the west, 



316 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

we enter on the vast prairies of Illinois. East of the Wabash they are sub- 
ordinate to the wood-lands — west, the proportions are reversed. Of this re- 
gion, a belt, two or three counties wide, extending from the summit -level 
between the waters of Lake Michigan and the Wabash, belongs to the basin 
we are now exploring, and is drained by the Embarras and Little Wabash 
Rivers, not to mention smaller tributaries. The upper beds of these four- 
teen or fifteen counties, consist almost entirely of diluvial pebbles, gravel, 
sand, and clay, with a covering of rich vegetable mold. The streams 
through such loose deposits, of course, have wide bottom-lands, nearly all of 
which are liable to inundation in times of high water. The surface of this 
region, whether wooded or woodless, is generally undulating or level, and 
scarcely anywhere broken into hills and ravines. The rigid grasses of the 
prairies retard the escape of rains and melted snows, while their long wiry 
roots bind the soil, and prevent the waters from excavating trenches through 
which they might flow off. Thus, extensive tracts of wet or marshy prairie 
are formed and maintained. Between these ( many of which will be ren- 
dered dry by ditching, when the population becomes denser), and the low 
bottoms, which are irreclaimable, the whole of this extensive and fertile por- 
tion of the Wabash Basin is infested with autumnal fever, of which many 
cases assume a malignant and fatal character.* The mean latitude of this 
belt is 39° N. ; — its elevation from seven to eight hundred feet above 
the sea. 



SECTION X. 

REMAINDER OF THE OHIO BASIN. 

I. General Description. — Between the mouth of the Wabash and 
the Mississippi Biver there lies a range of counties, a notice of which will 
finish the description of the Ohio Basin. They are drained by Saline, Bay, 
and Cash Creeks; embrace but few prairies; and are generally covered 
with heavy forests, in the southern parts of which there are cane-brakes, 
and cypress swamps. The upper or northern counties — Hamilton, Frank- 
lin, Williamson, and Gallatin, — have a sandy surface, and abound in car- 
boniferous limestone; — the sandstone which underlies the coal formation 
appearing here and there. The diluvium which overspreads the country 
further north, is here much reduced in quantity. The remainder of this 
district makes a part of the extensive alluvial region through which the 
Ohio unites itself with the Mississippi, and over which, when those rivers 
are in flood, their waters spread wide and deep ; leaving, when they recede, 
large ponds and swamps. f 

About six miles from the Ohio Biver, and running parallel with it, is an 
ancient bed of the Wabash, or of a part of that river. It is now a dense 

* Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois. 
flbid. 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 317 

cypress swamp, impassable, except in two places, and there by causeways. 
It extends from the Wabash to Saline Creek, eighteen or twenty miles, and 
when the Ohio Eiver is swollen, a portion of its back-water takes the course 
of this ancient bed.* 

As the region which has been briefly sketched lies in the mean latitude of 
thirty-seven degrees, and is elevated only about three hundred and fifty feet 
above the Gulf of Mexico, it is, of course, infested with dangerous autumnal 
fevers. We must say something of its principal town. 

II. Shawneetown. — I am indebted to Doctor Roe for the following 
description of this locality : 

" Shawneetown stands ten miles below the mouth of the Wabash, and 
eight miles above the mouth of Saline Creek. From one to the other, there 
is a range of fertile, heavily-timbered, sandstone hills, varying in their dis- 
tance from the Ohio, from half a mile to three miles, or even more. At 
Shawneetown, they are distant a mile. In the river bottoms in front of these 
hills, there are a great number of lagoons or bayous. Those above the town 
are from one to three miles long, and from a hundred yards to a mile in 
width. Their depth is often considerable. During high water in the river, 
they all communicate with each other, and pour their waters, behind the 
town, into the lesser bayous below it. The town itself stands on higher 
ground than that behind it ; but when the Ohio and Wabash are swollen at 
the same time, its entire site is overflowed. On the south or Kentucky side 
of the river, the hills opposite the mouth of the Wabash press close upon 
the shore, but soon recede, and a bottom, like that already described, is de- 
veloped. Thus, the valley of the Ohio, through this region, is about four 
miles wide, and not unfrequently the whole of it is under water. The ponds 
left on the south side have in general muddy banks and sandy bottoms. 
Their water is clear and cool, and they are overshadowed with cypress trees. 
To return to the plain on which the town is built, I may state, that in the 
river bank, there is a conglomerate rock, abounding in sulphuret of iron, 
which undergoes a rapid decomposition, forming sulphate of iron. The wells 
of the plain afford different kinds of water, according to their depth; in 
some it is soft ; in the greater number, hard. In digging a well, a mile from 
the river, near the foot of the hill, after having passed through sand, gravel, 
loam, blue clay, yellow clay, quick sand, and fine clay, they came to a stra- 
tum, four feet thick, of river mud, filled with logs, brush, and leaves, portions 
of the first being converted into beautiful lignite. 

" Shawneetown has always been notorious as a ' sickly place.' In the 
year 1838, the State of Illinois employed a large number of laborers here, 
on the construction of a railroad. It was a sickly year ; the town suffered 
dreadfully, and the operatives, who were strangers, still worse. A seventh 
part of them died, and nearly all were sick. But they dug an immense 
ditch, forty feet in depth, near the river, and deep enough generally to drain 
all the swamps and ponds in the vicinity of the town. The effect of this 

* Doctor Roe. 



318 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

measure on the autumnal health of the inhabitants was instantaneous, and 
has continued ever since. The fevers of that season no longer return ; and 
when we have an occasional intermittent, it is generally in the spring. 
Nevertheless, a malignant case, called by the people a congestive chill, is 
now and then met with. Our worst disease is pneumonia, which will not 
bear, the lancet, and often requires the sulphate of quinine. The fever still 
continues to prevail on the opposite side of the Ohio, where the swamps have 
not been drained." 

III. Conclusion. — We have now finished the topographical survey of 
the Ohio Basin. If the reader has found it tedious, he should recollect its 
great superficies ; extending from the sources of the southern tributaries of 
the Tennessee Eiver, in Georgia and Alabama, to those of the Alleghany, in 
New York ; and from the banks of the Mississippi River, in Illinois and 
Kentucky, to the Blue Ridge in Virginia. He should also remember its 
diversified geological constitution, from the tertiary deposits to the oldest 
Silurian or transition limestone. Still further he should meditate on the 
vast varieties of surface, necessarily presented by such a diversified geology. 
He should not forget the difference in altitude — nearly two thousand feet — 
between the alluvial bottoms of the Ohio, where it unites with the Missis- 
sippi, and the crests of the Appalachian Mountains, from which its rivulets 
descend. Finally, he should realize, that this great and fertile basin is, 
and ever must be, the most populous and important portion of the Interior 
Valley of North America; and thus he will be prepared to admit, that if 
there be, to the physician, any utility in this kind of study, any value in 
medical topography, geography, and geology, the time devoted to the Ohio 
Basin has not been misspent, nor the space allowed it greater than was 
demanded. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 319 



CHAPTER XL 

THE SOUTHERN BASIN, CONTINUED 



REGIONS EAST OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER^AND NORTH OF THE 

OHIO BASIN. 



SECTION I. 

GENERAL VIEWS. 

The remainder of the Southern or Mexican Basin consists of a long, narrow 
belt, bounded, on the west, by the Mississippi, above the mouth of the Ohio ; 
on the south-east, by the basin of the latter river; on the north-east, by the 
basin of the lakes ; and, on the north, by the Hudson Basin. In length, the 
region on which we have now entered extends through ten degrees of latitude, 
that is, from the thirty -seventh to the forty- seventh. For the first five or six 
degrees its axis is directly north, when it turns to the north north-east, until 
it terminates at the interlocking sources of the Mississippi, the River Wini- 
peg, and the St. Louis of Lake Superior. The average breadth of this long 
region is about two and half degrees of longitude. As its rivers, all tributary 
to the Mississippi, traverse it either obliquely or at right angles to its axis, 
they are, of course, short. The general aspect of the country which they 
drain is rolling, in some places fiat, in none, except near the larger streams, 
hilly. Prairies abound in all parts. In fact, this is the great prairie-region 
of the eastern half of the Interior Valley. The lower, or southern third-part, 
lies within the Illinois coal formation, to which succeeds, in going north, the 
out-crop of older rocks to the primitive strata near the sources of the Missis- 
sippi. As to altitude above the sea, the southern part is lowest, rising, in 
general, from seven to eight hundred feet only, while, by a gradual increase 
of elevation, the northern extremity attains the hight of fifteen or eighteen 
hundred. The southern half lies in the State of Illinois, the northern, in 
Wisconsin. Large portions of this region are, as yet, either thinly peopled 
or quite unsettled, and hence a minute description would neither be practi- 
cable nor of much interest to the medical etiologist. 



320 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION II. 

BASIN OF THE KASKASKIA RIVER. 

The Kaskaskia River joins the Mississippi one hundred miles above the 
mouth of the Ohio. Between the Ohio and the Kaskaskia, much of the 
country is somewhat broken, and abounds in forest more than prairie. The 
only stream worth notice is Big Muddy River, which presents abrupt wooded 
bluffs, with narrower bottom-lands than most of the rivers described in the 
last chapter. 

The general course of Kaskaskia River is to the south-west. Its sources, 
and nearly all its tributaries, interlock with those of the Wabash, to the 
south-east, and the Illinois River to the north-west. Of the rivers which 
belong exclusively to the State of Illinois, this is the longest. The lower 
half of its basin abounds in wood-lands more than prairies ; but in tne upper 
half, the proportions are reversed, and the forest is chiefly found in the neigh- 
borhood of the streams. The former division, moreover, is dryer and more 
hilly, possesses a less fertile soil, and presents more rock at the surface. The 
latter, like the upper parts of the Wabash Basin, has its rocky strata buried 
up in diluvium from the north. In this region lies the Grand Prairie, the 
largest savanna east of the Mississippi River. The Kaskaskia and its tri- 
butaries are, throughout, alluvial streams, that is, have wide and low timbered 
bottom-lands, subject to inundations, which leave behind them ponds, marshes, 
and all other varieties of wet surface, overspread with the wreck of their 
luxuriant vegetation. Such a surface, in the mean latitude of thirty nine 
degrees, must of necessity give rise to severe autumnal fevers, which are 
known to prevail throughout the whole Kaskaskia Basin. 



SECTION III. 

BASIN OF THE ILLINOIS RIVER. 
I. Outline Description. — The head-waters of Illinois River approach 
the southern end of Lake Michigan. On the western side of that lake, and 
within a few miles of its shores, the River Des Plaines originates, and flows 
to the south, nearly parallel to the same shores. This is one of the elemen- 
tary streams of the Illinois ; the other is the Kankakee. The sources of the 
latter are near the middle of the northern boundary of the State of Indiana, to 
the east of Lake Michigan, whence it winds round the end of the lake and flows 
westerly, until it joins the Des Plaines to form the Illinois. That river then 
bears off to the south-west and south, to join the Mississippi, twenty miles 
above the mouth of the Missouri River. Not far below its head the Illinois 
receives, through its right bank, the waters of Fox River, a large tributary, 
which originates near Lake Michigan, almost as far north as Milwaukie, in 
the State of Wisconsin. Below Fox River, all the northern and western 
tributaries of the Illinois are of very limited extent, as its basin is compressed 
on those sides, first by Rock River and afterward by the Mississippi ; the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 321 

former of which, the Illinois approaches at an acute angle, a short distance 
above the town of Hennepin. On its southern side the basin of the Illinois 
is much broader, and the tributary streams more numerous, of which the most 
important is the Sangamon. The upper portions of the Wabash and Kas- 
kaskia basins prefigure to us that which we have now entered. Interminable 
undulating prairies, dry, wet, and marshy, interspersed with groves, and in- 
tersected by streams whose wide and low bottoms are overshadowed with 
trees, characterize every part of the basin. The southern portions are within 
the coal formation, the northern and north-eastern rest on extensive level 
out-crops of the Devonian and Silurian rocks, which emerge from beneath the 
coal. In almost every part of the basin there are deep and extensive depo- 
sits of drift from the north. The great depression of the coast of Lake 
Michigan, at its southern extremity, has been already pointed out, and sug- 
gests that, for ages after Lake Erie ceased to send any portion of its waters 
into the Ohio, a great river continued to flow from Lake Michigan through 
the valley of the Illinois, into the Mississippi. Recently, a canal has re- 
established a water communication between the latter river and that lake ; 
which, with the fertility and beautiful aspects of the Illinois Basin, must 
quickly raise it to a distinction that will impart great interest to its medical 
topography. With these general observations, let us proceed to the study 
of particular localities. 

II. Lower part op the Illinois River. — In the month of September, 
1844, about two months after the great flood, I ascended the Illinois River 
eighty-four miles, to Meredosia, and had an opportunity of observing that 
the deposits which it left on the surface of the broad bottom-lands, were 
argillaceous, instead of being sandy, like those of the Missouri River, on the 
opposite side of the Mississippi. The grass and annual herbage, with much 
of the shrubbery, and many forest trees, had been killed by the submersion. 
Of the trees, the white hickory ( Carya porcina ) suffered most. This was 
an extraordinary flood; but the uncultivated state of the bottoms, generally, 
indicates that they are liable to annual inundation. On one side or the other 
of the trench through which the river flows, there is a bluff of sub-carbon- 
iferous limestone or Devonian sandstone rocks; on the opposite, a low, 
wooded bottom, abounding in extensive lagoons, ponds, and swamps. There 
are, however, within the trench, many old and high diluvial terraces, that 
are never overflowed. 

One of these terraces constitutes the site of Meredosia; in traversing 
which, on the road to Jacksonville, we travel over a sandy surface, then de- 
scend a little upon a fertile prairie, and then ascend a bluff, from which the 
view down the valley confirms what has just been said, as it discloses great 
breadth, with low prairies and wood-lands, abounding in pools and marshes. 
It seems almost superfluous to say, that the population along such a valley 
are subject to grave autumnal fevers. 

III. Jacksonville. — From the river to Jacksonville, twenty miles east 
of Meredosia, the road passes through Morgan County, one of the most pop- 
ulous of the state. The fertile surface is undulating and dry, and presents a 

21 



322 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

continued series of groves and prairies. The strata beneath are composed 
of carboniferous limestone, and the water is hard. The site of Jacksonville is 
an elevated undulating prairie, around which, to the east and north, at the 
distance of a mile, a sluggish stream, with oak-timbered banks, winds its way 
to Mauvaiseterre Creek, a tributary of Illinois Kiver. The settlement of 
this town was begun in the year 1825. It is the seat of the Illinois College, 
and of the State Institution for the education of the deaf and dumb. From 
Doctor Jones I learned, that all the forms of autumnal fever occur at this 
place. Malignant intermittents are rare — remittents, tending to a continued 
type, rather frequent. Doctor Prosser informed me, that the prevalence of 
these fevers is much less than formerly. Doctor Smith thought them not 
more frequent and fatal than he had seen them in the basin of Licking 
Kiver, Kentucky. Doctor English found them more malignant than he had 
seen them in the lower valley of the Great Kenawha, in Virginia. On the 
whole, they prevail here in a mitigated degree, compared with the sur- 
rounding region generally, and thus conform to its, apparently, salubrious 
character. 

IY. Springfield. — The road from Jacksonville to Springfield — the 
capital of the State of Illinois — runs directly east, through Morgan and 
Sangamon counties. The distance is thirty-six miles. The country has an 
elevated aspect; is gently rolling, and presents groves and prairies in alter- 
nation, with a predominance of the latter. In some places, the surface is so 
wet as to require the roads to be thrown up in the middle ; but not a pond 
nor marsh is to be seen on the whole route. Autumnal fever prevails, but 
not with such violence as to have prevented a very rapid settlement of the 
country, and its successful cultivation. 

Springfield is situate near the center of the Valley or Basin of Sangamon 
River, the most important tributary of the Illinois, in N. Lat. 39° 48', and 
W. Lon. 89° 33'. This valley, formerly called the ' Sangamon Country, 5 is 
to the State of Illinois, what the valley of the Elkhorn is to the State of 
Kentucky. A gently rolling surface ; numerous streams, which continue to 
flow through the summer and autumn; a deep and fertile argillaceous soil; 
extensive prairies, with groves and copses of fine forest ; no great extent of 
inundated bottom-lands, and but few ponds or swamps ; constitute its topo- 
graphical excellencies. Its altitude above the sea is from seven to eight hun- 
dred feet. Springfield need not detain us long. The margin and gentle 
slope of a prairie constitutes its site, with a small stream, along which are 
open wood-lands, meandering to its west through a rocky^ channel. Although 
the conditions requisite to the production of autumnal fever do not seem 
greatly to abound in the basin of the Sangamon, yet, Doctor Todd, Doctor 
Henry, Doctor Merriman, and Doctor Jayne, all of Springfield, assured me 
of its prevalence; and during my sojourn in that city, they afforded me an 
opportunity of seeing intermittents, as malignant as those which occur on the 
banks of the Tuscaloosa or Pearl River, seven degrees of latitude further 
south. 

V. Bloomington. — In advancing northerly from Springfield, toward 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 323 

Lake Michigan, the proportion of prairie to wood-land increases. The latter 
is almost confined to the streams, where it exists in narrow belts. All the 
larger groves have specific names, as, in regions where the forest predomi- 
nates, the prairies have received them. The quantity of drift and bowlders 
increases, and the rocky strata are more buried up. The narrow alluvial 
bottoms are subject to inundation. The surface is gently rolling, and sus- 
ceptible of being rendered dry by ditching and cultivation ; but in the natu- 
ral state many of the prairies are wet or marshy. Such is the general 
character of the country from Springfield to Bloomington, a distance of sixty 
miles. Its population is sparse. Autumnal fever prevails annually. One 
of its citizens informed me, that he had resided where I found him three 
years, before a member of his family was seized with that fever. Such in- 
stances are not uncommon, though difficult to explain. 

In its topography, the village of Bloomington presents nothing worthy of 
notice. Prairies surround it, and small head-streams of Kickapoo Creek, 
which ultimately throw their waters into the Sangamon, are found near it, 
and supply an adequate amount of wood -land. Doctor Henry, now of Bur- 
lington, Iowa, who had resided in the place ten years, regarded it as but 
little infested with autumnal fever ; and spoke of the surrounding country as 
not being scourged to any great extent. He had become convinced that an 
extensive plowing up of the soil of the prairies for the first time had been 
followed by fever; especially in those who resided on the northern or leeward 
side of such tracts. He had rarely seen malignant cases. These statements 
were confirmed by Doctor Colburn, of Bloomington. 

VI. From Bloomington to Peoria. — The distance between these places 
is about forty miles — the course almost west. For the first ten miles, the 
rolling prairies are interspersed with narrow belts of wood-land, along the 
head streams of Kickapoo and Sugar Creeks, — waters which belong to the 
Sangamon Basin. Diluvial or post-tertiary deposits of sand, gravel, and 
clay, with erratic bowlders, bury up the carboniferous rocks. The sparse 
population is moderately affected with autumnal fever. Passing beyond the 
waters of Sugar Creek, we come on the dividing lands between it and Macki- 
naw Creek, a tributary of the Illinois. For many miles this tract presents a 
high, rolling, argillaceous surface, with scattered oak. trees and prairie herb- 
age, to the village of Mackinaw, on the western side of which is the creek of 
that name. The physician of the village, Doctor Burns, who had formerly 
resided on White River, in the State of Indiana, told me, that there was 
autumnal fever ' here and there.' Beyond Mackinaw Creek ( which has a 
lively current ), the same aspect of country continues for ten miles, when 
the road descends into an extensive level prairie, on the western side of 
which is the village of Washington, the inhabitants of which, in the middle 
of September, wore the appearance of good health. From Washington to 
the immediate valley of Blinois River, the road lies over rolling forest land, 
with but few inhabitants, and I had no opportunity of comparing its autumnal 
salubrity with that of the prairies. 

VII. Peoria. — An expansion of the Illinois River to three or four 



324 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

times its usual breadth, through a length of nearly twenty miles, constitutes 
what is called Peoria Lake, which is almost without a perceptible current. 
On the west bank, near the lower or southern end of this expansion, is the 
beautiful site of the town of Peoria, in N. Lat. 40 Q 40'. The plain rises 
gradually for a quarter of a mile, then declines a little for the same distance, 
and is terminated by an abrupt bluff, the summit of which is from eighty to 
one hundred feet above the surface of the river. From this bluff a rolling 
prairie and wood-land plain stretches off to the west. Both the upper and 
the lower terraces are composed of northern drift or diluvium, burying up 
the carboniferous rocks. Below the town the bluffs recede, so as to give 
greater width of bottom-land, which at the same time becomes more de- 
pressed ; — but little of it, however, suffers inundation. On the opposite or 
eastern side of the river, the bottom is two miles wide, heavily timbered, and 
subject to overflows of the river ; but this tract is to the summer-leeward of 
the town. 

The Anglo-American town of Peoria is of such recent settlement that, in 
the year 1833, it contained not more than twenty-five families; * but it had 
been previously inhabited by the French, who selected it as the site of one 
of their earliest missions in the Great Interior Valley. In 1779 it began to 
be a village of Indian traders, voyageurs, and hunters ; but such classes of 
persons would do little toward those transformations of the surface, 
which modify the public health, and are of interest to the etiologist. Hence, 
although so old a settlement, its autumnal diseases are substantially the 
same as those of the recently settled parts of the region we are describing. 
From Doctor Dickinson, Doctor Bouse, and Doctor Frye, I collected that, in 
and around the town, intermittents and remittents prevail every year, but to 
a greater extent in the latter than the former. Mr. Armstrong, an immi- 
grant from Ohio, who established himself on the bluffs in the rear of the 
town, told me that he and nearly all his family were attacked with intermit- 
tents the first year of their residence there. 

From Doctor Frye I obtained the following facts, which, however, belong 
to other localities : 

In a part of Tazewell county on the opposite side of the river, a number 
of families from Ohio formed what was called the Moobury Settlement. For 
two years, the land they cultivated was at the distance of a few miles from 
their habitations. They then plowed up the prairie near their residences, 
and in the following autumn, experienced a decided invasion of remittent 
fever, while the surrounding population remained healthy. In Peoria coun- 
ty, a number of families had settled ( as is common ) on the margin of a 
large prairie, and remained healthy in autumn. At length, a little colony 
arrived, and establishing themselves near each other, enjoyed excellent 
health the first year ; but the next spring, they broke up a large extent of 
prairie, near their dwellings, and suffered severely in autumn from fever, 
while the country around remained comparatively healthy. Doctor Frye has 

* Peck's Gazetteer of Illinois. 



part i.j INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 325 

remarked here, what has been noticed elsewhere, that in low and wet tim- 
bered spots the intermittent form of fever is more prevalent than the remit- 
tent ; — also, that in some autumns every kind of locality is affected, while, 
in others, some places suffer and others escape. 

VIII. Peru and La Salle. — These are two recently settled towns, 
above Peoria, where the canal from Lake Michigan has its final termination. 
They are situate within a mile of each other, on a narrow strip of bottom, 
and on the adjacent bluffs. On the opposite or left bank of the river, there 
is a bottom, a mile in width, which is overflowed when the river rises high. 
The principal physician, Doctor Whitehead, in a residence of eight years, 
had seen autumnal fever, as an epidemic, in two years only; and then it 
prevailed chiefly among immigrants from the north, and Irish laborers on 
the canal. 

IX. Ottawa. — From the last towns to this, a distance of sixteen miles, 
the immediate valley of the Illinois is, in general, about a mile in width, and 
bounded by rocky bluffs of sandstone, schistose clay, and limestone. These 
bluffs rise in precipices about one hundred feet high, and are thinly covered 
with trees. The intervening bottom-lands are chiefly prairie, and so low as 
to be annually overflowed. 

The town of Ottawa is built on the right or north side of the Illinois 
River, immediately below the mouth of Fox River. There is, first, a narrow 
slip of bottom, liable to submersion ; then a higher alluvial terrace, on which 
the town is built, on the rear of which runs the canal, and immediately be- 
yond are the bluffs. On the opposite or left-hand side, the river flows near 
to the cliffs. On each side, it may be seen that the rolling prairies rise still 
higher than the bluffs. From Doctors Howland, Schermerhorn, and Hurl- 
bert, I learned that autumnal fever is common in this locality, and that 
malignant intermittents are not unknown. The Irish laborers on the canal 
had suffered greatly. The two autumns in which the excavations were 
going forward, were the sickliest that Doctor Howland had known at this 
place ; but, as the sickness prevailed in the adjoining country, it could not 
be said to depend on the excavation. The same gentleman had observed 
that persons living in the open prairies, are healthier in autumn than those 
who reside near the wood-lands ; which may be owing to greater humidity in 
the latter, as the trees are chiefly in the neighborhood of streams. He had 
also seen some proofs, that the first plowing up of the prairies is followed 
by fever. 

X. From Ottawa to Juliet. — In leaving Ottawa, the road passes out 
of the Illinois trench, which here lies east and west, and takes a north-east 
course, over the dividing lands between Fox River on the west, and the Illi- 
nois on the east. The country is elevated, dry, and long-undulating. The 
streams are few and small. The prairies here spread out into vast dimen- 
sions, and, of course, the proportion of wood-land is correspondingly small. 
Peru and Ottawa are barely within the northern verge of the Illinois coal 
basin ; for, at the distance of twenty miles north-east of the latter, the upper 
Silurian limestone, lying ( geologically ) far beneath the coal measures, be- 



326 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

comes the surface-rock, and so continues to the northern sources of the Illi- 
nois River. From the best information I could obtain in reference to this 
tract, autumnal fever is both rare and mild; proportionate, in fact, to the 
limited extent of those topographical conditions on which it is supposed to 
depend. 

XI. Juliet. * — This, like all the towns of the Illinois basin, is of recent 
settlement. It stands on both sides of the Des Plaines, already mentioned 
as the northern of two rivers, which, by their union, form the Illinois. A dam 
across the Des Plaines forms a pond for mill purposes, and to supply the 
canal. The bed and banks consist of the limestone rock, just mentioned. 
On the west or right side of the river, there is only terrace enough for a 
single street ; on the opposite side there is a broad rocky flat, resembling the 
site of Nashville on the Cumberland River. Its surface is above high-water 
mark. Beyond it is another terrace rising a little higher, and composed of 
gravel, bowlders, and other varieties of northern drift, which are abundant in 
the valley of the Des Plaines. There are no drowned lands near the town. 
Prom the account given me by Doctor Scholfielcl and Doctor Bowen, this 
locality, the latitude of which is about 41° 30' N., and its elevation a little 
below that of Lake Michigan, is annually invaded by autumnal fever, though 
it seldom assumes either a wide-spreading or fatal character. The Irish 
laborers on the canal, in 1838 and 1839, as at Peru and Ottawa, were the 
greatest sufferers. 

The road from Juliet to Chicago runs a north-east course, on the west side 
of the Des Plaines, but not in its immediate valley. The aspect of the 
country is almost identical with that from Ottawa to Juliet. At the dis- 
tance of twenty-seven or twenty-eight miles, it descends from these elevated 
rolling limestone prairies, on which there are occasional deposits of drift, 
to the Des Plaines, which is found flowing to the south, through what was 
once an arm or small bay of Lake Michigan, and is now elevated but a few 
feet above the lake surface. The breadth of this plain, from the river to the 
lake shore at Chicago, is about twelve miles. Its description can be best 
given in connection with the Basin of the Lakes. 

XII. Kankakee River. — This is the larger of the two streams, which, 
by their junction above the town of Ottawa, form the Illinois. I can say 
nothing of its topography from personal observation. It traverses Indiana 
and Illinois from east to west, immediately in the rear of the sand-dunes 
which surround the southern shore of Lake Michigan. There is a water 
communication between the sources of this river and the St. Josephs, not far 
from the entrance of the latter, into Lake Michigan. For a great portion of 
its whole length, the Kankakee flows through broad swampy prairies ; after- 
ward its channel becomes rocky, and its current more rapid, f Before it 
reaches the Des Plaines, it passes through a more wooded country. As yet 
the basin of the Kankakee is but thinly peopled, and I cannot speak of its 
fevers. 

* Properly Joliet. t Peck's Gazetteer. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 327 

SECTION IV. 

BASIN OF ROCK RIVER. 
T. In ascending the Mississippi we come to the month of Rock River, 
three hundred miles above the junction of the Illinois, in N. Lat. 41° 32'. 
The southern or lower part of this basin, lying within the State of Illinois, 
is compressed into narrow limits, "by the Mississippi on the north-west, and 
the Illinois on the south-east ; but the upper or northern portion expands 
nearly across the southern part of Wisconsin. The extreme sources of this 
river are found immediately south of Lake Winnebago, near the forty-fourth 
degree of latitude. Some of its upper waters originate near Lake Michigan, 
north of Milwaukie ; others in the neighborhood of Wisconsin River ; while 
others are found near the Mississippi. Thus, the Rock River Basin covers 
north-western Illinois and most southern Wisconsin — newly-settled regions 
of great prospective interest. The north-eastern portions of this basin 
abound in small lakes, most of which have outlets. It also has prairie - 
marshes, one of which, called the Winnebago marsh, has an area of forty 
square miles.* According to Peck,t this region is overspread with 
swamps and quagmires, relieved by ridges of sand bearing shrubby oak, 
or tracts of rich, dry, undulating land. Shaking prairies ( Terre trem- 
blant) are also common. In traversing this basin from Milwaukie on the 
lake, to Galena near the Mississippi, under the forty-third parallel, I re- 
marked that after passing through the belt of lofty forest, twelve or fourteen 
miles wide, which the atmosphere of the lake has quickened into growth, prai- 
rie§ f .began to appear, on the banks of Fox River, a branch of the Illinois. A 
well, by the road side, was eighty feet deep, its whole depth being through a 
bed of drift or transported materials. Soon after crossing Fox River, we 
passed out of the dense miscellaneous forest, of which the sugar-maple was 
the predominant tree, and entered open oak wood-lands, interspersed with 
prairie. In a short time we reached the Basin of Rock River. The country 
then gradually became more thinly timbered. Many of the oaks resembled 
the live-oaks on the Mexican coasts. Deposits of drift were extensive, and 
great primitive bowlders numerous ; but here and there the Silurian lime- 
stone showed itself in cliffs ; the prairies were generally dry ; ponds and 
small lakes now and then appeared ; the surface was rolling, and the small 
streams flowed with lively currents. The descent to Rock River, where Fort 
Atkinson once stood, was very gentle; beyond that stream, the country be- 
came more rolling, and seemed a little more elevated ; no dense forest re- 
appeared, yet the trees, for some distance, were larger. Although the sur- 
face was in the main dry, spots of wet prairie were occasionally seen ; which 
aspects continued to ■ — 

II. The Four Lakes. — These little lakes lie in a chain, with a lively 
current from one to the other. The outlet from the first, or most southern, 

* Lapham's Wisconsin. f Gazetteer of Illinois. 



328 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

is called Catfish. The area of this lake, according to Captain Cram, United 
States Topographical Engineer, is five square miles. The water is pellucid. 
The shores are rolling and uneven, being broken by low bluffs, and inter- 
spersed, occasionally, with small marshes. The timber is scanty. The second 
lake, lying north of the first, has an area of seven square miles. On the north 
and east, the shore is marshy, with a low gravelly bank intervening between 
the marsh and the water's edge ; on the southern and western shores the 
land is elevated, undulating, and in some places even knobby. The third 
lake is intermediate in size and position, between the second and fourth. Its 
area is six square miles. Its banks are high and undulating, with a scattered 
growth of oak trees. The fourth or most northern lake covers an area of 
more than fifteen square miles. The land bordering it is undulating, hilly, 
and, in many places, broken. Its north side is well timbered. Its shores are 
overspread with white gravel. Many springs pour into it their pure waters ; 
and it has one small tributary stream, which originates within a few miles of 
Wisconsin River. The basis of these lakes is a flinty Silurian limestone. 
The difference in level between the first, or lowest, and the fourth, is about 
four feet. The elevation of the fourth is estimated, by Captain Cram, at two 
hundred and ten feet over the surface of Lake Michigan, or seven hundred 
and eighty- eight above the sea.* 

III. Madison, the young capital of the State of Wisconsin, stands 
on a neck of land between the third and fourth of the lakes just described, 
on the west side of the stream which connects them. It fronts on the third 
lake, from which the ground rises gradually to the bight of thirty feet, and 
is free from marshes. Its Lat. is 43° 5' N.,— its Lon. 89° 6' 30" W.f 

IV. Autumnal Fever. — We have now reached a latitude, in which 
climate may be supposed, in some degree, to overrule topographical condi- 
tions, in the production of autumnal fever; and the question comes up — Is 
its influence perceptible in the region which has just been described? It is 
not easy to give a definite answer to this inquiry, for the reason, that the 
alleged sources of that fever do not, to any great extent, exist within its 
limits. Yet, from all I could learn, the prevalence of the fever is decidedly 
less than we find it further south, in localities having nearly the same topo- 
graphy and elevation. At the crossings of Rock River, I was assured by 
Mr. Foster, that a few mild intermittents make up the sum total of an au- 
tumnal invasion ; and Doctor Western, of Madison, gave a similar account 
of that town. He informed me, however, that there had been one sickly 
autumn at Madison, and one on Rock River, twenty miles below the cross- 
ings, at Janesville, which is built on a slip of bottom-land. 

V. The Blue Mound Region. — In going westwardly from Madison, 
the country gradually rises into the water-shed between Rock River and the 
Wisconsin, though the road still keeps within the basin of the former. The 
surface is broadly undulating. No more diluvium or drift of any kind is 

* Lapham's Wisconsin. f Owen & Locke's Geological Report. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 329 

found upon it. The soil or upper surface is composed largely of the disin- 
tegrated Silurian rocks, undecayed portions of which are seen, like lofty 
monuments, rising over the face of the country. They have received specific 
names, of which the most noted are the Blue Mounds. Ponds and marshes 
are no longer met with ; there is no dense forest ; and extensive prairies 
abound. The grass which covers them is short and thin, like that of the 
savannas beyond the Mississippi, and the golden Solidago, which gives au- 
tumnal beauty to prairies not too deficient in moisture to nourish it, is here 
replaced by a small bluish-purple aster, which flourishes where the soil is 
dry. The habitations throughout this region are sparse ; and, from all I 
could learn, intermittent and remittent fevers are exceedingly rare. 

YI. Dodgeville. — This lead-mining village, situated in the region which 
has just been described, presents in its topography small streams, without 
much alluvial bottom, and long gentle slopes, partly covered with prairie 
grass, and partly with open oak woods, or copses of hazle bushes. From 
Governor Dodge, who had resided here about sixteen years, I learned that 
autumnal fever is almost unkrown; a statement which was confirmed by 
Mrs. Black, an observing and intelligent lady, who had lived on the spot for 
nearly the same length of time. The mining population of the village and 
its neighborhood is about five hundred, — chiefly immigrants from England. 

VII. Mineral Point is found ten miles south of Dodgeville ; the coun- 
try between presenting prairie, and open woods covering long slopes and 
ridges. The streams are generally small. Mineral Point, however, is on the 
banks and adjoining hills of a creek, sufficiently large to move the machinery 
required in the smelting of lead ore; and which is joined, below the village, 
by another of the same size — the common trunk opening into the Peckato- 
nica, one of the tributaries of Rock River. There are no ponds or marshes 
around Mineral Point, but the stream along which the town is built presents 
some narrow belts of boggy soil. The population of this town is about one 
thousand. According to Doctor Pulford, the people who live near the 
stream below the town are subject to autumnal fever, from which the inhab- 
itants of the town itself are not entirely exempt. This liability, compared 
with that of the people of Dodgeville, seems to result entirely from the pres- 
ence of water-courses in this locality, and their absence from that. The 
Peckatonica is the most western stream of the Rock River Basin, and inter- 
locks with the head- waters of Fever River, and other small tributaries of the 
Mississippi. According to Lapham, its waters are turbid and its current 
sluggish ; but of the influence of its valley in the production of autumnal 
fever I know nothing. Nor can I speak of the medical topography of the 
lower portions of Rock River Basin, lying within the State of Illinois, which, 
however, are of no great extent. 



330 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION V. 

REMAINDER OF THE SOUTHERN BASIN. 

I. The Wisconsin River. — Although, there are many interlockings 
"between the tributaries of Rock River and the Wisconsin, the latter enters 
the Mississippi more than two hundred miles above the former, about the 
forty-third degree of latitude ; while its extreme sources are near the forty- 
sixth degree, in connection with streams which flow into G-reen Bay and 
Lake Superior. For two-thirds of its course, it flows to the south, and 
then turns almost as directly west. At this elbow or detour, it approaches 
within a mile and a half of Fox River, a tributary of Green Bay. The 
Wisconsin Basin is very long, compared with its breadth. Although this is 
the river, down which the upper Mississippi was approached and discovered, 
by Father Marquette, one hundred and seventy-five years ago, there are 
very few settlements above the elbow ; and none of any importance to the 
medical topographer below that bend. North and west of Wisconsin River, 
the large remainder of the Mississippi Basin is almost an unreclaimed and 
unsettled region. The first considerable river beyond that we are now ex- 
amining, is the Chippeway, of which I cannot say anything. Of the next — 
the St. Croix — I am enabled to speak briefly, on the authority of Doctor 
Shumard, Assistant United States' Geologist. 

II. River and Lake or St. Croix. — The river St. Croix has its origin 
in a great number of small lakes, immediately south of the west end of Lake 
Superior, above the forty- sixth degree of north latitude, and, after flowing 
to the south-west for half its course, turns directly south, until it joins the 
Mississippi, which it finds running to the south-east. The place of junction 
is only ten miles below the mouth of the St. Peter's, in Lat. 44° 45' 30" N., 
and at an elevation above the sea of seven hundred and twenty-nine feet ; 
that of the neighboring hills being eight hundred and sixty-six feet.* 
Through its lower thirty miles, the current is almost imperceptible, and the 
surface of the stream is expanded to half a mile or a mile in width. This 
constitutes the lake, the shores of which present many bowlders, reposing 
on old Silurian rocks of magnesian limestone and sandstone. One of the 
hills near the lake rises to the hight of three hundred and forty-nine feet 
above its surface, or ten hundred and seventy feet above the sea. 

Stillwater, the only settlement on this lake, is a new village, on the 
western side, near its head, containing about five hundred inhabitants. It 
stands on a dry plain, which slopes from the bluffs to the water's edge. 
Immediately to the north, there are swales which are kept up by spring- 
water, and in the contiguous river-bottoms there is some marshy ground ; — 
both, however, lie to the summer-windward of the village. As to autumnal 
fever, Doctor Shumard learned from the physician of the place, that inter- 
mittents of a mild character occur every year, but the proportion of cases to 
the population is small. 

* Nicollet : Hydro-graphical Basin. 



part l.j INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 331 

The Falls. — The other settlement on the St. Croix is at the falls or 
rapids, about thirty miles above Stillwater, in Lat. 45° 30' 10" N. The 
descent of the river is over trap-rocks, ranges of which begin to show them- 
selves twenty-four miles above the lake. For several miles above the lakes 
the sandstone hills approach the river, but beyond that point the bottoms 
widen and become swampy, and are overshadowed with cotton-wood and 
maple trees, the hills abounding in pine. There is a pine saw-mill at the 
falls, and the pine lumber trade is the object of this settlement, the most 
northern in the basin of the Mississippi. Doctor Shumard ascertained that 
a few cases of intermittent fever happen here every autumn. The tributa- 
ries of this river abound in trout. The neck of land between the St. Croix 
and the Mississippi presents a succession of small lakes and tamarack 
swamps, with interspersed tracts of dry land, clothed with scrubby oaks and 
hazle bushes. 

It appears from what has been said, that we have not yet reached the limit 
of sporadic intermittent fever, in the southern basin ; but have passed be- 
yond the line of its epidemic prevalence. 

III. Sources of the Mississippi. — The St. Croix, just described, is the 
last considerable tributary of the east or left side of the Mississippi. Ten 
miles above its mouth we come, on the opposite or western side, to the junc- 
tion of the St Peter's, above which stands Fort Snelling, the most north- 
ern post of the Southern Basin. Nine or ten miles above, are the Falls of 
St. Anthony, where the surface of the river is eight hundred and fifty-six 
feet, and that of the hill-land about one thousand feet, above the G-ulf of 
Mexico. This elevation of the river has been attained through sixteen de- 
grees of latitude. Two degrees and a half further north (47° 30'), bring 
us to the extreme sources of the river, where the water-level is fifteen hun- 
dred and thirty-two, and the highest land sixteen hundred and eighty feet. 
This rapid ascent indicates that above the Falls of St. Anthony there is a 
great swell or tuberosity, on the gentle slopes and summit of which the great 
river has its sources. The width of this region is about two and a half de- 
grees of longitude. On the west, it is limited by the St. Peters, and Red 
River of the north ; on the east by the St. Louis, and other short tributa- 
ries of the west end of Lake Superior. From the expeditions of Pike, Cass, 
and Schoolcraft, but, above all, from the hydrographical map of Nicollet, it 
appears, that the whole of this region abounds in swamps, ponds, and small 
lakes, connected by bayous into the most remarkable hydrographical laby- 
rinth, to be found within the limits of the Southern Basin. As yet it is un- 
settled, except by a few fur-traders and missionaries, whose business is with 
the Indians. Of the extent to which autumnal fever occurs among them, I 
cannot speak; but it must be very limited. At Mackinac, in 1842, I met 
with an educated Indian — John Johnson, attached to the Methodist Mis- 
sion family, stationed near the American Fur Company's establishment, on 
the banks of Sandy Lake, about Lat. 46° 48' N., — who informed me that 
ague and fever occasionally occurred among them. The altitude of that 



332 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

lake, according to Nicollet, is twelve hundred and fifty-three feet above 
the gulf. 

The medical topography of the Southern Basin is now brought to a close. 
Although . it has extended through more than three hundred pages, a very 
small portion of its localities have been described; yet enough I hope have 
been introduced, to afford a tolerable representation of the whole. Begin- 
ning within the tropics, we have traveled north through nearly thirty de- 
grees of latitude, and gradually risen from the level of the Grulf of Mexico, 
to the summit of the great interior hydrographical center, the average ele- 
vation of which may be taken at fifteen hundred feet. 

From this important interior hydrographical center, we are now to de- 
scend eastwardly into the Lake, St. Lawrence, or Eastern Basin. 



CHAPTER XII. 



THE EASTERN, OR ST. LAWRENCE HYDROGRA 
PHICAL BASIN. 



GENERAL VIEWS OF THE WHOLE BASIN: LAKES SUPERIOR, 
MICHIGAN, AND HURON. 

The limits of this basin have been already drawn (p. 29). Its posi- 
tion in relation to the center of the Mexican or Southern Basin, is north- 
east. Most of it lies directly north of the Ohio Basin. In reference to 
latitudes, it may be said, in general terms, to be comprehended between the 
fortieth and fiftieth parallels. On many points besides latitude, it differs 
from the basin which has been topographically described. That basin is 
without a single large lake — this includes a chain of the largest on the con- 
tinent: that has an extensive sea-coast — this has a still more extended 
lake- coast : that is distinguished for the vast length and volume of its 
numerous rivers — this has not one large river, save the St. Lawrence — 
the outlet of the lakes : that is bounded on the west, through its whole ex- 
tent, by many ranges of high mountains — this has a plain of immense ex- 
tent on the same side : large portions of that present an arid surface, and 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 333 

are destitute of trees — this is everywhere humid and generally over- 
shadowed by forests, interspersed with a few savannas : the southern popu- 
lation of the Great Interior Valley belongs to that — the northern popula- 
tion to this : in that, the etiologist may study the influences of a wet surface, 
abounding in organic matter, when acted upon by the heat of a long southern 
summer — in this, the same influences, in a summer comparatively short and 
cool. In making this comparison, however, we are prevented, by want of 
population, from going at present beyond the latitude of 47°. 

In describing the Southern Basin, we started from the Gulf of Mexico, 
and ascended the great rivers. By this method, the description terminated 
with that portion which lies contiguous to the extreme sources of the St. 
Lawrence, which — under the name of the River St. Louis — throws its 
waters into the western extremity of Lake Superior ; — and here we shall 
begin the medico-topographical description of the Eastern Basin ; thus re- 
versing the order pursued in the Southern, by descending to the sea, instead 
of rising from it ; and at the same time advancing with unbroken continuity. 



SECTION I. 

BASIN OF LAKE SUPERIOR. 

I. This is the largest lake of the continent, and the most northern and 
western of those included in the St. Lawrence Basin. Its southern afflu- 
ents interlock with those of Lake Michigan, Green Bay, and the Mississippi 
River ; its western with those of that river only ; its northern with those of 
Hudson Bay ; its eastern with streams which fall into Lake Huron. 

The area of Lake Superior is estimated at thirty-two thousand square 
miles, most of which lies between the forty- seventh and forty-eighth paral- 
lels of latitude ; its mean depth is about nine hundred feet. Its level above 
the sea, according to the geologists of Michigan,* is five hundred and ninety-six 
feet, according to Nicollet, six hundred and twenty, f The average altitude 
of the country around it, may be taken at one thousand feet more, or six- 
teen hundred above tide- water in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The basin of 
this lake lies distinctly within the primitive or oldest transition rocks, with 
extensive trap formations. In contrasting the coasts of this inland sea with 
those of the Gulf of Mexico, we find them lofty, bold, rocky, and metallifer- 
ous ; while the latter are low, flat, and swampy. Lake Superior, however, is 
not without coast-marshes ; and some of its rivers overflow their banks, near 
their entrance into the lake. In the month of July, Mr„ Schoolcraft found 
its mean surface-temperature, on the south side, 61° Fahrenheit. J The 
country around Lake Superior is a vast, rugged, and uninhabited wilderness, 
but there are a few settlements, to which reference may be made. 



* Second report. $ Nar. Journal of Travels, 1821. 

t Hydrographical Basin. 



33-4 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE Lbook i. 

II. Fort William. — The British North-west Company have an es- 
tablishment near the mouth of Dog or Kaministiquia River, in Lat. 48° 24' 
N., called Fort William. According to Long,* a plain of considerable ex- 
tent surrounds this village, which is on the river bank, a mile from the lake. 
This was once an important depot for the fur trade, and was inhabited by 
eighty partners and clerks of the company, many of whom had families. In 
latter years, the population has been less. In consulting every authority 
within my reach, I find no reference to autumnal fever at this place ; and 
Doctor Rowand, late of Quebec, who has several times sojourned there, as- 
sures me that intermittents and remittents are unknown. 

III. River St. Louis, and Fond dtj lac. — This river originates on the 
high summit-level west of Lake Superior, and descends, by a series of falls 
and rapids, to the western extremity of the Lake. It may be regarded 
as the beginning of the St. Lawrence, and is the highway of the voya- 
geurs of the American Fur Company. On its estuary is the establish- 
ment called Fond du Lac, in Lat. 46° 40'. f I cannot find in any book 
of voyages or travels, a reference to autumnal fever, as occurring in this 
locality. 

IY. Southern Coast — Copper Region. — Within the last few years, 
the copper region on the southern coast of Lake Superior, has been the re- 
sort and summer residence of a great number of persons, who have led there 
lives of great exposure. I have not learned that autumnal fever has been 
one of their diseases; on the contrary, Mr. Charles Whittlesey, of Ohio, 
topographical surveyor, writes to me as follows : — " The exposure I under- 
went, on the southern shore, this fall ( 1845 ), would have ended in ague and 
fever, or some other bilious attack, almost anywhere south of Lake Erie ; but 
here, my companions and myself not only escaped that disease, but enjoyed 
extraordinary health. We followed the coast westwardly, from the St. 
Mary, in an open boat, and, with the exception of a friend, who started 
with his system overflowing with bile, no ailment was felt by any of us. 
From the 13th of September to the 13th of October, we were in the woods ; 
the season was rainy, and we were often wet for several days together, with 
no covering at night, except our blankets ; yet we never felt better. Much 
of the land we wandered over was high, rolling, and heavily timbered with 
sugar maple ; there are, also, low lands and cedar swamps, but they send up 
no miasma, and their waters served us for drinking and cooking, as well as 
those of running brooks. The latter are cold and rapid, with rocky beds, 
and it is only necessary for me to add that they abound in speckled trout, to 
show you that they are as pure as any waters that flow." The average lati- 
tude of the region in which these observations were made, is -46° 30' N. 

Y. St. Mary Straits. — The outlet of Lake Superior, is at its eastern 
extremity, and known under the name of St. Mary Straits or River. Its 
efflux is at the base of a rounded, rocky promontory, on the British side, 

* Second Expedition, Vol. II. f Nicollet. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 335 

known by the voyageurs as Gros Cap. The gentle current of the St. Mary 
flows in a shallow sand and gravel trench, varying from half a mile to two 
miles in width. The banks, nearly uninhabited, are low, in many places wet, 
and, throughout, heavily timbered with pine, hemlock, maple, and other 
trees. At the distance of sixteen miles, we reach the falls, or Sault de Ste. 
Marie* where the river descends eighteen feet, clown a broad inclined plain, 
overspread with vast granitic bowlders, solitary or in island-groups, at the 
foot of which, on the British side, there is a small settlement; — on the 
American side, an inconsiderable fur-trading village, and a military post. 

Fort Brady, stands in N. Lat. 46° 39', and W. Lon. 84° 43'. " The 
right bank of the St. Mary, which is here three-fourths of a mile in width, 
presents a gradual slope for the distance of two hundred and fifty feet, gain- 
ing in that space an elevation of fourteen feet, in the rear of which the sur- 
face of the country approximates a level. For three hundred yards from 
the bank of the river, the soil is cleared of timber, and is, although not very 
productive, in a state of cultivation. Immediately adjoining this cultivated 
ground, is a marsh, half a mile wide, beyond which high lands appear. This 
marsh extends five or six miles down the river, in a south-east direction, and 
west and south-west for fifteen or twenty miles. It is covered with some 
large forest trees, and a thick growth of under-wood. On the opposite 
side of the river, the country is undulating and mountainous, and covered 
with a dense forest." "The west and south-east winds pass over the 
marshes."f 

It is undeniable, that all the topographical conditions necessary to the pro- 
duction of violent autumnal fever, are present in this locality ; which includes, 
in addition to the garrison, a village inhabited or frequented by Americans, 
French voyaguers, and Indians, with their intermediate progeny. My visit 
was in the last week of July, yet I saw no autumnal fever, and was assured 
by persons long familiar with the spot, that it does not occur, except in per- 
sons who have, in summer or autumn, visited places further south. The re- 
turns from the post, however, show that the troops are not entirely exempt. 
Thus, through a period of ten years, with a mean strength of ninety-six 
men, there were, in all, thirty-seven cases of intermittent, and three of re- 
mittent, or about four per cent, per annum. When we connect with this 
low ratio, the facts, that troops are seldom kept long at one post, and that 
relapses into intermittent fever may continue to occur for a long time after 
the first attack, we are, perhaps, at liberty to suppose, that most of those 
reported from this post were contracted in more southern latitudes ; a con- 
clusion which is strengthened, by the great disparity between the number of 
intermittents and the number of remittents, and by the occurrence of nearly 
all the former in the spring of the year. Thus we see that on the St. 
Mary, in N. Lat. 46° 39', if the climate do not annihilate the topographi- 

* Called by the Voyageurs — ' The Soo? 
f Medical Statistics of U. S. A. 



336 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

cal influences producing those diseases, it reduces their effects to a 
minimum. 

From G-ros Cap to the Sault, the course of the St. Mary is a little north 
of east ; afterward it turns strongly to the south, and, widening, becomes 
gradually a shallow western extremity or head of Lake Huron, embracing 
several islands. The banks of this connecting strait, below Fort Brady, 
like those above, are clothed with dense forests to the water's edge, and are 
nearly destitute of inhabitants. To the north is a range of high sandstone 
hills, which, extending westwardly, touch the lake at the outlet of the St. 
Mary, and constitute the promontory called Gros Cap. Beyond these hills, 
in the direction of Hudson Bay, the country is a wilderness, abounding in 
swamps and small lakes. Although, in following the St. Mary, we are con- 
ducted to Lake Huron, it will be most convenient to describe Lake Michi- 
gan first. 



SECTION II. 

BASIN OF LAKE MICHIGAN. 

I. General Description. — The position of the northern extremity of 
Lake Michigan is directly south of the eastern end of Lake Superior, be- 
tween which there is an unsettled peninsula, bounded on the east by the St. 
Mary. Michigan is a long but comparatively narrow lake, having its axis 
nearly in the eighty- seventh meridian, and consequently at right angles with 
that of Lake Superior. Its northern border reaches the forty-sixth degree 
of latitude, while its southern — properly its head, — is found about 41° 40' 
N. Its area is estimated by Higgins at twenty-two thousand square 
miles.* Green Bay, which opens into it on the north-west, is computed at 
two thousand more, making twenty-four thousand, or nearly five- sixths of 
the area of Lake Superior. Its elevation above the sea is five hundred and 
seventy-eight feet. Its mean depth is stated at one thousand feet — that of 
Green Bay at five hundred. Lake Michigan is connected with Lake Huron 
by the Straits of Mackinac ( PI. XIV), in which there is no perceptible 
current ; yet all the water which flows or falls into the former lake, beyond 
what is absorbed or evaporated, finds its way to the ocean through that 
channel. Lake Michigan lies, through its whole extent, within the upper 
and lower, or grey and blue, Silurian limestone. The country near it is not 
rugged, like that which encompasses Lake Superior ; but its banks are, in 
general, well developed, and the ascent from them to the surrounding water- 
sheds or summit -levels, is gradual. Its principal rivers are the Menomonee 
and Fox River, on the north-west, which discharge their waters into Green 
Bay ; and Grand Biver, the Kalamazoo, and St. Josephs, on the south-east. 
From the head of Green Bay north-east to the Straits of Mackinac, its 
shores are but little settled ; and further north and north-west, up to the 

* Geological Survey of the State of Michigan. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 337 

Lake Superior Basin, in what is called the upper peninsula of Michigan, the 
country is an uninviting and nearly unbroken wilderness. South of Green 
Bay, in Wisconsin and Illinois, and round the head of the lake, in Indiana, 
to a point in Michigan, on the eastern side of the lake, corresponding with 
the head of that hay, the attractive character of the soil has, within the last 
twenty years, led to an extensive immigration, and thus rendered the south- 
ern half of the Michigan Basin decidedly interesting to the medical topog- 
rapher. In some places the shores are bold, and composed either of rocks 
or compact tertiary clay or gravel deposits ; but there are many extensive 
tracts of low ground, some of which are subject to inundation, from the 
movement of the waters under the influence of winds; while others have 
been raised above this kind of inundation, by dunes of blown sand from the 
beach. These spots appear to have been estuaries and small bays, filled up 
by the alluvion of streams and the moving sands of the lake. Some of them 
are yet quagmires, with a crust of hardened earth, bound together by the 
roots of grass, and bearing a resemblance to the new lands in the Delta of 
the Mississippi. 

In a returning voyage from Green Bay to Mackinac, July 28th and 
29th, 1842, I found the surface-temperature, between Lat. 45° and 46°, as 
follows : 

Harbor of Navarino, shallow water, - - - - 78° 
The Bay, one hours' run, off the shoals, - 74° 

two " 70° 

Lake Michigan, three hours' run, - 68° 

seven ••••.■* - 66° 

twelve " '. " s - - - - 58° 

fourteen " - 59° 

sixteen " - - - 62° 

" seventeen " " - 63° 

Straits of Mackinac, eighteen hours' run, - 64° 

From these observations it will be seen that the shallow water is warmest. 
The high temperature of the harbor of Navarino should be ascribed in part 
to the influence of Fox River, which descends from the south. 

II. Green Bay. — The entrance into this bay presents some beautiful 
islands, composed of the upper Silurian limestone, arranged into mural preci- 
pices, which have been whitened by the action of the waves and weather, 
while their summits are crowned with green trees. The bay is long and nar- 
row, with an axis nearly parallel to that of Lake Michigan. Fox River 
enters its apex, and presents, on the left or west bank of its estuary, the re- 
lincpiished and ungarrisoned Fort Howard; on its east, the new villages of 
Navarino and Astor, — better known, however, under the name of Green Bay. 
The fort and villages belong properly to one locality, as the estuary which 
separates them is narrow. 

The banks of Green Bay are generally low and densely wooded, with but 
few settlements. As we approach its head, flat, -green savannas show them- 
22 



338 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

selves on both sides. According to Doctor Ward,* the head of the bay is 
skirted with " marshes a mile in width, covered with a luxuriant growth of 
grass and wild rice, which embrace the mouth of the river, and continue 
within half a mile of the fort. The water is from six inches to six feet deep 
on these marshes, which, by the operation of a diurnal flux and reflux of the 
waters of the bay, are alternately flooded and drained twice every twenty- 
four hours. Twenty rods back of the fort, another marsh begins, and 
spreading to the right and left, extends a mile or more in each direction;" 
that is, to the north-east and south-west: it differs from the other in being 
partly covered with trees and shrubs, though still abounding in grass. Be- 
yond this is a dry and thickly-wooded plain. 

The site of the villages on the opposite side of the estuary, is elevated 
above the swells of the bay, but abounds, or has abounded, in limited swales 
or marshes, chiefly dried up since the settlement of the place ; leaving depo- 
sits of organic matter in their little basins. The plain rises slowly from the 
river and then declines to the east or north-east, until it terminates at Devil 
or East River, a stream which approaches the bay nearly parallel with Fox 
River. Beyond the former the terrace is more elevated, and supports a 
grove of pine. The neck of land between these rivers, is composed largely 
of dark sand, colored perhaps by organic matter, and overspread with bowl- 
ders of primitive rocks. 

I must recur to the swells in the bay, mentioned by Doctor Ward. A 
regular flux and reflux, twice in the twenty-four hours, would suggest lunar 
tides ; but they are not of that kind ; nor, in fact, do they appear with that 
regularity which his language would suggest. The winds, by changing the 
level of the waters of the lake and the bay, are the efficient cause of the 
so-called tides, along the low shores of the latter. These tides are occasion- 
ally much greater than common, and depend equally on the south-west and 
the north-east winds. That currents of air, moving in opposite directions, 
can produce them, may be understood, by looking on the hydrographical map 
( PI. I). When the wind is from the north-east, it heaps up the waters of 
the bay at its head, and when it flows from the south-west, it accumulates 
the waters of the lake in its northern extremity, whence they flow off into 
the bay. and raise its level. To the perpetual or frequent submergence of 
the marshes in this locality, Doctor Forry, in his commentaries on the re- 
ports from Fort Howard, ascribes its well-known autumnal salubrity. This, 
from what I was told in 1842, has always been great. 

Thus, Doctor Armstrong, after a residence of seven years in Navarino, 
declared to me, that intermittent and remittent fevers are almost unknown 
among its inhabitants ; and Mr. Allen and Mr. Horner, two intelligent gen- 
tlemen, confirmed his statement. Mr. Ryan, a respectable Indian trader, 
who had resided there much longer than either, assured me that intermittent 
fever was unknown, among both the whites and the Indians ; but that a mild 
remittent fever had prevailed in the year 1828. The army returns do not, 

* Medical Statistics U. S. A. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 339 

however, present so great an exemption ; for, through a period of ten years, 
" the annual ratio of intermittents was six, and of remittents three, per one 
hundred of mean strength; " * — a rate of prevalence a little greater than at 
Fort Brady; yet in no degree approaching the ratios of more southern local- 
ities, under similar topographical circumstances. 

III. Fox River is the outlet of Lake Winnebago. The position of that 
lake is to the south-east of Green Bay, at the greater elevation of one hun- 
dred and sixty feet,f or seven hundred and thirty- eight above the sea. 
Before Fox River enters the lake from the south-west, it is joined by Wolf 
River, from the north, which has made its way through several small lakes ; 
in fact, the country around Lake Winnebago abounds in ponds and exten- 
sive marshes, from some of which Rock River, already described in the 
Southern Basin, takes its origin. In ascending Fox River, above its en- 
trance into Lake Winnebago, we arrive at the spot where, having descended 
from the north, it approaches within a mile of the river Wisconsin ; when it 
turns suddenly to the north-east, and the Wisconsin as suddenly to the 
south-west. It was over this portage, that the valley of the Mississippi 
was first entered from the Basin of the Lakes by Marquette. Its elevation 
above Lake Michigan is two hundred and twenty-three feet — above the sea 
eight hundred. Its distance from the head of Green Bay is one hundred 
and twelve miles — from the western shore of Lake Michigan, eighty-one 
miles. 

IY. Fort Winnebago. — This military post stands in N. Lat. 43° 31', 
and W. Lon. 89° 28', on the north-east margin of the isthmus or portage 
just mentioned, near the right bank of Fox River. The isthmus is a marsh, 
over which the Wisconsin in high floods pours its waters, to the depth of 
three feet ; when a portion of them flow into Fox River, to find their way to 
the ocean by the St. Lawrence, instead of the Mississippi. Other swamps 
exist in this locality. In fact, both sides of each river are bordered with 
marshy alluvions, of which Doctor Foot* remarks: — "In cutting through 
the thick vegetable matter on the surface, from two to four feet thick, you 
come to a stratum of soft mud, generally a foot or two in thickness. In a 
few places, however, this stratum of mud and water is from eight to ten feet 
deep. These are known by the name of 'shaking marshes,' and are danger- 
ous to cross with horses. They appear, however, to be filling up, from the 
same causes that have made the others more solid." Beneath the mud and, 
water is a stratum of fine silicious sand, which is believed by Doctor Foot to 
be of animalcular origin. He supposes these marshes to have been origin- 
ally shallow lakes or lagoons, full of aquatic plants, which were then, as now,, 
covered with myriads of animalcules, whose shells were pure silex. As these 
died annually, each one deposited its particle of silex, until, in the process of 
time, the lagoon became filled up, having below a stratum of sand, and above 
an imperfectly organized soil, formed by the annually decaying vegetation. 

* Medical Statistics U. S. A. J Medical Statistics U. S. A., p. 150. 

f Lapham's Wisconsin. 



340 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

According to the army returns for ten years, the annual ratio of cases of 
intermittent fever at this post, is but five per cent. ; and of remittent, one 
and a third per cent. ; less, even, than at Fort Howard ; notwithstanding the 
topography of this spot so eminently favors the production of those fevers. 
It is, moreover, nearly a degree further south ; but, at the same time, two 
hundred and twenty feet higher ; which, in reference to the heat of summer, 
may perhaps compensate for the difference of latitude. It would appear 
from these statistics that, at Fort Winnebago, a latitude of forty-three 
degrees and a half, and an elevation of eight hundred feet, greatly control 
the noxious autumnal influence of extensive bogs and marshes, abounding in 
organic matter. 

V. Milwaukie. — The small bay of Milwaukie is a semi-circular inden- 
tation on the western coast of Lake Michigan, about the forty-third degree 
of north latitude. Its length is six miles, and its depth, or projection into 
the land, three. The shores of this portion of the lake are composed of a 
post-tertiary clay deposit, from twenty to one hundred feet in hight. The 
bottom of the bay has been filled up by the alluvion of two small rivers, the 
Milwaukie and Menomonee, which unite as they enter it. In their common 
valley, and on the adjacent sloping tertiary plain, to the north, stands the 
new and rapidly growing town of Milwaukie. After passing through it, the 
river enters that part of the bay which has been filled up, and winds its 
way, as a deep and narrow canal, to the lake. The space between the town 
and the mouth of the river, is an impassable morass, bridged over with a 
stratum of indurated alluvion, bound together by the roots of the grasses 
which it nourishes. This crust being penetrated, the soft mud has been 
sounded to the depth of more than forty feet, without finding bottom.* A 
part of the bottom on which the town is built, was a wooded swamp, which 
has been reclaimed. As both the estuary and the marshes of the bay lie to 
the south of the center of the town, the summer and autumnal exhalations 
are wafted over it by the winds. Thus, Milwaukie, topographically consid- 
ered, would be pronounced a sickly town; but such is not the fact. Never- 
theless, intermittent and remittent fevers prevail more at this place than at 
Green Bay, a degree further north, but on the same level ; or at Fort Win- 
nebago, half a degree further north, and two hundred feet higher. Still, 
their prevalence is far less than in some more promising localities in lower 
latitudes. Thus, Doctor Bean, who had practiced medicine in the latitude 
of 41°, on the highlands of Illinois, west of Peoria, assured me, that he 
found much less autumnal fever at his present, than his former residence. 
In three years, he had seen but five or six cases, all of which were mild; 
and the number of remittents had been still smaller. This statement, how- 
ever, excludes some cases in which the disease was contracted elsewhere. 
Doctor Hewett, who had resided in Milwaukie a longer period of time, had 
seen rather more of these diseases, especially in the autumns of 1839 and 
and 1840 ; yet some seasons had passed away, without presenting scarcely a 
single case. 

* Lapham's Wisconsin. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 341 

VI. Racine. — From Milwaukie to Racine, twenty-five miles, a belt of 
compact and lofty forest, nourished by the influences of the lake, spreads to 
the distance of two or three miles into the country, beyond which, there are 
rolling prairies. The site of Racine, in N. Lat. 42° 50', is a part of this 
wooded plain, elevated from thirty to fifty feet above the lake. In rainy 
weather, small pools of water form on many parts of its surface. In digging 
wells, as Doctor Cary informed me, they pass through a bed of sandy loam, 
and then through a deposit of gravel, into another of blue clay, with peb- 
bles, when pure but hard water is obtained. At the same level, springs 
burst out from the banks of Root River, which enters the lake, adjacent to 
the northern side of the town. The valley of this river, for two or three 
miles up, is about sixty rods in width, and not subject to inundation. 
Doctor Cary, who had resided in the place ten years, that is, from the begin- 
ning of its settlement, informed me, that for the first two years, there was 
scarcely a case of autumnal fever; in the next two, a number of cases 
occurred; and in the following year, 1839, it assumed a mild epidemic char- 
acter, putting on an intermittent type, and proving fatal in a single instance 
only. The following year it was again epidemic. In both those years, the 
mouth of Root River was choked up with sand, and its waters rendered 
stagnant. In the next three or four years, the cases were very few. Doctor 
Graves, who had resided eight years in the place, confirmed the statement of 
Doctor Cary, and added, that every autumn some cases of remittent fever 
occurred. It appears from these accounts, that, below the latitude of 43°, 
on the shores of Lake Michigan, a locality presenting but few of the topo- 
graphical conditions which produce autumnal fever, is much more infested 
than places further north, in which those conditions exist in a far greater 
degree ; as at G-reen Bay and Fort Winnebago. 

VII. Chicago, the commercial metropolis of Lake Michigan, stands on 
a low sand-plain, on the western side of the Lake, in N. Lat. 41° 51', and 
W. Lon. 87° 35'. The breadth of this flat along the lake is about four 
miles, whence it runs back ten or twelve miles to the River Des Plaines, an 
elementary branch of the Illinois, described in the last chapter. When the 
lake stood at a level only twenty feet higher than at present, its waters over- 
spread this bed of alluvion, and a portion of them flowed down the Illinois. 
At this time it is a savanna, abounding in marshes and low sand-ridges ; 
traversed by the river just mentioned, on the west, and on the east by the 
north and south forks of Chicago River or Creek ; which, flowing nearly par- 
allel with the lake shore, and at a short distance from it, unite within it, and 
form a short common trunk, which meanders through its center, to the lake. 
The water in this natural canal is twenty feet in depth, and rises and falls, 
from the force of winds upon the lake, about two feet ; a fluctuation which 
tends to carry away the filth which would otherwise accumulate on its mar- 
gins, from the houses on each side, and from the vessels which seek it, as the 
only harbor of Chicago. From the mouth of this river there is a gradual 
rise of the plain, to the hight of twenty feet; which may be attained by as- 
cending the south fork of the river, to a spot whence streams sometimes 



342 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

flow to the east and west, on which canoes have passed from the lake into 
the Illinois River. The canal from Chicago to Peru, mentioned in the last 
chapter, now passes over that summit-level, which is the lowest between the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Gulf of Mexico, being, in round numbers, 
only six hundred feet. Near the lake shore, the winds are constantly blow- 
ing a fine dark-colored sand on the margin of the plain, which, south of the 
town, is raised into low ridgy dunes. The town-plat, from the destruction 
of the coarse sub-aquatic vegetation, and the tramping of men and animals, 
is constantly becoming dryer and firmer. Beyond these influences, much of 
it inclines to marshiness ; but as it is not subject to inundation, and is high 
enough above the Chicago and Des Plaines Rivers, to be drained, by a judi- 
cious system of ditching, it will, no doubt, as population increases, be 
entirely reclaimed. 

Fort Dearborn, a vacated military post, stands on a sand-dune, immedi- 
ately south of the entrance of Chicago River into the lake. 

The site of Chicago was occupied in early times by the French, but they 
never resided on it in large numbers. It was, by the American government, 
made a military post, and an Indian agency. In the year 1831, the town 
itself was commenced; and at this time (1848), its population is near 
twenty thousand. The city is supplied with water from the lake, through a 
hydrant- s}^stem. A growth so rapid indicates its prospective importance, 
and entitles it to the regard of the medical topographer. Situate on the 
eastern or leeward margin of a wet or marshy plain of great extent, it 
would, in a southern climate, be classed with the sickliest localities. Let U3 
inquire, then, into the extent of the countervailing influence of its latitude, 
which is nearly that of 42°. 

According to the returns from Fort Dearborn, for ten years, the annual 
ratio of its intermittents was twenty-three per cent., — that of its remittents, 
four per cent.* The annual ratio at Fort Wood, on the Gulf of Mexico, 
having Lake Borgne on one side, and a cypress swamp on the other, 
was, through the same period, — intermittents seventy- six, — remittents twen- 
ty-seven. These posts are about twelve degrees apart; and to this differ- 
ence of latitude we may ascribe the different degrees of autumnal fever, 
experienced by their respective garrisons through the same period; a dif- 
ference which may be expressed by saying, that while one hundred men 
would present but twenty- seven cases of fever at Fort Dearborn, the same 
number would present one hundred and three cases at Fort Wood. On the 
other hand, however, we find the proportion at Fort Dearborn greater than 
at Fort Winnebago and Fort Howard, both lying further north, and the 
former at an elevation two hundred feet higher. 

From Professor Brainard, of Rush Medical College, I received statements, 
which, when compared with those of the medical gentlemen of Green Bay, 
Milwaukie, and Racine, indicate a decidedly greater prevalence of autumnal 
fever in Chicago than in those towns ; but he had not met with malignant 

* Medical Statistics U. S. A., p. 87. 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 343 

cases. The accounts given me by Doctor Kimberly were less favorable than 
those of Professor Brainard. He spoke, particularly, of the year 1835, 
when the crowd of strangers was great, while the town-plat was still pondy 
or marshy, and a great deal of wet prairie was broken up with the plow. 
The statements of Doctors Boon, Davidson, and Brinkerhoff, fully sustained 
the impression made by the others, and convinced me that the town of 
Chicago has been more infested with autumnal fever than Fort Dearborn 
had been ; which goes to strengthen the prevalent opinion, that the first ex- 
posure of the new soil to the sun, rain, and air, is insalubrious. A part 
of this up-turning was by the plow, another by the spade in the excavation 
of the canal. This operation deserves some notice. The canal stretches 
south-westerly from the town completely across the plain. One of the con- 
tractors told me, that, in 1838, he had excavated a mile. The average dig- 
ging was to the depth of four feet, through a soft black mold, abounding in 
organic matter. The distance to which this silt was spread out, on each 
side, was such as to cover a parallelogram of the average width of two hun- 
dred and eighty feet, exposed to sun and rain. Doctor Boone had ample 
opportunities of observing the effect of this proceeding on the health of the 
people. Nearly all who resided along the line of excavation, sickened with 
autumnal fever ; and almost all the laborers ( Irish immigrants ) suffered in 
the same way. Several died with malignant or congestive symptoms. 

VIII. Michigan City. This newly-settled town, in the State of Indiana, 
is situate near the vertex, or southern extremity, of the lake whose name it 
bears. In passing round the head of the lake from Chicago, it is seen that 
a belt, three or four miles wide, consists of dunes or hillocks of blown sand, 
thinly covered with trees. They vary in night from twenty up to one hun- 
dred feet, are of all forms, and give origin to no streams, but inclose ponds 
of water. The sand is generally white or gray ; the soil is very thin, and 
bears but few herbaceous plants.* Behind this belt, there is, according to 
Doctor Pulford, formerly of Michigan City, now of Mineral Point, Wiscon- 
sin, a broad prairie-marsh, and then, at a little higher level, a tract of wood- 
land five or six miles wide. To this succeeds a dry and rolling prairie, from 
ten to twenty miles in width ( embracing groves of timber ), which extends 
across the State of Indiana from west to east. Immediately south of this, 
there is a belt of wood-land, to which succeeds the valley of the Kankakee, 
with its deep and sluggish waters, bordered on both sides with extensive 
marshes, having a grassy surface. Thus, the people who inhabit the prairie 
to the north or leeward, are subjected to influences which, in the latitude of 
41 ° 30', and at the elevation of six or seven hundred feet, give rise to a 
great deal of autumnal fever. 

Michigan City is situate within the tract here described, on the west side 
of the mouth of a small stream called Trail Creek, in N. Lat. (about) 41° 
47', on a sandy plain which rises but a few feet above the surface of the 
lake. In its rear are sand hills and then a marsh. From Doctor Pulford I 

* From the late William Harris, Land Surveyor. 



344 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

learned, that autumnal fever, both intermittent and remittent, prevails here 
in a decided and often dangerous degree. 

IX. Laporte. — This town stands within the district just described, 
ten miles south of Michigan City. The lagging Kankakee, with its vast 
marshy bottoms, comes within ten miles of it on the south side. 
The country around the town is level, and composed of diluvium or drift, 
supporting bowlders, like the whole region adjacent to the lake. It is par- 
titioned, with some equality, between prairies, barrens, or open woods, and 
dense forests. As Laporte is situate on the summit-level between the St. 
Lawrence and the Mexican basins, it has no streams larger than rivulets 
near it ; but there are several small lakes, with sandy shores, some of which 
are so shallow, as to abound in aquatic plants. 

According to Doctor Andrew, from whom I have borrowed these facts,* 
the settlement of Laporte was commenced in 1831, but no autumnal fever 
occurred until 1838, when it appeared as an epidemic intermittent, and re- 
curred, with diminished violence and extent of invasion, in the two following 
autumns. Of the reasons why, for the first seven years of its settlement, 
the town should not have suffered from this fever, and should then have been 
invaded, I cannot speak. 

X. Eastern Coast of Lake Michigan. — The country east of Lake 
Michigan constitutes a peninsula, which is bounded on the east by the western 
end of Lake Erie, Detroit River, the River St. Clair, and Lake Huron. 
Through this peninsula, from north north-east to south south-west, there runs 
a swell, which rises from two to six hundred feet above the surrounding waters, 
and supports a countless number of small transparent and permanent lakes ; 
which give origin to rivers that flow to the east and west. Those which 
take the latter direction offer themselves to our notice in this place. The 
first and most southern is the St. Joseph, which, originating in the State of 
Michigan, bends through the north-east corner of Indiana, reenters the state 
in which it began, and flows into the lake at the town of St. Joseph's. The 
next in size and southern latitude, is the Kalamazoo, which, originating in 
the same water-shed, makes its way directly to the lake. The third is 
Grand River, which, having a similar origin and termination, lies a little 
further north. The fourth, and last that I shall mention, is the Muskegon, 
which, from a lacustrine source on the same high lands, enters the lake a 
little north of the last. These rivers drain the south-west corner of the 
State of Michigan ; which region embraces many interesting towns and settle- 
ments ; but not having visited it, nor met with any account of its medical 
topography, I am compelled to dismiss it with this notice. 

North of the river Muskegon, up to the vertex of the peninsula at the 
straits of Mackinac, between the forty-third and the forty-sixth parallels, 
the rigors of the climate have retarded the settlement of the lake shores, and 
its medical topography has not been studied ; but it is known to abound in 
small Jakes.f On this coast there are two deep narrow bays, called by the 

* Western Lancet, Vol. VII, No. 3. + Michigan Geological Reports. 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 345 

voyageurs Great and Little Traverse, on which there are missionary stations 
among the Indians. Their latitude is about 45° 30'. I was told at Mack- 
inac, that the natives at these establishments are sometimes affected with 
both intermittent and remittent fever ; but the number of cases is small. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF LAKE HURON. 

I. Outlines. — Lake Huron, as we have already seen, is connected with 
Lake Superior by the Straits or Kiver called the St. Mary, and with Lake 
Michigan, by the Straits of Mackinac. It lies south-east of the former, and 
east north-east of the latter. Its northern border falls between the forty- 
sixth and forty-seventh parallels, its southern extremity reaches the forty- 
third. Its area is estimated at twenty thousand four hundred square miles ; 
its elevation above the sea is five hundred and seventy-eight feet ; its mean 
depth one thousand ; its greatest depth, — off the mouth of Saginaw Bay, — 
eighteen hundred or two thousand feet.* A long range of islands, called the 
Manitoulins, running nearly parallel to its axis, gives to its upper or northern 
portion, an interior or insular coast. Beyond these islands, there are large 
bays, of which the most extensive has received the name of Georgian. On 
that side of the Lake, there are, as yet, no settlements deserving the atten- 
tion of the medical topographer, until we descend to the country south of the 
bay just mentioned, between the forty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees of lati- 
tude, in Canada West. On the opposite or south-west side of the lake, in 
the State of Michigan, the country is, likewise, in a great degree unsettled, 
until we arrive at Saginaw Bay, near the forty-fourth parallel. To the north 
and north-east, the Huron Basin is bounded by the water-shed of the St. 
Lawrence and Hudson Basins ; to the east and south-east, by the dividing 
lands between it and Lake Erie and Lake Ontario ; to the west, by the high- 
lands which traverse the lower peninsula of Michigan, already noticed. In 
the south, Lake Huron narrows to a strait, through which its superabundant 
waters flow off toward Lake Erie. In a voyage from Mackinac to this out- 
let, on the 9th of August, 1842, when the surface- temperature was probably 
at its maximum, I found the following variations : 

Harbor of Mackinac, 62°.5 

Ten or twelve miles out, - - - - - 61°. 

Middle portions of the lake, 53°. 

" " " - 54° 

« " a _____ 54 

In sight of land, Canada shore, - _ _ - 59°. 

" Michigan shore, - - - - 61°. 

Ten miles from Michigan shore, - - - - 61°. 

Near the outlet of the lake, 63°. 

* Michigan Geological Reports. 



346 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book j. 

Here, as on Lake Michigan, we find the surface-temperature less as the 
depth of water is greater. 

II. Mackinac. — This is at once the name of an island, a strait, a vil- 
lage, and a fort; as may be seen by inspecting PL XIV; on which the 
hight of the island above the water is marked correctly, two hundred and 
nineteen feet, and the latitudes and longitudes are, approximately, stated at 
45° 51' N., and 85° 5' W. The island lies a little east of the straits, and 
therefore belongs to Lake Huron, rather than Lake Michigan. Rising 
boldly out of the water, it is not fringed with the green marshes, so often 
seen on the lake margins. Geologically, it is a mass of sub-carboniferous, 
Devonian or upper Silurian limestone, with the external surface in a state of 
decay. In some places its escarpments are nearly perpendicular, in others 
they slope gently down to the lake. On the south side is the harbor, pre- 
senting a. crescent-indentation, with a beach of limestone pebbles, blanched 
by the alternate action of the air and water. The latter is so transparent, 
that the pebbles may be distinctly seen at the depth of many feet. This 
beach terminates in a low but dry plain, on which stands the village of 
Mackinac, with the fort in its rear and one hundred and fifty feet above it. 
The higher — which are the south-eastern — portions of the island, are 
rocky ; but whatever soil has accumulated from the decay of the limestone 
rocks, is fertile. The opposite end is lower, and has a deeper covering of 
soil; but the surface is overspread with a countless number of large primi- 
tive bowlders. A portion of the gentle slopes of the island is cultivated. 
Much of the original forest, composed largely of sugar maple and paper 
birch, is still standing. 

The temperature of the water on the lake shore, where shallow, I found, 
in the month of August, to be 62° Fahrenheit; — where deep, 56°, both at 
the surface and two hundred feet below. A spring, which bursts out near 
the bottom of the bold eastern escarpment, had, at the same time, the tem- 
perature of 44° Fahrenheit. 

From this description it appears, that the conditions which are held to be 
necessary to the generation of autumnal fever, are at their minimum on this 
island; and, when we connect this fact with its latitude, — nearly 46°, — 
and its altitude above the sea, — from six to eight hundred feet, — we are 
prepared to find it almost exempt from that disease ; and such, from the tes- 
timony of its inhabitants, is the fact; especially in reference to the intermit- 
tent form, which, I was assured by many respectable persons, never origina- 
ted among the people of the town, and would cease spontaneously in those 
who returned or came with it from other places. Doctor Rankin, however, 
who had resided four years in the village, had met, in autumn, with a few 
remittents, which tended to a continued form. But we must not overlook 
the army returns, from the post which has long been maintained on this 
island. 

According to those returns,* the ratio of remittent fever is one per cent, per 

* Medical Statistics U. S. A., p. 74. 



PL. Xl^ 




liitho: by ^d-.tl^eher. 



JFuce 346. 



C.J.Fullrr; U.S.C.Engr. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 347 

annum; of intermittents, eight. The latter ratio seems to invalidate the as- 
sertion, that intermittent fever is nearly unknown here, and requires to be 
examined. During the period embraced in the returns, there were sixty-five 
cases reported, of which seven were in the first quarter of the calendar year, 
thirty-one in the second, thirteen in the third, and fourteen in the fourth. 
Now, in the climate of that post, no new case can be generated within the 
first and second quarters, and consequently, of the sixty-five cases, thirty- 
eight must be regarded as relapses, or as vernal intermittents, depending on 
a morbid impression made on the system the preceding autumn. Still fur- 
ther, of the fourteen cases in the fourth quarter, we may suppose a propor- 
tion, equal to that of the first quarter, to be of the same kind; for the cause 
of the disease could not be in existence in the months of November and 
December; we may, then, subtract five from the returns for that quarter, 
and place them with those for winter and spring, raising that column to 
forty-three, and, consequently, leaving but twenty-two cases of summer in- 
termittent, for the whole period. It cannot be said that the vernal intermit- 
tents were of those who had contracted the disease on the island in the pre- 
ceding summers and autumns, for a part only of those who suffer in the 
latter seasons, relapse in the spring ; but here the number of vernal cases 
was greater than the whole number of autumnal. 

It seems to result, then, from what has been said, that at least two-thirds 
of the cases at Fort Mackinac must have been contracted elsewhere ; redu- 
cing the number of (possibly) original cases, to less than three per cent., 
with a probability that even these might have resulted from the previous ac- 
tion of the remote cause at some more southern and sickly post. Doctor 
Forry, the editor of the Army Medical Statistics, thinks it difficult to explain 
why the second quarter of the year presented twice as many cases as the 
third; but what has been said, perhaps accounts for it; while it reconciles 
the garrison returns with the popular opinion, that intermittent fever is not 
among the endemic diseases of the island. 

III. Summer Voyages on Upper Lakes, with a Residence at Mack- 
inac, eor Invalids. — The three great reservoirs of clear and cold water — 
Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior, with the Island of Mackinac in their 
hydrographical center — offer a delightful hot- weather asylum to all invalids, 
who need an escape from crowded cities, paludal exhalations, sultry climates, 
and officious medication. Lake Erie lies too far south, and is bordered with 
too many swamps, to be included in the salutiferous group. The voyage 
from Buffalo, Cleveland, or Sandusky, on that lake, or from Chicago or Mil- 
waukie, on Lake Michigan, may afford, should the water be agitated, all the 
benefits of sea-sickness, without its tedious prolongation. On reaching 
Mackinac, an agreeable change of climate is at once experienced ; and the 
bodily feeling is hightened, by the emotions which the evidence and conscious- 
ness of having retreated upon an island, raise in the mind of one who has 
not before enjoyed the novelty of an insular life. To his jaded sensibilities, 
all around him is fresh and refreshing ; a feeling of security comes over him, 
and when, from the rocky battlements of Fort Mackinac, he looks down upon 



348 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the surrounding waters, they seem a moat of defense against the host of an- 
noyances from which he had sought a refuge. Thus a curative state of 
mind begins to act on his body, from the moment of his landing ; and, if he 
be a person of intelligence and taste, this salutary mental excitement will not 
soon die away ; for the historic associations, not less than the scenery of this 
island, are well fitted to maintain it. 

The first white men who dwelt on Mackinac, and the surrounding coasts, 
were the French ecclesiastics and fur-traders. In 1763, the whole passed, 
with Canada, to the jurisdiction of Great Britain; by whom, in 1796, it was 
surrendered to the United States. In 1812, it was conquered by that power, 
and restored at the close of the war. From the summit of the island, the eye 
rests upon a number of spots consecrated to military history. But the natu- 
ral scenery is still better fitted to make the invalid forget his ailments. 
Several agreeable and exciting boat voyages maybe made to the neighboring 
coasts, from each of which a new aspect may be had ; and the island itself, 
although but nine miles in circuit, affords opportunities for a great variety of 
rambling on foot. In these excursions he may ascend to the apex of the 
island, once the site of a fort. From this summit, elevated far above all that 
surrounds it, the panorama is such as would justify the epithet to Mackinac — 
Queen of the Isles. To the west, are the indented shores of the upper pen- 
insula of Michigan; to the south, those of the lower, presenting, in the inte- 
rior, a distant and smoky line of elevated table-land ; up the straits, green 
islets may be seen peeping above the waters ; directly in front of the harbor, 
Bound Island forms a beautiful foreground ; while the larger Bois Blanc, with 
its light-house, stretches off to the east ; and to the north are other islands, 
at varying distances, which complete the archipelago. 

When the observer directs his eye upon the waters more than the land, 
and the day is fair, with moderate wind, he finds the surface as variable in 
its tints, as if clothed in a robe of changeable silk. Green and blue are the 
governing hues, but they flow into each other with such facility and frequency, 
that while still contemplating a particular spot, it seems, as if by magic, 
transformed into another ; but these mid- day beauties vanish before those of 
the setting sun, when the boundless horizon of lake and land seems girt 
around with a fiery zone of clouds, and the brilliant drapery of the skies 
paints itself upon the surface of the waters. Brief as they are beautiful, 
these evening glories, like spirits of the air, quickly pass away; and the gray 
mantle of night warns the beholder to depart for the village, while he may 
yet make his way along a narrow and rocky path, beset with tufts of prickly 
juniper. Having refreshed himself for an hour, he may stroll out upon the 
beach, and listen to the serenade of the waters. Wave after wave will break 
at his feet, over the white pebbles, and return as limpid as it came. Up the 
straits, he will see the evening star dancing on the ruffled surface, and the 
loose sails of the lagging schooner flapping in the fitful land-breeze ; while 
the Milky Way — Death's Path of the red man — will dimly appear in the 
waters before him. Behind, in the street, a lively group of Canadian French, 
of every shade of color between white and red, will gossip and shrug their 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 349 

shoulders ; on one side, should the Indians, who still inhabit the shores of 
Lake Michigan, be on a visit to the island, he will hear the uproar of a lodge 
of drunken Chippewas, with the screams of women and children, and the 
cackling of frightened hens; on the ether, will see the sober and listless Ot- 
towa, sitting in silent vacancy of thought, on his upturned birch canoe, his 
wife within the tent, spreading cypress bark and flag mats upon the gravel, 
as lodgings for the night; while half a dozen children loll or play about the 
door, and as many half-starved dogs curl up among them. Surrounded by 
such scenes, the traveler begins to realize that he is a stranger ; when, sud- 
denly, a new phenomenon appears, and fixes the conviction. Every object 
becomes more visible ; and, raising his eyes, he beholds the heavens illumi- 
nated with an aurora borealis, where he reads in fantastic characters of strange 
and eccentric light, that he is, indeed, a sojourner in a strange land, and 
has wandered far from his friends and home, in the sunny regions of the 
south.* 

While the valetudinarian, during the summer months, makes the island of 
Mackinac his home, he may enjoy several interesting steamboat voyages. At 
any time, he can descend to Detroit and Niagara ; or, passing through the 
straits of Mackinac, visit Chicago, Racine, and Milwaukie, on the western 
coast of Lake Michigan. Opportunities will likewise be presented, to ascend 
the St. Mary to the Saull, where he will find much to interest him ; and 
whence he may proceed, in a fur-trading skiff, or a bark canoe, to Gros Cap, 
at the efflux of the river from Lake Superior. Finally, he may have it in his 
power to embark on that lake, and visit the copper hills of the mineral region 
near its southern shore ; the climate of which is represented as highly invig- 
orating; while the novelty and wildness of the scenery will act with salutary 
influence on his imagination and feelings. 

Those who are prone to consumption, might, perhaps, experience some in- 
jury from the humidity of this lacustrine region ; to hypochondriacs, dyspep- 
tics, chlorotics, and all who have their constitutions broken down by autumnal 
fever, it must, however, prove eminently restorative. 

IV. Deummond's Island. — In leaving Mackinac, we shall proceed down 
Lake Huron, on its northern and eastern shore, which, it will be recollected, 
lies in Canada West. The large island with which we begin, called Drum- 
mond's Island, is the most western of the Manitoulin Chain, and lies imme- 
diately east of the mouth of St. Mary's River, in latitude 46°. The British 
once had a fort upon it, near which there were extensive marshy shores, but 
autumnal fever was almost, if not entirely, unknown, t 

V. Penetanguishine. — This village, of one hundred and twenty inhabi- 
tants, chiefly French and Indian half-breeds, is the seat of a small naval and 
military establishment.! It stands on the southern shore of Georgian Bay, 
in N. Lat. about 44 g 45', at the base of a long sandy ridge two or three 

* The Northern Lakes a Summer Residence for Invalids of the South. By Daniel 
Drake, M.D. : 1842. 

t Tulloch's Statistical Reports of the British Army. 
t Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



350 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

hundred feet high, which projects into the bay. At the head of the bay, and 
for several miles south-east, there are low swampy grounds, between which 
and the barracks, however, a hill intervenes. The surrounding country is 
undulating or hilly, and generally covered with woods. In 1828, the troops 
were transferred to this post from Drummond's Island. It has proved to be 
as free from autumnal fever as that island. That fever, in fact, is nearly 
unknown.* 

VI. Country around Georgian Bay. — On the north and north-east of 
Georgian Bay, to the water-shed between the St. Lawrence and Hudson 
Basins, the country is wild and dreary, abounds in small lakes, and remains 
unsettled. The region around the bottom or southern extremity of the bay, 
in the rear of Penetanguishine, extending to within forty miles of the head 
of Lake Ontario, includes the large and beautiful Lake Simcoe; which, by a 
descent of one hundred and seventy feet, and a circuitous route to the north, 
discharges its superfluous waters into Georgian Bay, through the Severn 
River. The region to the south-west of this river, between the bay and 
lake, as well as that drained by all the rivers which fall into both, is covered 
with excellent soil, and has a considerable, though scattered, population. f 
The surface is generally wet and in many places marshy, but in the latitude 
of 44° or 45°, such a condition produces but little autumnal fever. Its 
medical history, however, has not been written. 

VII. Lower Eastern Shore of Lake Huron. — Most of the cape be- 
tween Georgian Bay and Lake Huron, is unsettled Indian country; and it 
is not until we descend below the latitude of 44°, that we come into a region 
of interest to the medical etiologist. There, we reach the Huron District, 
which extends nearly to the southern extremity of the lake, and has a con- 
siderable population, composed almost entirely of immigrants from Europe. 
The district includes a swamp of vast extent. The principal town of the 
district is Goderich, on the shore of Lake Huron, at the mouth of Maitland 
River, about N. Lat. 43° 45'. It stands on a dry surface, one hun- 
dred feet above the lake. J According to Doctor Stratton,|| autumnal fever 
is rarely seen at this place. Of the medical topography of the district gen- 
erally, and the prevalence of fever in autumn, I can say nothing further. 

VIII. Western Shore of Lake Huron, around and south of Sag- 
inaw Bay. — This bay projects to the south-west, from the western or Mich- 
igan side of the lake. Its extreme point, in Saginaw county, receives the 
waters of Saginaw Biver, which originates within the coal basin which occu- 
pies the center of the lower or southern peninsula of the State of Michigan. 
This is the most considerable tributary of the western side of Lake Huron. 
There are considerable settlements within this basin, but nothing has been 
published on its medical topography. There was a military post at the head 
of the estuary of Saginaw River, at which, as Doctor Pitcher, now of De- 
troit, has informed me, autumnal fever prevailed, and sometimes assumed a 
malignant character. The latitude of the post was about 43° 20' N. From 

*Tulloch. f Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 

X Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. || Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 164. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 351 

Point aux Barques, immediately below Saginaw Bay, down to the termina- 
ting extremity of the lake, the coast is nearly straight, with but few inden- 
tations, and presents low cliffs of sandstone, emerging from under the coal 
basin of the interior of Michigan ; while the coast above the bay shows cliffs 
of upper Silurian limestone, which have risen from beneath the sandstone. 
This lower coast, and the country in its rear, are but sparsely peopled, and I 
know nothing of its special medical topography or autumnal diseases. 



SECTION VI. 

STRAITS BETWEEN LAKE HURON AND LAKE ERIE : LAKE ST. CLAIR. 

I. The Straits. — These straits have received two names. The portion 
which extends from Huron to the little Lake St. Clair, is called St. Clair 
River; that which extends from the southern side of that small body of 
water, to the west end of Lake Erie, is the well-known Detroit River. The 
fall in the two is fourteen feet. Both the upper and lower portions are 
bounded by banks of post-tertiary or diluvial clay, supporting heavy forests, 
wherever settlements have not been made. The current of this broad and 
deep natural canal, except where the water issues from Lake Huron, is gentle ; 
its width is from one to two miles. St. Clair River is about forty miles 
long — Detroit River, twenty-three or twenty-four. The banks of the upper 
part of St. Clair River are well-developed; but as it approaches Lake St, 
Clair they sink, and its shores become more or less marshy. The upper part 
of Detroit River has banks sufficiently high; but as we descend, wet or 
swampy grass flats appear on each side of the river. 

II. The Lake. — This little intermediate sheet of water has a mean 
length and breadth of twenty and eighteen miles ; an area of three hundred 
and sixty square miles; a mean depth of twenty feet; and an elevation of 
five hundred and seventy feet above the sea, — being in that respect interme- 
diate between Lakes Erie and Huron. The silt thrown into St. Clair River 
by its tributaries, is deposited at the head of Lake St. Clair, where alluvial 
islands are continually forming. St. Clair River, in fact, has a delta, that 
is regularly advancing into the lake,* which, from this source and the rivers 
which open into it laterally, will ultimately be converted into a marsh, with 
a river running through it. Much of the land around it is low and swampy; 
and there are, also, large savannas, so dry as to form natural grazing lands, 
and even to admit of cultivation, which are inundated by the periodical rises 
to which the lakes are subject. t In the month of August, I found the sur- 
face-temperature of this shallow lake, to be from 66° to 71°, according to 
its depth. In winter it is entirely bridged over with thick and firm ice, 
which has become an article of exportation to Cincinnati. 

III. Head of the Straits : Fort Gratiot : Port Huron : Port Sar- 
nia. — The efflux of St. Clair Strait or River from Lake Huron, is in a loca- 

* Michigan Geological Reports. f Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



352 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

lity of some interest to the medical historian. Its latitude is 43° N., its 
longitude 82° 10' W. The higbt of the banks may be taken at six hundred 
feet above the sea. Within this locality, there is the embouchure of Black 
Biver, with Fort Gratiot and the town of Port Huron, on the Michigan side, 
and the town of Port Sarnia, with an Indian village, on the Canada side. 
Fort Gratiot stands on a sand-dune, very near the point of exit of the waters 
of the lake, and Port Huron on the same dune, a mile below, at the mouth 
of Black Biver. 

The sources of this river are in tamarack swamps, not far from the west- 
ern shore of Lake Huron, nearly parallel to which shore it flows on until 
within a few miles west of Port Huron, when it turns to the eastward and 
joins St. Clair Biver at that town. Its water, like that of many other streams 
having a similar origin, has the color of ink liberally diluted, which seems to 
be produced, either by some exclusively vegetable coloring-matter of the 
swamps, or by the tanno-gallate of iron, formed by the union of the appro- 
priate acid ( supplied by the tamarack pine ) with the metal, in which the 
soil of that part of Michigan abounds. Black Biver, as it approaches the St. 
Clair, lies immediately to the west or windward of Fort Gratiot and Port 
Huron, at a distance varying from a few hundred yards to a mile, without any 
intervening hills, while its bottoms are broad and swampy, and its own cur- 
rent checked by a mill-dam near its mouth. Between the two rivers, is the 
sand-dune of which I have spoken, with its little pools, or wet basins, in 
which the recrements of plants have been decomposed into soil. The western 
or right bank of the river is higher, and consists of compact post-tertiary 
clay, with pebbles. Opposite the fort and village, the St. Clair is fringed 
with a narrow belt of low alluvial bottom, on which rain-water stands in 
little ponds, or forms smalls marshes, and over which the river flows in the 
periodical rises of the lake. 

Fort Gratiot. — The returns from Fort Gratiot* show a decided preva- 
lence of intermittent fevers ; the annual ratio being seventy-two per cent ; 
that of remittent fever is, however, only three per cent. When we compare 
the relative prevalence of these two forms of fever at this post, with their 
prevalence at Fort Crawford, in the same latitude, on the banks of the Mis- 
sissippi, we find that, while intermittent fever is more prevalent here, remit- 
tent fever is more prevalent there. Here, the latter makes but three or four 
per cent, of all the cases of autumnal fever ; there, it makes fourteen per 
cent., and is, therefore, four times as prevalent, compared with the intermit- 
tent form. When we bring Fort Snelling, on the Mississippi, in N. Lat. 44° 
53', into this comparison, the conclusion is strengthened ; for, at that post 
remittents make thirty-three per cent, of the whole. These facts are instruc- 
tive. A long river-beach low-water marsh lies to the windward of Fort 
Crawford, and the swampy mouth of the St. Peter's in the same direction 
from Fort Snelling ; but the amount of watery surface around those spots, in 
autumn, is small, compared with that around Fort Gratiot, which has the 

* Medical Statistics of United States Army. 



part j.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 353 

lake on its north, the St. Clair on its east, and Black River, with a dam and 
pond, on its south and west. The atmospheric humidity of this little penin- 
sula is, therefore, very great, compared with the sites of Fort Crawford and 
Fort Snelling, and to this meteorological condition, we must I think, ascribe 
its greater proportion of intermittents compared with remittents. Doctor 
Foriy, the ingenious editor of our army statistics, has compared this post with 
Mackinac, and ascribed the difference in autumnal fever to topographical 
causes. It results, however, in part from the higher latitude and elevation 
of Fort Mackinac ; as the comparative absence of that fever at Fort How- 
ard and Fort Winnebago, places south of Mackinac, but north of Gratiot, 
and with topographical conditions similar to those of the last, sufficiently 
proves. The forty-third parallel, with an elevation of six hundred feet above 
the sea, is, in fact, very near the highest latitude, at which, from the Missis- 
sippi eastwardly to St. Clair River, autumnal fever appears in an epidemic 
form. Beyond that degree, it rapidly diminishes, and in the forty-sixth is 
nearly unknown as an original disease. At a lower level, the line of epidemic 
prevalence will, of course, be found farther north. 

Port Huron. — To return to our present locality, I may state, that the 
people of the village of Port Huron, as I learned from the resident physician, 
Doctor Noble, and from Doctor Southgate, the post surgeon, are as subject 
to autumnal fever as the troops; and the settlers on the banks of the St. 
Clair, below the town, likewise suffer from the same disease. 

Port Sarnia. — This Canadian village stands on the east bank of St. Clair 
River, opposite Port Huron. Above it, the low cape, Point Edwards, nar- 
rows the outlet of the lake to half the width of the river, in front of Port 
Sarnia, and establishes, opposite and above that village, a miniature bay of 
shallow water, abounding in aquatic grasses. The site of the town, is a 
sufficiently elevated terrace of post-tertiary clay and gravel, or hard pan, 
identical in character with that immediately below the mouth of Black River. 
This plain is overspread with lofty forest trees. On the river bank, south of 
the village, there is a permanent settlement of Chippewa Indians. The in- 
habitants of Sarnia, and its vicinity, are subject to autumnal fever ;* but 
whether more or less so than those of Port Huron, I cannot say. 

yi. Adjoining parts op Canada. — The western beak or peninsula of 
Upper Canada, in which Port Sarnia lies, is bounded on the north by the 
lower end of Lake Huron, on the south by Lake Erie, and on the west by 
St. Clair River, Lake St. Clair, and Detroit River. In the civil divisions of 
Canada, it constitutes the Western district. Its principal river is the Thames, 
which, traversing it from east to west, opens into Lake St. Clair. The next 
in size is Bear Creek or Sydenham River, composed of two forks, the north 
and the east, which drain the country, in the rear of Port Sarnia, and throw 
their united waters into the Delta of St. Clair River. 

The Thames, which is one hundred and fifty miles in length, originates in 
Brook and Huron districts, where, by its southern branch, it interlocks with 



* From W. Jones, Esq., Assistant Superintendent Indian Department. 

23 



354 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tributaries of Grand River, whose waters fall into the eastern end of Lake 
Erie. From these origins, the Thames traverses London district, and, 
lastly, the Western district, in which it joins Lake St. Clair. The town of 
London is situate at the junction of its two principal branches. The basins 
of the Thames and the Sydenham, comprehend the best portions of Canada 
West. In the interior, the surface is rolling, in some places hilly; — but 
there are also tracts of swamp, and the streams have alluvial bottoms, many 
of which are subject to inundation. Advancing toward Lake St. Clair, the 
country becomes more level, the wet savannas multiply, and the low river- 
bottoms acquire greater breadth. The mouth of the Thames is in N. Lat. 
42° 20', — its northern sources in 43° 20'. Every part of the region 
drained by this river, and also of that drained by the Sydenham, is liable to 
autumnal fever; but the lower or western, much more than the interior, 
which is dryer and a little farther north. The insalubrity of many localities 
in the Western district has retarded their settlement. I cannot say whether 
the old settlements of Canadian French, on the banks of the Thames, suffer 
as much as the recent immigrants from Europe and the United States.* 

VII. Sandwich. — This village stands on the east bank of Detroit 
River, nine miles below Lake St. Clair, and three below the city of Detroit. 
It is one of the oldest French settlements in Canada West, and many of its 
inhabitants are still of that race. It has, at times, been the seat of a mili- 
tary post. It is built on a sloping gravelly bank ; but there are marshes 
around it, over the surface of which Doctor Stratton has often seen, in the 
morning and evening, a thin stratum of dark- colored air, perceiving, at the 
same time, an offensive smell, and experiencing, at the latter hour, a peculiar 
sensation of heat ; an observation made by others beside himself. The in- 
habitants are subject to autumnal fever; and during the time that two com- 
panies of troops were in barracks there, half of them were often ill, at once, 
with that disease. 

Windsor, a small village, two miles north of Sandwich, is situate on a 
high bank of Detroit River, and enjoys an exemption from creeks and 
marshes. A body of colonial militia stationed there, remained healthy in 
summer and autumn. f 

VIII. Amherstbtjrg and Malden. — The extreme south-west point of 
Canada West, is the township of Maiden, at the junction of Detroit River 
with Lake Erie. It comprehends the town of Amherstburg, and a per- 
manent military post called Fort Maiden. It was settled long since by 
Canadian French, but contains many English, Scotch, Irish, and American 
immigrants, with a large negro population, from the United States. Its soil 
is extremely fertile. | 

Amherstburg rests on Detroit River, about a mile from the lake, and Fort 



* Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. — Doctor Stratton, in Ed. Med. and Surg. Journal. — 
Martin's History of the British Colonies. 

f Stratton, Ed. Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 147. 
i Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 355 

Maiden stands half a mile above the town, in N. Lat. 42° 36', and W. Lon. 
82° 56'. About half the surrounding country is in woods. The vicinity of 
the town is flat, and there are several extensive marshes ; there is, also, a 
creek hard by, the banks of which are overflowed by freshets in Detroit 
River, and touch of the water left to evaporate. Around the fort there is 
a ditch, containing stagnant water. The troops in Fort Maiden have al- 
ways been afflicted with autumnal fever, both intermittent and remittent ; 
and, throughout the summer and autumn, most families of the village have, 
successively, a member down with it. In the winter of 1839 and 1840, 
Doctor Stratton saw a few cases (quere, relapses? ) before the 17th of Feb- 
ruary, when there came a thaw, which floated off the ice that had buried up 
tbe muddy banks of Detroit River, and " the next morning several persons, 
living in houses along the bank, were attacked with ague." * 

IX. Detroit. — There is no considerable town or river between Port 
Huron and the city of Detroit, standing on the right or Michigan side of the 
straits. Much of the bank around and below Lake St. Clair, has long been 
settled by Canadian French, and, in its elevation above the surface of the 
river, as well as the style of domestic and agricultural improvement, it re- 
sembles the ' Coast ' in Louisiana. 

Detroit is built in N. Lat. 42° 20', and W. Lon. 82° 58', about six miles 
below Lake St. Clair, on a post -tertiary clay plain, which stretches many 
miles into the interior. Its elevation is from twenty to thirty feet above the 
surface of the river. To its north-east, at the distance of a mile, a small 
stream, named Bloody Run, and then another, called Conner's Creek, enter 
Detroit River; above which, at the exit of the river from Lake St. Clair, 
there is an extensive marsh. At the distance of three miles below the city, 
opposite Sandwich, the bluff banks recede, and green marshes are developed 
on both sides of the river. Through these marshes, at the distance of five 
miles from Detroit, the small river Rouge, a foul and sluggish stream, with 
swampy alluvions, makes its way from the west to Detroit River. The level 
country back of the city abounds in marshes, swales, and peat bogs ; but the 
suburbs are not infested. The ground on which the city stands, however, is 
too level to permit good drainage, and too clayey to favor percolation ; it is 
therefore, in spring and autumn, so wet that board pavements are preferred to 
brick. Well-water can be obtained by digging into the argillaceous plain, 
which, at the depth of a hundred feet or more, rests on the upper Silurian 
limestone. The city, however, is supplied with river-water by a steam en- 
gine and pump. 

The condition of the opposite bank, on which stands the hamlet of Wind- 
sor, has been already mentioned. From this sketch it appears, that the an- 
cient metropolis of the upper lakes, is neither greatly exposed to, nor exempt 
from, those topographical circumstances, which give rise to autumnal fever; 
the prevalence of which harmonizes with the topography. Of the degree in 

*Ed. Medical and Surgical Journal, No. 147.— Tulloch's Statistics of the British 
Army. — Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



356 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which that fever prevailed among the French, who, in 1701, began the set- 
tlement of Detroit, under the name of Fort Pontchartrain, we have no 
record. At this time, the site of the city and its environs must be regarded 
as a surface long broken up and exposed to the action of the sun and rains ; 
which, it is well known, at last destroys some of the topographical causes of 
autumnal fever. Still, as I learned from Doctor Pitcher and Doctor Potter, 
intermittent and remittent fevers occur every autumn, both in the city and 
its suburbs, and occasionally assume a malignant type. 

X. Basins oe the Rouge and Huron Rivers. — These small rivers, of 
which the latter is the larger, drain the country in the rear of Detroit. 
The Rouge, as we have already seen, joins the straits five miles below 
the city ; the Huron pours its waters into the north-west corner of Lake 
Erie, a few miles below Amherstburg, on the opposite side of the estuary of 
Detroit River. The general course of both the Rouge and Huron is to the 
south-east, and thus their middle and upper waters lie to the west of the 
city of Detroit. Their sources are in several small lakes, at an elevation of 
about one hundred and fifty feet above the Detroit plain, from which they 
descend with a rapid current, to traverse the broad and flat surface of Wayne 
county, which extends from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie. Within this tract, 
their currents, and those of all the smaller streams, are sluggish. About 
one-third of Wayne county is composed of undulating oak plains, more or 
less sandy, and interspersed with wet grassy prairies ; while two-thirds con- 
sist of flat heavily timbered lands, abounding in marshes. From Lake St. 
Clair down to Huron River, at the distance of a few miles back from Detroit 
River, there extends a slip, three or four miles wide, which is depressed be- 
low the general level, and is either wet or swampy. South of the Rouge, 
between it and the Huron, this belt presents extensive wet prairies. The 
rivers and smaller streams which traverse it, having but little current, over- 
spread it in their freshets to a large extent. This tract of low grassy sur- 
face, in fact widens toward the mouths of those rivers. The region we are 
now describing, is composed of a deep upper stratum of post-tertiary clay, 
covered with rich soil, and resting on Silurian limestone : which rock, as we 
advance into the interior, shows itself, here and there, through its argillace- 
ous covering.* 

Toivnship of Plymouth. — Doctor Sprague f has written a paper on the 
topography and diseases of the north-west township of Wayne county, 
watered by the upper streams of the west branch of the river Rouge. The 
north half of the township is hilly, and covered with forest ; the other half 
level, and partly timbered. Mill-ponds abound, and one of them, with its 
vicinity, is thus described : " The pond is located in a valley, which is formed 
by the rising of two banks to the hight of fifty or sixty feet. The greatest 
distance between them is forty or fifty rods, most of which is occupied by 
the pond, which contains a great deal of decaying vegetable matter, both 



* Michigan Geological Reports. — Gazetteer of the State of Michigan, 
f Western Lancet, Vol. IV, No. 7. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 357 

ligneous and herbaceous. From the western "bank, another terrace, densely 
covered with trees, arises." Between the first bank on that side and the 
pond, upon a small area, rising but ten feet above the latter, there resided 
seven families, into one of which, in the month of August, 1843, Doctor 
Sprague was called to treat a case of simple intermittent, and for the next 
five weeks, generally had from eight to twelve patients in this little com- 
munity. Meanwhile the health of the surrounding country was good, save a 
family here and there, residing near some other pond. In the ensuing sum- 
mer, the dysentery prevailed in many parts of the township ; but, with the 
exception of a single case, passed by the pond settlement; which, however, 
suffered again from autumnal fever. As a general fact, Doctor Sprague 
remarked, that intermittent and remittent fevers prevail, for five or six 
weeks every year, in and around the ponds and marshes of this part of 
Michigan. The latitude of this region is 42° 30' N. 

From Dearhornville, where the river Rouge receives the waters of its west 
branch, down to Detroit River, its current lags, and its banks are low and 
wet. It was originally settled by Canadian French, who have, as the late 
scientific and indefatigable Doctor Houghton informed me, at all times 
suffered severely from autumnal fever. As this shallow valley lies from 
five to ten miles to the windward of Detroit, without any intervening hill 
or extensive forest, it maj be one source of the fevers which occur in 
that city. 

In making a railroad trip from Detroit to Ann Arbor, I observed that 
the surface of the country, out to the Rouge near Dearbornville — a distance 
of ten miles — was flat, and in many places marshy, with heavy forests. The 
Rouge, where the road crosses, was sluggish, with a foul aspect. 

Ann Arbor is built on Huron River, forty miles west of Detroit. The 
larger and better part of the town is on the western bank, which presents 
two terraces, a lower and a higher. On each side of the stream, there is a 
narrow slip of alluvial bottom, liable to inundation when the river is high. 
The University of Michigan stands half a mile west of the river, on the 
upper terrace. From Doctor Denton, who had resided seventeen years at 
this place, I learned that its inhabitants had suffered from autumnal fever, in 
common with those near the river, above and below the town. The same 
gentleman had also observed that the people who reside on the left-hand or 
leeward bank of the river, suffer more than those of the opposite or south- 
west side. By his narrative of symptoms, I discovered that cases as malig- 
nant or congestive as any in the south, occasionally occur. 

First Plowings. — Doctor Denton, and Doctor Houghton, the naturalist of 
the University, assured me, that they had seen many examples of the influ- 
ence of the first plowing up of new lands, both prairie and forest, in the pro- 
duction of autumnal fever. Even the breaking up of dry gravelly soils had 
been followed by fever. 



358 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN 
CONTINUED. 



BASIN F LAKE ERIE. 

Ehie, the last and most southern of the Upper Lakes, receives, through 
Detroit River, the overflowings of Lakes Superior, Michigan, and Huron, 
which enter its western extremity, and are discharged, with its own super- 
abundant waters, from its eastern, by the Niagara River. Their ingress is 
just above the forty-second parallel — their egress, a little below the forty- 
third ; the distance between those points being about four degrees of longi- 
tude, that is, from the seventy-ninth to the eighty-third. Lake Erie, like 
Lake Michigan, is a long narrow body of water, with an axis running nearly 
east north-east and west south-west. Its form is that of a compressed oval, 
indented on the north side, and elongated to a beak at its eastern extremity. 
Its meam length is two hundred and forty miles ; its mean breadth, forty or 
fifty miles ; its mean depth, eighty to ninety feet ; and its elevation above the 
sea five hundred and sixty-four or sixty-five feet.* The shallowness of this 
lake, compared with those above it, constitutes, perhaps, its greatest point of 
difference from them ; and is such, that strong winds agitate it to the bottom, 
and render its waters more or less turbid, according to their depth. On its 
north or Canadian side, the basin of Lake Erie is of such limited extent, that 
all the tributaries it supplies, except Grand River, which enters near the 
eastern extremity of the lake, are of insignificant size. This results from the 
manner in which it is overlapped at each end, respectively, by Lake Huron 
and Lake Ontario, in their approximation to each other. On the southern 
side, the basin is much wider, and watered by a far greater number of con- 
siderable rivers; of which the Raisin, Maumee, Sandusky, Huron, Black, 
Cuyahoga, and Grand, counting from west to east, are the most important. 
In beginning with the River Raisin, we shall preserve the continuity of de- 
scription from the region west of Detroit River, till we complete the southern 
portions of the Erie Basin. 

* Ohio Geological Report. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 359 

SECTION I. 

BASIN OF THE RIVER RAISIN. 

I. The mouth of this river is near the middle of the western end of Lake 
Erie, about fifteen miles south of Huron River, described in the last Chap- 
ter. The western portion of the district lying between these rivers, pre- 
sents a rolling surface, with an elevation of a hundred feet or more above the 
lake, from which the streams descend with a rapid current ; but when they 
reach the plain, but little raised above the lake, they form estuaries, into 
which its waters are driven by the winds. This belt, extending from the 
Huron to the Raisin, and including both, abounds in green marshes, relieved 
by low sand-dunes, which, at the present elevation of the lake, may be re- 
garded as irreclaimable. The subjacent rock is Silurian limestone, which, 
after having emerged from under the coal basins of the south, is found here 
dipping to the north, to pass under the coal measures of the State of 
Michigan. 

The sources of the River Raisin interlock with those of Grand River and 
the Kalamazoo, which empty into Lake Michigan. Its course is extremely 
serpentine, and its current at the same time swift, until it approaches the lake. 

II. Monroe stands chiefly on the right or southern bank of this river, 
three miles, in a straight line, from the lake, but six miles, following the 
stream, as it meanders among the low alluvial islands of its little delta ; on 
which the waters of the lake are driven, by every east wind, and every 
' ground swell.' The approach to the mouth of this river by the lake, is over 
exceedingly shoal water, and the road from the dock passes, for a mile, through 
a flat, covered with aquatic grasses. It then traverses low sand ridges, to 
Monroe, which stands on a dry and level sand-dune. The river here has 
rapids, that begin above and continue to a point just below the town ; the 
water descending over Silurian limestone rocks. The foot of these rapids is 
the head of the broad estuary of the river. It is doubtless well for Monroe, 
that this estuary and its marshy borders lie to the east or leeward ; but the 
almost daily effusions of the lake are regarded by the physicians of the town, 
Doctors Landon, Conant, and Southworth, as limiting its insalubrity. Thus, 
they affirm that the people of Monroe, and those living between it and the 
lake, are but little affected with autumnal fever, compared with the inhabi- 
tants immediately above the falls, and westward of them, in the interior ; 
where the tributaries of the Raisin are generally sluggish, and marshes more 
or less abound. In that region, as those gentlemen stated from personal 
observation, there is a great deal of autumnal fever, including many malig- 
nant cases, known among the people as ' chill-fevers.' Both Doctor Landon 
and Doctor Conant assured me, that they had repeatedly seen the breaking 
up of new soils in that quarter occasion fever. 

Monroe stands near the site of an old Canadian-French village, settled as 
early as the year 1776, and known first as the 'River Raisin settlement,' 
and then as ' French Town' — the spot where the sad and memorable ' mas- 
sacre of the River Raisin' took place. Doctor Conant, who came to it in the 



360 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

year 1820, found it as healthy then as at the time of my visit, in 1842; but 
the surrounding country was more infested, at that time, with autumnal fever, 
than in latter years. 

It has been said, that people who live near the fails and rapids of our 
rivers are peculiarly liable to autumnal fever ; but this is certainly not the 
case at Monroe. 

III. The lake shore, south of the River Eaisin, for the distance of twenty 
miles, resembles that already described, consisting everywhere of broad 
watery savannas. The road to the south runs at the distance of three or 
four miles from the lake, through a forest growing on a post-tertiary clay 
plain, with occasional flat ridges of blown sand. 



SECTION II. 

BASIN OF THE MAUMEE RIVER AND BAY. 

I. The River. — The Maumee River, formerly called the Miami of the 
Lake, is one of the largest tributaries of Lake Erie ; which it enters by 
Maumee Bay, about twenty miles south of the river Raisin, in Lat. 41° 40' 
N. The Maumee is formed by two rivers: — the St. Joseph, which has its 
origin in the State of Michigan, where it interlocks with the head-waters of 
the St. Joseph of Lake Michigan,' and whence it runs nearly south-west, 
until it joins the St. Mary, the sources of which interlock with those of the 
Great Miami and Wabash — tributaries of the Ohio River. This spot, in 
Lat. about 40° 20' N., is the most southern extension of the St. Lawrence 
or Eastern Basin. Uniting in the State of Indiana, these rivers make the 
Maumee, which descends to Lake Erie in a direction nearly north-east. On 
its way, the Auglaize, equal in size to either of its elementary branches, 
joins it on the right or south-east side. The Wabash and Erie canal as- 
cends the valley of the Maumee. At old Fort Defiance, at the mouth of the 
Auglaize River, it gives off a branch to Cincinnati, while another continues, 
in the same direction, to the Wabash River, in the State of Indiana. 

The surface of the Maumee Basin is not hilly ; but, as we advance into 
the interior from the lake, it gradually rises, until it attains the average alti- 
tude of eight hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea. The post- 
tertiary clay deposit, so often mentioned, buries up the Silurian limestone, 
which constitutes the subjacent rock; over the out-cropping edges of which 
the river descends, by a series of rapids, eighteen or twenty miles long, 
which terminate at the head of the estuary. The banks of this river are in 
general well-developed; its inundated bottoms of limited extent. Compact 
and lofty forests, for some distance from it, spread out on both sides, but the 
upper portions of the basin abound in prairies, both wet and dry; the wide 
alluvial lands of many of its tributaries are subject to inundations ; and on 
the flat summit-level between the St. Mary and Loramie Creek, a tribu- 
tary of the Great Miami, there is an extensive artificial pond, designed to 
supply the canal with water. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 361 

II. Fort Wayne. — Where the town of Fort Wayne now stands, there 
was formerly a military post of the same name, and an Indian agency. The 
site is a post-tertiary plain, at the junction and on the right or eastern side 
of the two rivers which form the Maumee. This plain rises above high- 
water mark ; but is overspread with basin-like depressions, in which foul 
matters and rain-water accumulate, to be acted upon by the summer sun. 
At the depth of twenty or thirty-feet, hard well-water, of an excellent qual- 
ity, is obtained. Between the town and the river there is a slip of low 
ground, which, although subject to inundation in spring, formerly became 
dry in summer, but is now kept wet by the leakage of the Wabash and Erie 
canal, which traverses it. On the opposite side of the St. Mary, and of the 
Maumee River, there are rich alluvial grounds, under cultivation. About 
two miles west of the town, a grassy marsh or wet prairie begins, and 
stretches off, indefinitely, to the south-west. Its width is from a few hun- 
dred yards to a mile and a half. It appears to be an obsolete bed of the St. 
Mary, which, in forme^ times, might have flowed, in whole or in part, into 
the Wabash ; a branch of which, called Little River, originating near Fort 
Wayne, now traverses that paludal tract. The St. Mary, as it comes from 
the south-west, flows through the eastern edge of this swamp. Beyond the 
low lands which have been mentioned, there is on every side a post -tertiary 
plain ; which, at the distance of a few miles to the east of Fort Wayne, be- 
comes a wooded swamp — the western edge of the 'Black Swamp,' to be 
hereafter described, but known here under the name of 'Maumee Swamp.' 
Doctor Charles E. Sturgis, in a communication from which this description 
has been made out, says — "I could name several instances where families 
settled in the unbroken woods, and clearing a very small space only, enjoyed 
uninterrupted autumnal health for three or four years ; when other immi- 
grants arrived, and extensive clearings were made, with the consequent 
breaking up of a great deal of new soil, and. intermittents appeared among 
the whole." As to Fort Wayne, from the time it was settled as a military 
post, down to the present day, it has been infested with intermittents and 
remittents; which, according to Doctor Sturgis, still occasionally present a 
malignant character. Of the prevalence of these fevers a judgment can be 
formed, from the fact, stated by Doctor Sturgis, that about four hundred 
ounces of sulphate of quinine are annually consumed by the people of Fort 
Wayne and the surrounding country. This, if we allow a drachm to each 
patient, would give three thousand two hundred f a large number, consider- 
ing that the latitude of the town is 40° N., that the average elevation of the 
region is seven hundred and fifty-three feet above the sea,* and that the 
population is sparse, compared with regions of Indiana and Ohio which have 
been settled for a longer period. 

III. Maumee Bay and Estuary. — Maumee Bay, in N. Lat. 41° 40', 
is the south-western extremity or angle of Lake Erie, almost separated from 
it by two long, low, and tapering capes, which approach each other from the 

* Williams : Engineer's Reports, Indiana. 



362 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

north-west and south-east. The former is called North Point — the latter 
Cedar Point. On the southern side of the bay there are grassy flats, so 
depressed that the waters of the lake, when driven by winds, flow over them. 
On the northern side there are similar tracts, a continuation of the green 
margin which extends round the head of the lake, from the mouth of Detroit 
River. 

About two miles north of the Maumee estuary, there is another and nar- 
rower, — the mouth of Ottawa Kiver, which enters an arm of the bay. 
This little river has its origin, thirty miles in the interior, on either side of 
the boundary between Ohio and Michigan ; and, for the lower eight or ten 
miles, runs nearly parallel to the Maumee estuary, at the distance of three 
miles from it. The Ottawa trough is about a quarter of a mile broad; the 
waters of the lake, when driven by the winds, flow up it for several miles, 
and are overshadowed with pond-lilies, rushes, and other aquatic plants. 
Some of its narrow alluvions are 'alternately wet and dry, or covered and 
uncovered, according to the direction of the winds upon the lakes. As it 
flows through a post-tertiary argillaceous plain, its banks are well-developed, 
being from twenty to thirty feet high near the bay, and attaining a greater 
elevation as we advance up the stream. 

The isthmus between the Ottawa and Maumee estuaries, consists of the 
same plain, heavily timbered, and more or less infested with patches of 
wet- weather swamp. A narrow slip, two or three miles long, of the southern 
part of this isthmus, is cut off by the obsolete bed or estuary of Swan 
Creek, which now enters the Maumee estuary three miles from the bay, but 
formerly traversed the old bed. The breadth of this ravine is from two to 
three hundred feet, and its wet bottom is overgrown with sub-aquatic plants ; 
its mouth, which is near that of the Maumee, is so obstructed, that the 
waters of the lake do not flow into it except in high wind tides, or ground- 
swells. Swan Creek, above its present mouth, is a small mill-stream, flow- 
ing with a lazy and obstructed current through a winding trough, scooped 
out of the tertiary clay. 

The narrow peninsula between the Maumee estuary and the old bed of 
Swan Creek, is the site of no less than three attempted towns. The first, 
beginning at the lake, is Manhattan, situated near the point of the penin- 
sula; the second, Toledo; and the third, Port Lawrence, which is now 
municipally united with Toledo. 

The Wabash and Erie Canal leaves the bay at Manhattan, and passes up 
the northern side of the peninsula, in the obsolete bed of Swan Creek ; but 
a side-cut brings it to the Maumee, at the mouth of that creek, whence it 
ascends upon the gradually rising post- tertiary plain, to the head of the 
estuary. 

Immediately above the mouth of Swan Creek, an extensive grassy beach 
projects into the estuary from the high northern bank. The water which 
covers it is shallow, but never, I believe, entirely drained off. 

We are now prepared to ascend the estuary to its head. The water is 
of no great depth, and varies in that particular as the wind on the lake is 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 363 

soutli-west or north-east; the former sinking and the latter raising it, through 
a scale from one to five feet. When the river is swollen, moreover, a rise 
takes place in the estuary, with a perceptible current into the lake. The 
bottom of the estuary is composed of Silurian limestone, a part of the same 
formation which is seen at the falls above. Its wooded bluff banks are high, 
and composed of tertiary clay and gravel. As we advance upward it gets nar- 
rower, but at its termination expands, so as to embrace several islands, — of 
which the largest are Hollister's and E wing's, — all liable to inundation, un- 
der long continued north-east winds on the lake, or high floods of the Mau- 
mee River, when the estuary and bay are obstructed with ice. The banks 
on each side are about sixty feet high, and composed of the same material 
as above. Here, again, there are three new towns, of which two on the 
left or northern bank, called Port Miami, and Maumee City, have become 
municipally one, under the latter name. On the opposite or southern bank 
stands the third, called Perrysburg. 

At the distance of a mile above Maumee City, the river, as it descends in 
rapids over the limestone rocks, presents on its northern side a considerable 
tract of cultivated bottom, in connection with which there is an ancient bed 
of the river, inclosing a portion of the post-tertiary plain, called Presque- 
Isle, and augmenting the wet or semi-paludal surface to the windward of 
the city. 

As it passes over the plain, in its progress to the south-west, the Wabash 
and Erie Canal sends portions of its waters into the Maumee estuary, by a 
series of locks, through both Maumee city and Port Miami. 

Perrysburg, on the other side of the river, stands immediately below the 
demolished Fort Meigs, on a plain of the same elevation with that which 
supports Maumee City. To the eye, this plain appears level. It stretches 
off to the south-east, and beyond the limits of the town shows a wet or 
marshy surface, overshadowed with tall trees, compactly arranged. This is 
the western edge of the notorious ' Black Swamp,' to be hereafter described. 

The Maumee Basin, down to a late period, was inhabited by Indians, and 
is, therefore, a newly settled region; yet the connections of its bay and estu- 
ary with the interior, are such as give them great prospective importance ; 
while their topography, in itself, is of decided interest to the medical etiolo- 
gist ; and hence I have dwelt upon it with some fullness. It remains to say, 
that the various forms of intermittent and remittent fever are in accordance 
with the state of the surface. From Doctors Smith and Perkins, of Toledo, 
Doctors Conant, White, St. Clair, Matthews, Yan Every, and D wight, of 
Maumee City, Doctor Peck, of Perrysburg, and Professor Ackly, now of 
Cleveland, but formerly of Toledo, I learned that, from the commencement 
of settlement down to the time of my visit, in 1842, the whole locality had 
been infested with those fevers ; cases of which sometimes assumed a malig- 
nant and fatal character. Once, during that period, they had made their 
annual invasion as a wide- spreading and mortal epidemic , which deserves a 
special notice. ._ 

IV. Epidemic op 1838 and 1839. — The summer and autumn of 1838 



364 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

were signalized by a drought, of longer duration and greater geographical 
extent, than had been experienced from the first settlement of the country. 
It extended from the River Raisin, or some point further north, round to the 
head of Huron River, on the south side of the lake, if not still farther east. 
The country, quite up to the sources of all the rivers lying between the Rai- 
sin and the Huron, suffered in nearly an equal degree under its withering 
influence. On the bay and estuary of the Maumee, according to Professor 
Ackly, no rain fell from the 3d day of July, until the 15th of October. 
Doctors Smith and Perkins reckoned its duration at four months. In the 
upper valley of Sandusky River, tig tdge Gary informed me, the last rain 
was on the 17th of May, after which none occurred until October. At Tiffin, 
lower down the same river, the wells went dry before the middle of July. 
All the smaller streams, throughout the whole region, were exhausted, and 
their beds became dusty. The wild animals, of every kind found in that 
region, collected on the banks of the larger rivers, and even approached the 
towns. Deer and raccoons were numerous between Toledo and Maumee 
City ; quails passed over the town-plat ; and the frogs of the shallow and 
sedgy waters of the old bed of Swan Creek, now dried up, migrated in count- 
less numbers, through the streets of Toledo, to the estuary of the Maumee. 
The wet prairies of the interior were dried, and the grass of the dry ones 
withered ; the marshes and pools of the post-tertiary uplands, even those of 
the ' Black Swamp/ from the Maumee to the Sandusky river, were evapo- 
rated ; their bottoms cracked open from shrinking ; the leaves of many of 
the trees growing in them perished ; and, in some instances, the trees them- 
Ljgelves were killed. | Under this great drying process it was, that the ordi- 
nary autumnal fever was raised into such an epidemic as had not been known 
before. But its sway was not equal over every part of the region in which 
the drought prevailed. All the accounts concur in representing, that the 
localities which were ordinarily the wettest, suffered most, et vice versa. The 
excavation of the canal was at that time going on, from the mouth of the 
Maumee estuary, at Manhattan, up to its head, at Maumee City. The 
laborers, four or five hundred in number, were chiefly Irish, who generally 
lodged in temporary shanties, while some occupied bowers formed out of the 
green limbs of trees. It does not appear, that a greater proportion of these 
operatives suffered, than of the resident population ; but a far greater pro- 
portion of those attacked, died. Professor Ackly gave me a fact, which 
deserves to be recorded. One contractor kept a liquor store, and sold whisky 
to all whom he employed, which was drunk freely by themselves and their 
families. The mortality among them was very great. Another lodged his 
operatives on straw beds, in the upper rooms of a large frame house, made 
them retire early, kept them from the use of whisky, and nearly all escaped 
the disease. 

The occurrence of rain about the middle of October, with a subsequent 
frost, put an immediate end to the epidemic; but it returned the following 
summer and autumn, with equal or greater violence ; though affecting, com- 
paratively, but a small number of persons. It is worthy of remark, how- 



part J.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 365 

ever, that in the eastern part of the region in which the drought prevailed, 
the year 1838 was less sickly than the two following years. From that pe- 
riod down to the present time (1848), the Manmee Basin has not, I be- 
lieve, been visited by a serious epidemic. 

V. The Black Swamp. — Between the Manmee and Sandusky Rivers, 
south of the western extremity of Lake Erie, lies the great forest, which 
has received the ominous name of Black Swamp. The rock beneath the 
surface consist of the upper or grey Silurian limestone, exceedingly arena- 
ceous, which here and there swells up into gentle undulations or tuberosities, 
so as to present itself at the surface ; but, on the main, is buried up beneath 
a deposit of post-tertiary clay, with gravel and pebbles. By this deposit, 
the inequalities of the rocky surface are made to disappear, and, of course, 
it is of various depths, from a few inches to one hundred and fifty feet. 
The lower and thicker bed is blue clay; the upper, yellow, covered with a 
thick layer of black vegetable mold. To the eye the Black Swamp appears 
level, and in traversing it in a direction parallel to the lake shore, such is no 
doubt the case ; but the whole region has a very slight inclination toward 
the lake ; as appears from the accumulation of water on the south side of a 
State road, which passes through it from east to west, while on the north or 
lake side, no such accumulation takes place, to the same depth. The level- 
ness of this tract, taken in connection with the argillaceous bottom, explains 
the paludal or swampy character of its surface. From this surface there 
arises a miscellaneous forest, of greater density and loftiness than is to be 
found elsewhere, perhaps, in the Interior Yalley of North America. 

Without passing through, I entered it a short distance on the western and 
eastern sides, and am prepared to concur in all that has been said of its 
gloomy solitudes.* While the roots of these gigantic trees, standing side 
by side in the compactest intercolumniation, retard the escape of the 
melting snows and the copious rains of spring, their overshadowing foliage 
so completely shuts out the sun of summer and autumn, as greatly to limit 
evaporation. The depth of water varies in different parts, according to their 
relative elevation. Doctor Rawson, of Upper Sandusky, informed me that 
he had seen large tracts, in which the water was from two to three feet deep, 
while on others it was only a few inches. Two small rivers, Toussaint and 
Portage, either originate in or traverse the swamp. Their troughs are broad 
and shallow, and, from the sluggishness of their currents, their bottom- 
lands, within the limits of the swamp, are liable to inundation. South of 
this forest, toward the summit-level between Lake Erie and the Ohio River, 
prairies abound; while to the north there are extensive grassy flats, skirt- 
ing the lake between Maumee and Sandusky Bays. 

The chief settlements in the swamp are along Portage River; where, as 
Doctor Peck informed me, autumnal fever prevails. The detached families 
which, here and there, have placed themselves in its midst, without subdu- 
ing much of the forest, enjoy better health. The shade, in fact, is so dense, 

* Geological Reports of Ohio. 



366 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

that the sun can exert but little direct action on the surface. The destruc- 
tion of the forest, and the first breaking up of the surface, will undoubtedly 
be attended with a great prevalence of autumnal fever. 



SECTION III. 

THE SANDUSKY BASIN. 

I. The area of this basin is of very moderate dimensions, yet it em- 
braces several localities of interest. The river originates on the water-shed 
between the Ohio River and Lake Erie, in connection with the sources of the 
Scioto River, whence it descends to the north, and flows into the head of 
Sandusky Bay. The length of this bay is about twenty miles ; its breadth 
four or five ; its axis, lying nearly east north-east and west south-west, is in 
the same plain with that of Lake Erie, with which it is connected by a nar- 
row strait, formed by a head-land from the Portage isthmus on the west, and 
another, called Cedar Point, on the east. 

II. Sandusky City stands on the southern bank of this bay, near its 
junction with the lake, and is separated from Cedar Point by a narrow creek 
or inlet, which opens into the strait; while its apex receives the waters of 
Pipe Creek, a small stream, which, flowing from the south-west, passes within 
two miles of the city, on the south. Silurian limestone rocks here constitute 
the shore of the bay, which is elevated, at the water's edge, four or five feet 
above it, and continues to rise for a short distance back, when it forms a 
plain, which was once a prairie. To this succeeds a lower, wood-land flat, 
through which Pipe Creek meanders. The rocky plain gives to the inlet 
which receives the waters of Pipe Creek, a firm and elevated bank ; but at 
the distance of a couple of miles to the south-east of the city, the banks 
are depressed, and a tract of low grassy lake- swamp commences, and cross- 
ing the base of Cedar Point, stretches off to the east, along the lake shore, 
for many miles, to the mouth of Huron River. At the edge of the city- 
plat, to the west, there puts into the bay a small stream, with narrow allu- 
vial grounds, over which the daily fluctuations of the bay carry its waters. 
To the west and south-west of the city, there are heavily timbered oak flats, 
for three miles, which gradually rise into a series or group of broken lime- 
stone terraces. Such is the topography of Sandusky City, which, a priori, 
is as salubrious as that of any other town on the coasts of Lake Erie ; and 
experience proves that it is, in fact, one of the healthiest. This conclusion 
is sustained by information received from Doctors Tilden, Cochran, Austin, 
Lane, Morton, and Townsend. Malignant cases are almost unknown, and a 
majority of the mild are contracted in the country. 

III. Temporary Residence eor Invalids. — No canal reaches the lake 
at the City of Sandusky, but here is the northern terminus of the railroad 
from Cincinnati, so largely traveled in summer and early autumn, when the 
Ohio River above that city is too low for speedy navigation ; at which sea- 
sons of the year what are called the lake -fevers prevail. Traveling invalids, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 367 

who, during those months, might desire to sojourn for a while on the shores 
of the lake, would be as safe at this point as at any other which could he 
selected; while several objects and facilities conspire to render it attractive 
to persons of taste and intelligence. First, a yawl-voyage across the har- 
bor, to Cunningham's Island. Second, an excursion by water to the gypsum 
quarries on the north-western coast of the bay, where they may see nature 
in the very act of manufacturing sulphate of lime out of carbonate of 
lime containing sulphur, and carry away illustrative specimens, containing 
beautiful crystals of sulphate of strontian. Third, a more distant voy- 
age, of thirty miles, up the bay and river, the scenery of which, although 
flat and tame, is full of interest. After passing the gypsum quarries, the 
deep water becomes much narrower, and the color appears, first, of a dirty 
yellowish green, and at last of a brownish hue. On each side of the chan- 
nel there are extensive shallows, from which grasses, pond-lilies, and other 
aquatic plants rise into green savannas, animated with white cranes wading 
in the shallow water, and flocks of the purple grakle ( Gracida quiscula ) 
feeding on the seeds of grasses ; as in the winter they are seen, subsisting 
on similar food in the salt marshes of the Gulf of Mexico at the Balize. 
At length a point is reached, where the shallows stretch off to the north, 
and coalesce with those of Portage River and Bay, which have been men- 
tioned; then the channel divides, and one becomes the mouth of Muddy 
Creek, the other of Sandusky River ; but no banks are yet developed, and 
the boat meanders through fields of aquatic herbage. Tertiary clay 
bluffs finally appear, and the traveler finds himself at last in the town 
of Lower Sandusky, which is properly the head of the estuary. Here 
are the site and remains of the gallantly defended Fort Stephenson; and 
from this place a trip may be made, on an excellent road, into the ad- 
joining solitudes of the Black Swamp. Fourth. Returning to the city, 
they will find other subjects of interest. A visit, by land, to Castalia, a 
few miles south of the city, where they may quench their thirst in the waters 
of ' Cold Spring? — a pellucid fountain, copious enough to turn mill- 
machinery, — which boils up through a deep rent in the Silurian limestone. 
Fifth. A voyage of a few hours to Maumee Bay and estuary, already des- 
cribed, at the head of which, near Maumee City, they may wander over the 
battle-ground of Wayne, in 1794, the site of Fort Meigs, and other 
localities of deep military interest. Sixth. A voyage of somewhat 
greater length, to the River Raisin, and a view of its bloody battle-field. 
Seventh. An afternoon's voyage to Detroit, with which there are so many 
interesting historical associations. 

IV. Venice is a hamlet on the southern shore of Sandusky Bay, four 
miles from the city, at the spot where Cold-spring Creek discharges its wa- 
ters into the bay. From the city to this point the bank is so high as' not to 
be overflowed ; but immediately above the hamlet, one of those broad shoals, 
so common around Lake Erie, begins and extends up the bay for several 
miles. The depth of overspreading waters varies according to the direction 
of the wind upon the lake, but the surface is never dry. It is destitute of 



368 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

trees, but densely covered with aquatic grasses, and other herbaceous plants. 
At all times, the people of the hamlet, standing, as it does, to the leeward 
of this permanently overflowed ground, have been subject to intermittent 
fever, which has sometimes, especially in former years, assumed a malig- 
nant type. 

Of the autumnal health of the people living round the bay above Venice, 
I could not obtain a reliable account ; but was told that it is better than 
that of those who inhabit the banks of the rivers which flow into it; which 
was ascribed to the depth and daily agitation of the waters from the fluctu- 
ations of the lake. 

V. Lower Sandusky. — Like Monroe, on the Eiver Eaisin, and Maumee 
City and Perrysburg, on the Maumee River, this town stands at the head of 
what corresponds to tide-water of the ocean ; that is, at the highest point of 
lake influence ; like them, also, it lies at the foot of long rapids, for those of 
the Sandusky River terminate at this place. The town, built on the west or 
left bank, covers a narrow terrace near the river, and ascends upon a higher, 
which is, in fact, the eastern edge of the Black Swamp. On the opposite 
side, is the newer and smaller town of Croghansville. The river-bottoms 
above and below the town, are narrow ; and the former especially seem, from 
the rapid descent of the river, but little subject to inundation. The sur- 
rounding upper plain has, from clearing and cultivation, lost its marshiness, 
and shows what the whole of the Black Swamp might be made, under the 
same treatment. Thus, Lower Sandusky presents but few conditions favor- 
ing the production of autumnal fever. Nevertheless, that fever is far more 
prevalent here than in Sandusky City. Doctor Anderson, who had resided 
longest here, had, from the time of his arrival, encountered that disease. In 
former years, his practice extended for many miles down the estuary, and up 
the river along the rapids ; during which he observed that the people below 
enjoyed better autumnal heiilth than those above. Doctor Rawson, who 
had also been many years in the same place, testified to the frequency 
of that form of fever; the other physicians, in a very brief residence, had 
met with it ; and Doctor Williams, of Croghansville, bore testimony to the 
same fact. It is probable, that the margins of the Black Swamp, lying to 
the windward of the town, are one source, at least, of this disease, which in 
1838 and 1839 was as prevalent and violent here as at Toledo. 

VI. Tiffin. — The road, on the west bank of the river, up to Tiffin, runs 
over the cultivated margin of the Black Swamp ; the marshes and swales of 
which are either drained or dried by the hand of cultivation. The river 
abounds in rapids, formed by the out-crop of the Silurian limestone. The 
bank, for the whole distance, twenty miles, appears to be at the same eleva- 
tion above the river, showing a gradual inclination of the plain to the north. 

The town of Tiffin stands immediately above the junction of Rocky Creek 
with the Sandusky river. The latter bounds it from the south-west round to 
the north, where the two streams unite; when Rocky Creek constitutes the 
boundary from that point to the south-east. Just above its mouth there is 
a mill-dam, which creates a pond; and below, there is a dam across the San- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 369 

dusky River, which gives a pond to the north-west and west. Doctor Dres- 
bach has observed, that much of the autumnal fever of Tiffin was in the 
neighborhood of these ponds. Several times they have been drained in July, 
and the fever soon afterward broke out. The rapids of the Sandusky are 
still seen at this place. The bottom-lands are narrow. The post-tertiary 
plain, originally wet, is becoming dry under cultivation. From the state- 
ments of Doctor Dresbach, confirmed by Doctor McFarland, autumnal fever 
prevails more in this locality than at Upper Sandusky. Its greatest preva- 
lence is in the Black Swamp, to the west and south-west of Tiffin. During 
the great drought of 1838, many of the swamps and swales were entirely 
evaporated ; and the roots of previously vigorous plants became so dry as to 
burn like turf. Almost every family was taken down with fever. 

VII. Upper Sandusky. — This village, until lately the center of the tribe of 
Wyandot Indians, now residing at the mouth of Kansas River, represents the 
upper portion of the Sandusky Basin. The streams in this region are the 
Sandusky proper, with the Broken- Sword, to the east, and the Tyamochtee, 
to the west. The two former originate in extensive swamps, and flow for some 
distance, westwardly, through a dense forest ; the last, originating to the 
south-west, and flowing northerly, drains a gently-rolling tract of prairie and 
open wood-land. Near the banks of this branch of the Sandusky, is the spot 
at which Colonel Crawford was burnt by the Delaware Indians, in 1782. 

The general character of the upper basin of Sandusky River, except its 
eastern part, where there are swamps, is favorably dry and salubrious. The 
prevalence of autumnal fever is unequal, but, on the whole, not great. Its 
latitude is a little below 41° — its elevation about nine hundred feet above 
the sea. 



SECTION IV. 

BASIN OF HURON RIVER. 

I. The mouth of this little river ( which lies chiefly within Huron coun- 
ty, Ohio ) is ten or twelve miles east of Sandusky City ; its sources about 
thirty miles in the interior. In coming into this basin from the Sandusky 
River, we leave the Silurian limestone, for the superincumbent Devonian or 
black slate and sandstone, of the Appalachian coal formation. Many of the 
smaller streams have foul and tortuous beds. The estuary of the river ex- 
tends to Milan, seven miles from the lake. Between the two there are flats 
and swamps, which likewise stretch westwardly along the lake, to San- 
dusky City. 

II. A town, called Huron, has grown up at the entrance of the river in- 
to the lake, notwithstanding the locality seems, at all times, to have been 
unhealthy. A Canadian-French trader, who established himself there as 
early as 1793, told Judge Lane, of Sandusky City, that it was at first 
healthy, but with the progress of immigration, fevers appeared. From Mr 

24 



370 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Bolt, of Norwalk, twelve miles in the interior, I received the following facts. 
He was one of a family of eleven persons, who, in the month of August, 
1822, landed where the town of Huron now stands. One of the party and 
himself remained on the spot for an hour only ; hut the other nine lodged 
there through the night, and then proceeded into the country. Within a 
fortnight the whole nine were taken down with fever, hut he and his com- 
panion escaped. Some time afterward, not in the same year, he went, in 
autumn, from the healthy part of the country, where they resided, to the estu- 
ary of the river, and spent three days and nights upon its hanks, about 
three miles from the lake ; at the end of which time he was seized with in- 
termittent fever. Twenty years after that time, as I was assured by Doctor 
Baker, of Norwalk, this locality was still infested with the same fever, to a 
much greater degree of malignity than the country around, or even the town 
of Milan, at the head of the estuary. 

III. Norwalk. — This beautiful town stands five miles south of Milan, 
at a higher level, on one of the sand-dunes or terraces which lie parallel to 
Lake Erie. The covering of sand is but a few feet in depth, and rests upon 
the wide-spread post-tertiary clay deposit, so often mentioned. This deposit 
makes the bottoms of the wells in Norwalk; which are, therefore, only five or 
six feet deep. The fine sand of this terrace, when dry, is constantly raised 
into the atmosphere by the wind, and carried through every opening, into all 
the houses of the town. A reference to this condition will hereafter be 
made, in connection with other forms of disease than the one which now re- 
ceives attention. 

This locality might be expected to escape autumnal fever ; but according 
to Doctors Baker, Kitteridge, and Tift, it does not. Doubtless, the imme- 
diate cause of the fever is not developed on the sand ridge, but at the dis- 
tance of two miles to the west, where the ridge terminates, and a foul tribu- 
tary of Huron Kiver, with a dam and pond, exists. 

Doctor Tilden, now of Sandusky City, was one of the earliest physicians 
of Norwalk, and from him I learned that, in the beginning of its settlement, 
intermittents, sometimes of a malignant and soporose character, prevailed. 
He also gave me the following fact. 

IV. An Epidemic Fever. — Early in the summer of 1819, there was an 
unusual drought, when, on the last Wednesday of June, a great rain fell on 
a tract five or six miles wide, extending from south-west to north-east, across 
Huron county, near Norwalk. In the space of a fortnight afterward, within 
those limits, eight horses died from fever, as their thirst and increased heat 
of skin clearly evinced. Sixty families inhabited the district, of which, soon 
after the fall of rain, fifty presented cases of autumnal fever, ranging from 
simple intermittents to remittents, which even simulated yellow fever. There 
had been much clearing of new lands, and the virgin soil had been exten- 
sively broken up. 

V. Monroeville is a smaller town than Norwalk, situate on the west 
bank of Huron River, without anything peculiar in its topography. Doctor 
Cole conducted me to a small stream in its vicinity, where there was a mill- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 371 

dani, which had created an exceedingly foul pond, having connected swales, 
bayous, and shallows, in which the trunks and limbs of trees were undergo- 
ing decay. Near the mill there was a hamlet, which, he assured me, suf- 
fered preeminently from autumnal fever, compared with the surrounding 
country. 

To the west of Monroeville there are many broad prairies, which, under a 
rapid settlement of the country, were extensively plowed up, in a short 
time. The oxen were turned out in the evening upon the unplowed prairies, 
and were the next morning driven in, by wading after them through the tall 
grass, bending with dew. The persons who performed this duty were gener- 
ally attacked with intermittent fever. 

In reference to Huron county generally, Doctor Baker assured me, that 
tracts in which the clay deposit came to the surface, were more exempt from 
fever than the prairies, which had a deep covering of soil, or even the 
sand ridges. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF BLACK RIVER. 

I. The River. — This little basin, of the same class with the last, lies 
to its east. The sources of Black River, like those of the Huron, although 
within forty miles of the lake, interlock with the head-waters of the Mus- 
kingum, on a summit-level of nine hundred and seventy-eight feet above 
the sea. In its geological structure, the Black River Basin is composed 
of the Devonian slate and sandstone, supporting conglomerate, the whole of 
which dip to the south-east, beneath the Appalachian coal deposits. Much 
of the surface between Huron and Black Rivers, in the neighborhood of the 
lake, seems to be composed of disintegrated slate, forming an argillaceous 
bed, gently inclining toward the lake, and abounding in sand ridges, drifted 
by the winds or waves, when the surface of the lake was at a higher level 
than at present. 

II. Elyria, the chief town of this basin, stands six miles from the lake, 
immediately above the junctions of the two principal branches of Black 
River. Below the town there are cascades in both ; and then comes the es- 
tuary of the common trunk, with its flats and lake marshes. Each branch 
of Black River, has a dam above their junction, by which the town is sub- 
jected to the influence of a pond, both to the east and west. From Doctor 
Manter, and Doctor Howard ( now a professor in the Starling Medical Col- 
lege ), I learned, that the Black River Basin, generally, is subject to au- 
tumnal fevers ; which the former gentleman had observed to be decidedly 
more frequent and dangerous along the estuary of the river, than about 
Elyria or elsewhere. 



372 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book x. 

SECTION VI. 

THE CUYAHOGA BASIN. 

I. General Description. — This basin, which, in area, will bear a com- 
parison with the Sandusky, lies east of the one just described. The junction 
of the Cuyahoga River with Lake Erie, is at the well-known city of Cleve- 
land, in N. Lat. 41° 31', and W. Long. 81° 46'. Although „he river is more 
than sixty miles in length, its extreme sources are within ten miles of the 
lake, east of Cleveland, whence the river flows to the south-west for more than 
half its length, when it turns toward the lake, and unites with it, by flowing 
directly north. In the course of this great detour, it descends by falls and 
rapids two hundred and forty feet. The head- waters of this river are on 
table-land, the general elevation of which is about eleven hundred feet* 
above the sea, or more than five hundred feet above Lake Erie. Its 
connections on this elevated level are, chiefly, with the Mahoning branch, 
of Beaver Eiver, which joins the Ohio thirty miles below Pittsburgh. 
At the junction of the Cuyahoga with the lake, the black slate is 
the lowest formation ; in advancing from the shore, sandstone appears at a 
higher level ; and in ascending upon the table-land of the upper part of the 
basin, we reach the conglomerate, on which rest coal beds that are worked. 
We have, in fact, here re-entered the great Appalachian coal basin, by its 
northern border. At first view this would not be perceived, for the aspect 
of this tract is different from that presented by the rim of that basin else- 
where. From Alabama to Pennsylvania, wherever we have approached it, 
the out-crop of conglomerate which supports the coal, has presented groups 
of high hills, connected by rocky spines, or rising, when distinct, into lofty 
cones, while deep and narrow gorges have taken the place of broad alluvial val- 
leys, and swamps and ponds have been replaced by mountain torrents. Here, 
however, the peaks and summits have been removed nearly down to the level 
of the ravines ; a sterile hill-country has thus been transformed into an ele- 
vated and fruitful plateau, incumbered with masses of its own rock, inter- 
mingled with huge granitic bowlders, brought from some distant region of the 
north, perhaps, by the currents which effected the destruction of the hills. 
On this ancient geological change, depends its present medical topography. 
The general levelness of the basin gives to the streams a sluggish current, 
with wide alluvial grounds, subject to inundation ; ponds are numerous, and 
extensive swamps not uncommon — the river itself rising in one of them. 

Every part of this upper Cuyahoga Basin is annually more or less infested 
with autumnal fever, although elevated eleven hundred feet above the sea, 
and in the mean latitude of 41° 30' N.; but the banks of the ponds and 
marshes are most infected. Thus, I was told by Mr. Coles, of Chardon, that 
when a dam was built across the Cuyahoga, at Burton, the people were, in 
the two next years, generally attacked by autumnal fever ; and Doctor Ham- 
ilton, of the same town, informed me, that in the neighborhood of Burton, a 

* Ohio Geological Reports. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 373 

darn was demolished in summer or autumn, and nearly all the laborers en- 
gaged in the work sickened with fever. From Doctor Bennett, of Shalers- 
ville, I received the following facts. The Cuyahoga flows near the western 
side of that village, from north-east to south-west. To obtain water for the 
Mahoning Canal, a dam was thrown across the river, which gave rise to many 
cases of fever. Two years afterward, a higher dam was erected, lower down 
the river, which raised the water to the level of the first ; involved the ruin 
of an old mill ; produced stagnant water in the mouths of many small streams; 
inundated some forest land ; and so intercepted the volume of water flowing 
in the river, that when it became reduced, in autumn, the whole was trans- 
mitted through the canal-feeder ; leaving but a series of pools, in the partially 
dried-up river-bed below. During the first autumn after this signal change 
in the condition of the river, no injury to health was experienced; but in the 
next, nearly all the inhabitants, on both sides of the river, above and below 
the new clam, were attacked with autumnal fever. The number of cases was 
estimated at one hundred and fifty. They who lived near the river, had in- 
termittents ; those who resided further off and on higher ground, suffered 
more from remittents. 

II. Ravenna stands on a slight eminence, from which the rains flow off 
in all directions. At the distance of a mile, a tributary of the Cuyahoga 
winds round the town-site, from east south-east to west north-west. On 
this stream, two miles south-west of the town, a mill-dam was erected in the 
early period of settlement, and for five or six years, as Doctor Swift in- 
formed me, the people of the village and neighborhood were subject to inter- 
mittent fever. In 1819, the dam was demolished, and the bottom of the 
pond laid bare, when nearly all the inhabitants sickened with a malignant 
fever. In 1820 there was much less, and for the next fifteen years scarcely 
a case, except those contracted elsewhere. The Mahoning canal was then 
excavated, in the valley of the same stream, since which cases of fever have 
multiplied. 

III. Cuyahoga Falls. — The town which, because of its locality, bears 
this name, is situate on the right or north-west bank of the river, where it 
enters the chasm through which it descends to its lower level. The inhabi- 
tants of the western part of the town, near the falls, as I was assured by 
Doctor Rice and Mr. Sill, are almost entirely exempt from autumnal fever ; 
a fact worthy of being noted, as bearing on the opinion that the vicinity of a 
water-fall is insalubrious. Further up the river, there is a dam, causing a 
pond opposite and beyond the eastern part of the town, and three miles 
above, at Monroe, there is another. The gentlemen just named informed 
me, that nearly all the autumnal fever of their locality, occurs to the north 
of the lower pond ; and Doctor Wright, of Talmadge, had, along that sec- 
tion of the river, no less than one hundred and fifty cases ; while not a case 
occurred in his own village, which lies beyond the influence of the stream. 

IV. Hudson. — Doctor Town, of this place, who had practiced in it, and 
throughout the great bend of the Cuyahoga, for seventeen years, informed 
me, in a comprehensive manner, that autumnal fever had prevailed in all its 



374 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

localities, but to the greatest extent by far along its water- courses, including 
the Cuyahoga. The least prevalence was in the town. Intermittents, espe- 
cially, occurred on their banks ; remittents in remoter and dryer places. In 
latter years, they are less frequent than formerly. 

V. Akron stands a few miles south of Cuyahoga Falls, on both sides, 
but chiefly the eastern, of the series of twelve or fourteen locks, by which the 
Ohio and Erie canal descends from a summit-level of three hundred and 
ninety-five feet above Lake Erie, and nine hundred and fifty-nine above the 
sea. The descent is down the steep valley of a small stream. The excava- 
tions for the locks, were made through a deep deposit of transported or ter- 
tiary materials. On the summit-level, the Mahoning canal traverses the 
eastern part of the town, to join that from the Ohio River. The water of 
the former is but slowly drawn off, and, therefore, stagnates. That of the 
other, from the constant ascent and descent of boats, is kept flowing. Near 
the junction of the canals there are two ponds and a marsh, and, at the 
distance of two miles, there is an extensive swamp ; all lying to the south of 
the town. Near the locks, on the east, there is a marsh, of twelve or fifteen 
acres, and, adjoining them, to the west, a series of little pools and swampy 
spots, created and kept up by the leakage of the locks. Thus, on the whole, 
marsh- exhalations, from the surface of the ground, and from the waters of 
the canal in their descent through the locks, together with aqueous vapor, 
must abound in this locality, as much as any other in the whole country. 
At a lower level, in a lower latitude, the fevers of autumn would, doubtless, 
be more violent than in this place ; but, according to the evidence of Doctors 
Cole, Wallace, and Angel, intermittents and remittents prevail every summer 
and autumn, to a decided degree, both as to the number of cases, and their 
occasional violence. Compared with the towns of Ravenna and Cuyahoga 
Falls, the topographical conditions of which are, prima facie, more salubri- 
ous, Akron must be regarded as sickly. 

VI. The Canal from Akron to Cleveland. — Doctor Cole was in 
Akron in the summer of 1825, when the excavation of the canal in the 
direction of Cleveland was commenced. The laborers suffered extremely 
from fever; at least eighty of them were his patients; but, as they worked 
in the valley of the Cuyahoga, they might have suffered, if they had not 
been engaged in exposing the fresh earth to the action of the atmosphere, 
Sun, and rains. In 1826, many persons came from the surrounding coun- 
try to work on the canal, and dispersed in June ; but Doctor Cole afterward 
learned, that as large a proportion of those who went away as of those who 
remained behind, were seized with the fever. In 1827 and 1828, the same 
kind of fever returned. In the former year the water was let into the canal. 
In 1829 and 1830, but few cases occurred. In excavating the canal and the 
pits for two locks, within the limits of the city of Cleveland, in 1827, the 
laborers threw up a great deal of vegetable mold, and both they and the 
people of the town suffered severely from fevers ; some cases of which might, 
by their symptoms, have been ranked with yellow fever. Doctor Long, of 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 375 

Cleveland, remembers, that nearly the same results followed on the excava- 
tions all the way to Akron. 

The result of my inquiries at this place, concerning the health of the canal 
boatmen, was, that although the boats are run throughout every night, and 
also, through the hottest part of the day, the men are less subject to autumnal 
fever, than the people of the country through which the canal passes. 

VII. Lower Valley of the Cuyahoga. — The river below the falls and 
the Akron locks, flows through a kind of gorge in the black slate, and in 
some places presents rapids. Before reaching the lake, its valley widens, the 
stream becomes more tortuous, and its current slackens ; in consequence of 
which, an immense quantity of drift-wood is lodged upon its margins. Many 
of its bottoms are liable to inundation, and the whole are overspread with 
rank herbaceous vegetation. As the river nears the lake, the sluggishness 
of the current increases, and opposing winds drive the waters of the lake 
more or less into its estuary, which is five or six miles long. The effect of 
such winds formerly was, to ?el the sands of the lake beach into the mouth 
of the river and choke it up ; the obstruction being made greater, by the 
silt deposited from the stream, when its current was arrested. In times past, 
the river, thus turned aside, probably entered the lake at various points. On 
the settlement of Cleveland, as Doctor Long informed me, the mouth was 
seventy or eighty rods west of where it now is ; and there remains to this 
day, a section of the river-bed, filled with water ten or fifteen feet deep, 
which exactly resembles one of the crescent lakes in the trough of the 
Mississippi. 

On each side of this linear pond there are marshes, which extend up to 
the Cuyahoga. On the outer edge of the marsh, next the lake, there stands 
a tuberosity, several feet high, which, from its composition, is a remnant of 
the tertiary plain, which forms the bank of the lake, east and west of the mouth 
of the river. Immediately south of this marsh the river flows at the foot of a 
considerable bluff, and has a low and wet bottom on the opposite or eastern 
side ; further up, the bottom is found on the western side, and then again on 
the eastern. These bottoms were once covered with forest. Their eleva- 
tion is from three to four feet above ordinary high water. Formerly, when 
the river was obstructed at its mouth, these bottoms were occasionally inun- 
dated. At that time a pool was created in the estuary, which, in summer 
and autumn, when the river was low, became foul, and emitted an offensive 
smell, quite perceptible along its banks. The erection of two piers, project- 
ing a considerable distance into the lake, by arresting the movement of sand, 
and compressing the river into narrow limits, has enabled it, when in flood, 
to wash away the bar, and thus preserve the purity of its estuary. Beyond 
the marshes and bottoms which have been designated, on both sides of the 
river, there are tertiary clay and sand plains, about eighty or ninety feet 
above the surface of the lake. West of the mouth, the broad marshy beach 
prevents the action of the waves upon the bank, but to the east the erosion 
of their foundations is so great, that extensive slides have taken place. 

VIII. Cleveland. — The beautiful city of Cleveland, the settlement of 



376 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which was begun by immigrants from New England, in 1796, stands chiefly 
on a dry post-tertiary plain, immediately east of the junction of the river 
with the lake, fronting on both, and extending down to the river's edge. 
Being to the leeward of the river, with its bottom-lands, and of the old bed 
of the stream on the lake beach, with its marshes, it is exposed to whatever 
insalubrious exhalations may arise from them. At an early stage of its 
settlement, according to Doctor Long, these exhalations were very pernicious, 
as intermittent and remittent fevers, frequently assuming a malignant type, 
were common ; but in latter years they are greatly mitigated. The same 
testimony as to their present mildness and rarity, has been given me by Pro- 
fessor Ackly and Doctor Mendenhall. Tn the course of his long experience 
at this place, Doctor Long observed, in some years, a great predominance of 
the intermittent type, in others of the remittent. The seasons which favored 
the former were wet and cool — those in which the latter prevailed were hot 
and dry. Malignant cases did not show themselves until about 1827, many 
years after the settlement of the place began. 

IX. Ohio City is but an extension of Cleveland, upon the bluff of the 
western side of the river. In reference to autumnal health, it has the im- 
portant advantage over the older and larger, town, of being to the windward 
of all the low, wet, and foul grounds which have been mentioned; but, on 
the other hand, there is a considerable terrace- swamp, in Brooklyn township, 
at the distance of two or three miles to its south-west or windward. Doctor 
Mendenhall has given me two observations made on the site of Ohio City 
which deserve to be recorded: First — laborers and watermen have been 
occasionally boarded and lodged on the edge of the swamp, near the west 
bank of the river, and they were exceedingly liable to intermittent fever. 
Second — in the southern part of the terrace on which, the town stands, a 
deep excavation was made, in the bluff bank, to form a road of easy ascent, 
and the bluish clay thrown out, was used to fill up a street below, the effect 
of which was, to cause a local prevalence of autumnal fever. 



SECTION VII. 

BASIN OF THE CHAGRIN. 

Chagrin ( more properly Chaguin ) River enters the lake eighteen miles 
east of Cleveland ; between which and it there are broad and elevated lake- 
terraces, generally free from swamps, well- cultivated, and partially defended 
from the winds and vapor of the lake, by a belt of woods. When I traveled 
on this terrace, in the month of September, 1842, the inhabitants appeared 
to be generally free from fever. 

The sources of the little River Chagrin are on the northern edge of the 
conglomerate plateau, near those of the Cuyahoga, at an elevation of about 
twelve hundred feet above the ocean, and near six hundred and thirty above 
the lake. Like the Cuyahoga, this river runs, for a short distance, to the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 377 

south-west, to find a depression through which it may descend to the lake. 
In common with all the rivers of this region, it has its cataracts ; from which 
it descends, by a rapid current, which is not checked until it arrives within 
a mile of Lake Erie. Its alluvial borders are narrow, and not subject to 
inundation ; the upper part of its bed is composed of conglomerate, the mid- 
dle, of Devonian sandstone, and the lowest, of black slate ; finally, its cold 
and limpid upper waters abound in speckled trout ( Salmo fontinalis ), the 
popular sign that ague and fever need not be apprehended.* On this point 
I can only say, that Doctor Card, of Painsville, who formerly resided in the 
village of Willoughby, two miles from the mouth of the Chagrin, informed 
me, that the country further up the river, was but little infested with autum- 
nal fevers. It is otherwise, however, around the short estuary near the lake. 
The marshes, it is true, are of very limited extent ; but the mouth of the 
river is generally choked with sand, and the free exit of its waters prevented. 
In the early stages of the settlement of the country, this limited locality was 
infested with fevers of a dangerous character. In the autumn of 1823 or 
1824, nearly all the settlers were ill; and it was observed that of the citizens 
of the village of Willoughby, only two miles up the river, who went to their 
relief, nearly all sickened, while those who remained at home, continued in 
health. Willoughby itself is not, however, exempt from autumnal fevers ; 
but, as Judge Allen and Doctor Card informed me, they are less prevalent 
than formerly. 



SECTION VIII. 

BASIN OF GRAND RIVER. 

I. The mouth of Grand River, is found twelves miles east of the one just 
described. Its sources interlock with those of the Cuyahoga and the Maho- 
ning, at a mean altitude of eleven hundred feet above the sea. To descend 
from this elevated plateau, it takes a direction somewhat east of north, and 
after reaching the lake terraces, flows nearly west, through a channel which 
at length becomes remarkably tortuous, and with a sluggish current, which 
is arrested three miles before it reaches the open lake. When high, its water 
is turbid, at other stages brownish, but transparent. 

II. On each side of the mouth of this river there is a marsh, the two 
covering about one hundred and fifty acres ; but beyond the western, there 
are other swamps of great extent, separated from the lake by a narrow slip of 
higher land ; beyoud which, one of them, containing fifteen hundred acres, 
opens out to the lake. On account of the long piers, at the mouth of this 
river, the fluctuations of the lake are not much perceived in the estuary. The 
surrounding plain, fifty or sixty feet above the lake, is composed of trans- 
ported or post-tertiary materials, resting on the black slate. Much of the 
water obtained by sinking wells into the plain, is of an inferior quality. The 

* Ohio Geological Report. 



378 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

village of Fairport stands on a peninsular portion of tlie plain, immediately 
east of the mouth of the river; that of Richmond, a mile from the lake, on 
the western side, being built on two terraces. The prevalence and malig- 
nity of autumnal fever in these towns, have generally been quite as great as 
the etiologist would anticipate, from the unfavorable character of the neigh- 
boring topography. Information afforded me by Doctors Matthews, Card, 
Rosa, and Livingston, indicated that they were familiar with all the forms 
(up to the most malignant) of intermittent and remittent fevers, which 
infest similar localities in the south ; but all concurred in representing the 
prevalence of those diseases as decidedly less than in the first years of the 
settlement of the country. 

III. Painesville. — The site of this town, on the left or west bank of 
Grand River, is eight or nine miles from the lake, following the meanders of 
the stream, but only three miles, in a direct line. The slaty banks of the 
river are well-defined, and above its highest freshets. Much of the town-site 
is a deep and movable bed of sand. Like Norwalk, in fact, the town stands 
on one of the sand ridges which run parallel to the lake. In a ride with 
Doctor Rosa, to the south, in the direction of the highlands, I observed that 
we traversed several of these low ridges, between which, the more argillaceous 
surface was swaly. The swamps, however, which are near enough to Paines- 
ville to exert on it a mischievous influence, are those which have been de- 
scribed ; all of which lie either to its north or north-west, and between them 
and the town there is a dense forest. According to the medical gentlemen 
whom I have quoted, the prevalence of autumnal fever in Painesville is small, 
compared with Fairport and Richmond. 



SECTION IX. 

LAKE SHORE, FROM PAINESVILLE TO BUFFALO. 

I. From Painesville, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania, the distance is seventy- 
three miles. Between them there is no considerable river, nor any town of 
interest. The summit-level, between the Ohio river and the lake, through 
the whole distance, lies near the lake, and thus all the streams running into 
the latter are short. At Erie, its distance from the lake does not exceed ten 
miles. This part of the coast is, in fact, that to which the waters of the 
Mississippi make the nearest approach. 

II. Town op Erie. — The site of Erie is a post-tertiary or diluvial ter- 
race, forty or fifty feet above the level of the lake ; from which it is defended 
by a long peninsula, the Presq'-Isle of the Canadian French, who once had a 
settlement at this place. Between this peninsula and the town is the excel- 
lent harbor, which is entered from the east, and opposite which entrance there 
is a margin of lake swamp lying north-east of the town. A small stream 
traverses the eastern part of the town-plat, to join the lake near the narrow- 
est part of the passage into the harbor. The bed and banks of this stream 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 379 

are composed of black slate, which has such a thin covering of transported 
materials, where the town is built, that many of the wells, not more than 
twenty feet in depth, afford water of an aluminous quality. The surface of 
the plain is more argillaceous than that of many other localities on the south 
side of the lake. To the south-west of the town, where the peninsula is 
connected with the main land, there was a swamp, which has been partially 
drained. The peninsula, generally, is but a bank of sand, bearing trees, and 
having here and there a small swamp or pond. South of the town, at the 
distance of two miles, there is a second and higher terrace, running parallel 
to the lake shore ; in front of which there lies a hemlock swamp, fed by 
springs and rains ; the larger part of which is to the summer- windward of 
the town. The Beaver and Erie Canal, by traversing, has partially drained 
it. Beyond this there are other terraces, bearing timber, and having more or 
less of swamp. 

It appears from this description, that the medical topography of Erie, in 
reference to autumnal fever, is not of the most favorable kind. The late 
Doctor Johns, who settled there in 1822, found intermittent fever especially 
prevalent in the suburbs of the village to the south-west, near the stem of 
the peninsula, where marshes abounded ; and also to the north-east in the 
vicinity of the same kind of surface. Bemittent fever occurred in the central 
parts of the town; but for the first fifteen years he never saw a case of inter- 
mittent originate there. In 1839, the excavation of the Erie and Beaver 
Canal (p. 282 ) was begun; and continued till the close of 1841. From its 
commencement up to 1842, when I was there, intermittents had appeared 
among the people of the town, especially those living in its western parts, 
near the canal; and, on a second visit, in 1847, I learned from Doctor Wal- 
lace, Doctor Vosburg, and Mr. Sill, that intermittents continued to be preva- 
lent throughout the whole, and that, by common consent, they were ascribed 
to the canal. Perhaps a partial draining and disturbance of the surface of 
the hemlock swamp, may have contributed to this insalubrity. The inter- 
mittents were generally of a mild character. 

III. Lake Shore from Erie to Buffalo. — From the town of Erie to 
the city of Buffalo, ninety miles, the lake coast runs nearly north-east, and 
for half the distance, that is, to Dunkirk, the high table-land on which the 
far-reaching sources of the Alleghany River, including Chautauque Lake 
(C7LX, Sect. I), have their origin, approach and terminate in rocky escarp- 
ments within eight to twelve miles of the lake shores. As that river belongs 
to the Mexican Basin, the Lake Basin here presents but a narrow belt ; which 
lies about six hundred feet below the neighboring summit-level. All the 
streams which traverse this belt are but mountain rivulets, and their estua- 
ries are correspondingly limited, as are the marshes of the lake shore. The 
terraces, so often referred to, rising above each other, as we advance from the 
lake, are found in this belt ; but the amount of diluvium or transported ma- 
terials is less; and for many long reaches, the road passes over the black 
Devonian slate, without any intervening deposit. East of Dunkirk the same 
condition of the shore continues, but the belt widens ; the coast and the high- 



380 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

lands diverge from each other ; and the little river Cattaraugus (its cold 
upper waters abounding in speckled trout ), by a length of fifty miles, and a 
descent of eight hundred feet, shows that the lofty plateau on which its head- 
waters mingle with the sources of the Alleghany and the G-enesee Rivers, is 
comparatively distant. The highlands continue in sight, however, until we 
arrive within twelve or fifteen miles of Buffalo. Of the state of autumnal 
health, along the coast, from Erie to the Buffalo flats, which we encounter 
before reaching the city, I cannot speak from information, but, judging by its 
surface, would regard it as better than that west of the town of Erie. 



SECTION X. 

CITY OF BUFFALO. 

I. We have now reached the lower or eastern extremity of Lake Erie, 
where we find an extensive plain, which rises but a few feet above the sur- 
face of the lake. We have descended from the high terrace, on which we 
traveled round the southern side of the lake. The coast here runs nearly 
north and south. The city begins on its very margin, near the right bank 
of Niagara River. To the south and south-east, the plain, over an area of 
many square miles, is so low and level, as to have received the name of the 
flats. Their position, in relation to the city, may be seen in PI. XV, but 
not their limits to the south-east, for they extend beyond the boundaries of 
the map. 

These flats, once covered by the lake, were, at the beginning of settlement, 
overshadowed by a heavy growth of timber, much of which still remains. 
They embrace many ponds and swamps, and all parts are too wet and boggy 
for cultivation, until they are ditched. The water which drains from them 
is of a dark-brown color. Their western margin, for a considerable distance, 
is separated from the lake by a narrow belt of higher terrace, which gradu- 
ally widens in going westwardly up the lake. 

Buffalo Creek, the sources of which interlock, at a high elevation, with 
those of Cattaraugus Creek, and certain branches of the G-enesee River, 
presents toward its sources, lively currents of pure cold water, abounding in 
speckled trout. The creek descends to the north-west, and on entering the 
flats, its velocity slackens, and it becomes discolored, by the oozings of the 
marsh. Before it reaches the lake, it is reinforced by the waters of Little 
Buffalo Creek, entering it from the north-east. The approach of Buffalo 
Creek to the lake is at an acute angle, the course of the stream being nearly 
north. The junction takes place near the middle of the western line of the 
city, as may be seen upon the map. The deep and narrow estuary of this 
stream constitutes the harbor of Buffalo. For a couple of miles south of its 
junction, the neck of land between it and the lake, is a low sand-dune, over 
which the water, when impelled by westerly winds, sometimes breaks into 
the creek. 



PL. XV. 




Litlio.-by A lloclur 



C J. Fuller Zr.S.C. Engi 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 381 

During a remarkable storm, on the night of the 18th of October, 1844, 
the waves were driven, in a deluge, into this part of the creek, and upon the 
flats, generally, to the depth of six, eight, and even ten feet. They also in- 
undated the western and southern parts of the city, as may be seen by the 
dotted line on the plate. 

The plain on which the city stands rises in a very gradual manner, and, 
beyond the line just mentioned, is above the highest known lake-floods ; 
some parts of it finally reaching the estimated elevation of sixty to eighty 
feet. To the north-west of Main street, which nearly bisects the city from 
west to east, the surface abounds in low sand-dunes, or ridges ; to the south- 
east of that street, it presents a more argillaceous character, and includes 
swales, superficial marshes, and even considerable ponds, which discharge 
their superfluous waters into Little Buffalo Creek. 

The inhabitants are supplied with well-water, obtained at very unequal 
depths, and exceedingly various in quality; some of it being, as Doctor 
"White informed me, offensive to the senses. 

The Erie canal enters the front of the city from the north, and passes 
through it, near the lake, to terminate on the southern side ; being connected 
with the estuary of Buffalo Creek by several lateral cuts. The vast com- 
merce of Buffalo keeps the natural and artificial canals of its western or 
lake side, crowded with schooners, propellers, steamers, and boats, from 
which all manner of impurities must, of course, make their way into the 
stagnant water. The water, however, is not really stagnant, for the westerly 
winds drive that of the lake up the creek, and through several slips into the 
canal ; and the easterly draw it out, by repelling the lake from the shore ; 
and thus, much of the filth is carried away. 

The position of Buffalo is in N. Lat. 42° 50', and W. Lon. 79° 23'. The 
elevation of most of its plat is about five hundred and eighty feet above the 
sea. Its settlement commenced in 1801, when the surrounding country was 
a wilderness, and what is now the south-western part of the city was a 
morass. Its growth was slow; and being burnt, during the war with Eng- 
land, it recommenced the year 1814, with only four houses. Thirty years 
afterward, its population amounted to thirty thousand, and at this time 
(1848), may be estimated at forty thousand. Thus it is a new city, built 
on a spot which, until recently, was covered with forest. 

The extensive paludal and boggy tract which lies immediately south of 
Buffalo, together with the impure waters of the canals and the estuary of 
the creek, are hydrographical conditions eminently favorable to the produc- 
tion of autumnal fever. Let us see in what degree they are really perni- 
cious. Doctor Trowbridge began the practice of medicine at Buffalo in the 
year 1810, and has continued on the spot ever since. Intermittents and re- 
mittents ( some of which were malignant ) prevailed from the beginning. In 
some seasons the higher parts of the village were most infected ; but gener- 
ally, these fevers occurred chiefly in the vicinity of the two Buffalo Creeks. 
With the progress of rural and civic improvement, they have regularly 
diminished; until, at the present time, remittent fever is rare, and intermit- 



382 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tent almost unknown, except in the suburbs of the city. From Professors 
White, Flint, and Hamilton, I learned, also, that but little autumnal fever is 
encountered at the present time ; and that, chiefly on or near the flats. 

The following fact, observed by Doctor Trowbridge, deserves to be re- 
corded. In the neighborhood of Buffalo, for three (but not successive) 
autumns, a local epidemic fever occurred among about twenty families, who 
drank and otherwise used water from the same spring. It burst out beneath 
a ledge of limestone, about twenty-five feet below the summit, beyond which, 
at the distance of a mile, there was a piece of wood-land with a pond, which 
Doctor Trowbridge supposed to be the source of the spring; for, after rains, 
its water became turbid. The autumns in which the fever prevailed, were 
unusually dry. In its symptoms and violence, the disease might have passed 
for yellow fever. Nine or ten persons died. The surrounding neighborhood 
remained healthy. The spring was at length abandoned, and the fever did 
not return. This seems to show that the material cause of autumnal fever 
may be absorbed by water, and then produce its characteristic effects. 

In comparing the prevalence and mortality of autumnal fever with the 
topographical conditions of this locality, we must, I think, admit the restrain- 
ing influence of climate ; for, only a few degrees further south, such a state 
of surface would inevitably give rise to much more serious visitations of fever, 
than have generally been experienced at Buffalo. 



SECTION XL 

NORTHERN SIDE OF THE ERIE BASIN. 

I. Having surveyed the southern slope of this basin, from the influx of 
Detroit River, to the efflux of Niagara River, at Buffalo, it remains to make 
an examination of the northern slope. To borrow from anatomy a fanciful 
illustration, we have traveled round the greater curvature of the expansion 
of a long natural canal, from the cardiac to the pyloric orifice, and must now 
survey the lesser curvature. 

"When treating in the last chapter of the river Thames, we saw that, origi- 
nating far to the east of Lake St. Clair, it seeks that reservoir by a course 
nearly parallel to the northern shore of Lake Erie, from which the head- 
springs of many of its lateral tributaries are but a few miles distant. From 
the mouth of Detroit River, then, to a point nearly two-thirds of the way to 
the Niagara outlet, the northern lake-slope is so narrow, that the medical 
topographer is, in a manner, limited to the coast. Concerning this narrow 
lacustrine belt, which is more than one hundred and fifty miles in length, I 
can say but little. It appears to be, like the opposite or southern coast, a 
flat or terrace-like tract, overspread with a post -tertiary or diluvial deposit, 
here and there cut through by creeks and rivulets, as they descend to the 
lake. The lacustrine banks are generally bold, and, from the lashing of the 
waves against their base, often fall or slide into the water ; which keeps the 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 383 

shore soft and muddy. The northern are obviously more exposed to this 
kind of action than the southern banks, on account of the greater prevalence 
of southerly than northerly winds. Of the condition of the short estuaries 
on the side we are examining, I am uninformed ; but they may be presumed 
to resemble those of the smaller streams of the southern shore, in their stag- 
nant waters and swampy borders. Away from the lake, there are occasional 
cedar swamps. Along this portion of the coast there is no considerable town, 
and the country is but sparsely inhabited.* 

This belt at length widens, partly from the upper part of the river Thames 
being further from the lake, and in part from a deep indentation at Long 
Point or Fore-land ; formerly a peninsula, but latterly, from the action of the 
waves, converted into an island. Of this part of the belt, I know but little. 
Its medical topography may be said, in general terms, to be like that of the 
narrower belt, further west. Soon after passing Long Point to the east, we 
arrive at — 

II. The Basin of Grand River. — This is the only stream, on the 
north side of Lake Erie, which deserves to be called a river. The area of 
its basin may be compared with that of the Cuyahoga, on the opposite side 
of the lake. Pressing hard on the head or western end of Lake Ontario, 
Grand River enters Lake Erie, not far from its eastern extremity. Most of 
the land on this river is rolling. The soil, generally rich enough to support 
a miscellaneous forest, is also poor enough, in some places, to be covered 
with pine. The middle and upper parts of Grand River Basin are the best 
settled portions of Canada West ; and may, from their latitude — between 
43° and 44° — as well as from their rolling surface and the nourishing state 
of agriculture, be presumed to suffer but little from autumnal fever. Further 
down, the basin is inhabited chiefly by Indians of the Iroquois or Six Na- 
tions, who removed thither from the State of New York, after the revolu- 
tionary war. Lower still, and not more than five miles from the lake, 
stands — 

III. The Village of Dunnville. — According to Doctor Stratton,f 
the country around this village is heavily wooded, flat, and marshy. The 
river, fifty yards in width, has its banks so depressed, that in many places 
they are not a foot above its high-water surface. A dam has been thrown 
across it, to make a feeder for the Welland Canal, between Lakes Erie and 
Ontario ; which has caused much overflow both above and below it, by pre- 
venting the descent of the water, in freshets, and arresting the ascent of 
that from the lake, when impelled into the estuary of the river by the wind. 
"The residents in the neighborhood," according to the gentleman just named, 
"are very subject to marsh fever, every family having several ill in the 
course of the season." 

With this locality we finish the medical topography of the Basin of Lake 
Erie, and complete that of the group or series of upper and interior lakes ; 

* Tulloch's Statistical Reports of British Army — Smith's Canad. Gazetteer, 
f Edinburgh Journal, No. 147. 



384 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

but before proceeding to those which lie more than three hundred feet lower, 
and also much nearer the sea, it may be well to take a few general views. 



SECTION XII. 

REMARKS ON THE BASIN OF THE UPPER LAKES. 

I. Fluctuations and change of level of the Lake- surface. 

1. Tides. — It has been settled, by the observations of Governor Cass, at 
the head of Green Bay,* and of Mr. Geo. C. Davies, at Cleveland,! that there 
are no lunar tides in the upper lakes. This conclusion is in accordance 
with popular opinion. 

2. Daily fluctuations. — The surface of the lakes, however, is tranquil in 
the calmest weather only; and whenever or wherever their shores are visited, 
the water is seen to be in a state of fluctuation, proportionate to the velocity 
of the wind. As this is much greater, generally, through the day than at 
night, especially in the warmer seasons of the year, it follows that the heap- 
ing-up of the waters against the shore, will often be higher in one part of the 
day than another ; which seems to have given rise to the mistake, once some- 
what prevalent, that there were regular tides. When the wind blows steadily 
for a certain time in one direction, the surface-waters are impelled from the 
windward shore, and thrown upon the leeward: leaving the swamps and 
beaches comparatively dry on one side, while they are submerged more 
deeply than common on the other. When the water recedes, the decompo- 
sable organic matter of the estuaries and lacustrine marshes must, of neces- 
sity, be in part floated away ; and a greater absorption of deleterious gases 
may, likewise, be supposed to take place, than if the same water remained 
in them. A swamp thus acted on will, of course, prove less injurious to 
health, than one remote from the lake shore, where the water continues un- 
changed. Some inland marshes, however, are fed by copious springs, 
and send out streams, whereby their noxious influence may, perhaps, be 
diminished. 

3. Ground- swells. — When a strong and unrelaxing wind, not directed 
to or from the outlet of a lake, has, by blowing several days and nights, 
driven the water from one side to the other, as from the western to the 
eastern coast of Michigan, or from the southern to the northern coast of 
Erie, the surface of the lake becomes an inclined plain, and when the wind 
ceases, it will return to its horizontal state. This ebbing is generally so 
gentle as not to be perceived ; but occasionally the reflux is in the form of a 
long and high wave, which in its approach to the shore, has been compared, 
in appearance, to the fall of water over a mill-dam, when seen from below, 
and is called a Ground- swell, or Long- swell, by the people who live on the 

* Historical Scientific Sketches of Michigan, p. 194. 
f Ohio Geological Reports. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 385 

coasts. Two or three of these undulations sometimes follow each other in 
quick succession. Mr. Butler, who keeps the lighthouse in Fairport, at the 
mouth of Grand River, in Ohio, informed me that he had seen this swell 
eight or ten times. In the autumn of 1829, three rapidly succeeded each 
other, and deluged the lower part of the village, five or six feet deep. 
There was no wind, and the surface of the lake was smooth, immediately 
before. At Lockwood, eight miles further down the lake, one of these 
waves caused an inundation eleven feet deep. They sometimes happen in 
the winter, when the ice near the shore will be raised up, and fractured, the 
water being driven through the fissures. The geologists of the State of 
Michigan have observed these swells in the bays of Lake Superior. 

4. Annual rise and fall of the Lakes. — The lakes may be regarded as 
constituting a river, with expansions. Superior, Huron, St. Clair, and Erie, 
with the intervening straits, represent the main trunk — Michigan, and 
Green Bay, are tributaries. Below a horizontal plane, touching the bot- 
toms of the straits, the water, of course, is not changed, except so far as it 
may percolate into the earth, and its place be supplied by rains. It is, then, 
the surface-water only that flows and constitutes the river. It follows, that 
if the lake-beds do not leak, the water which flows through the straits must 
be that which falls within their basins, in the form of rain or snow, minus 
the quantity raised by evaporation, and lost through absorption into the 
earth. Evaporation, of course, goes on from both the land and water, but 
its laws are not the same on the two kinds of surface. From the land- sur- 
face it takes place, but to a very limited degree, in winter, when the ground 
is frozen, and in autumn when it is dry ; though in summer, when the surface 
is wet, from the spring rains, it must be active, as the sun's rays, by im- 
pinging on solid matters, develop a great deal of heat. Hence, terrestrial 
evaporation has two minima and two maxima in every year. The former are 
the months of August and September, the period of drought, and the 
months of December, January, February, and March, the period of frost ; 
the evaporation being then reduced to its lowest degree. The maxima, or 
periods of greatest evaporation, are October, after the rains of autumn have 
fallen on the earth, warmed through the preceding summer, and May, June, 
and July, when the solstitial sun acts upon a surface watered by the copious 
rains of spring. 

The extremes of variation in the rise of vapor from the lake-surface are 
much less, and do not correspond, in time, with those of the land. Thus, 
there is no lack of water throughout the year, except over the margins 
which become protected by ice in winter; and the difference between the 
summer and winter temperature of the water, beyond these icy belts, is not 
so great as on land. Hence, there is one maximum of evaporation in July, 
August, and September, and one minimum in January, February, and 
March ; both depending on temperature. 

The water which falls upon, or flows into, the lakes, has no progressive or 
river- current, and merely serves to swell their volume, and raise them to a 
higher level; but, from their great extent, this cannot take place suddenly. 
25 



386 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OFJTHE [book i. 

Lying far in the north, much of the rain which falls on the earth in autumn 
is converted into ice, and kept from reaching the lake-beds until spring ; and 
all the snow which falls on the ground, from the first of December to the 
first of April, a period of four months, remains undissolved. The supplies 
being thus withheld, and evaporation still remaining active, from the long- 
retained heat of the lake-water, the lacustrine surface sinks to a minimum, 
which, by the month of February, is such that the ice formed near the shore 
in December, is found to subside, from following the water on which it rests, 
as the surface lowers. April and May bring their copious rains ; the sun 
dissolves the accumulated ice and snow of the higher latitudes, and the 
swollen rivers pour their torrents into the lakes, which now begin to rise ; 
and by June or July, a maximum is reached. This range of elevation, de- 
pending, as it does, on atmospheric causes, is, of course, not uniform, but 
varies from one to two and a half feet.* 

It is worthy of remark, that the great lacustrine river, having its ex- 
treme sources in the same region with the Mississippi, has its annual rise at 
the same season of the year ; showing their dependence on a common cause. 
The effects of their redundance of water, are, however, very different ; for, 
while the floods of the Mississippi overflow its banks, and submerge large 
districts of alluvial bottom, making fresh deposits of organic matter upon 
them, the lake-floods are limited to narrow and interrupted tracts of beach, 
and to the low lands about the mouths of rivers; and when the freshets of 
both subside, those of the Mississippi leave extensive foul surfaces, to be acted 
on by the sun; while those of the lakes leave only margins, of inconsidera- 
ble extent; which, moreover, are exposed in a very gradual manner. Still 
further, the Mississippi falls to its minimum, with a consequent exposure of 
the greatest extent of drying surface, in the months of August, September, 
and October, while the power of the sun is still great in the south ; but 
the minimum of lake depression is not reached until February. 

5. Prolonged lake rises. — Colonel Henry Whiting, t from various tradi- 
tional and unwritten accounts, and also from observation, has concluded, that 
the lakes rise gradually, and reach a maximum in seven years, from which 
they decline ; and, at the end of a second septennial period, are found at 
their lowest level ; whence they rise again, to their former elevation, by the 
close of the third septennial epoch. Thus, in 1800, there was high water; 
but nothing is knowa of 1807 or 1808. The years 1814 and 1815, pre- 
sented high water, 1820 low, and 1828 high. It appears, however, that in 
1829, after falling two feet, the water began to rise, and, in 1830, had 
attained the elevation of 1828; by 1836 it had advanced twenty inches 
higher; in 1837, it rose seven inches more, and in 1838, twelve inches of 
greater elevation were attained ; immediately after which it began to fall. 
By these data a gradual rise through a period of seven years, seems to be 
obscurely indicated; but not a subsidence through the same term. From 

* Michigan and Ohio Geological Reports. 

f Historical and Scientific Sketches of Michigan : 1834. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 387 

the best data extant, taking the depression of 1820 as one extreme, and the 
elevation of 1838 as the other, the range is six feet.* The researches of 
Mr. Whittleseyf have brought out nearly the same result. The highest 
known rise was that of 1838, which, along the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers, 
destroyed old orchards, and killed forest trees, the annual concentric circles 
of which exceeded one hundred in number.! Of course, an equal rise had 
not occurred in a century before. The prolonged periodical rises and falls, 
can only be ascribed to long periods of wet and dry weather, in alternation ; 
and if an accurate account of the quantity of rain and snow, falling annu- 
ally in various parts of the lake-basin, had been kept since 1800, the mete- 
orological and hydrological conditions would, doubtless, appear at once, in 
the relation of cause and effect. All who reside on the banks of the Ohio 
are aware that, from atmospheric causes, the river has periods of two or 
three years, in which its mean elevation differs from that of other periods. 
The etiologist, in the atmospheric conditions which give rise to these fluctua- 
tions, will see modifying causes of the fevers of autumn. 

II. Temperature of the Lakes, and its influences. — The mean an- 
nual heat of the surfaces of the different lakes must, of course, vary with 
the latitude, and is doubtless the same with that of the surface of the 
ground under corresponding parallels. The extremes of the water-tempera- 
ture must, however, be much less than those of the surrounding land; for 
the fluctuations of the movable surface of the water, in summer, mix the 
warmer with the cooler waters ; and, furthermore, the continued evaporation 
carries off caloric in a latent state, and tends to prevent a high surface-heat. 
In winter, on the other hand, when a film of ice is formed at the surface, the 
same fluctuations carry it into warmer water beneath, where it is immediately 
dissolved; a process that must continue until the whole stratum of agitation 
approaches the freezing point, and has no more caloric to impart. But the 
cold of our lake-climates is not great enough to reduce the upper stratum to 
the freezing point, where the water is deep, and hence the minimum of an- 
nual lake-temperature is less than that of the land — cannot, indeed, be 
down to 32° Fahrenheit. The depth to which the sun's rays can penetrate 
and warm the pure, transparent water, must be very great. They do not 
expend their calefacient power on the surface, as they would, if the water 
were turbid from solid matters suspended in it. The observations already 
stated, in describing the middle lakes — Michigan and Huron — show that, in 
the same latitude, the summer temperature is inversely as the depth; and, of 
course, the winter heat must be directly as the depth. Great bodies of in- 
land water, which for half the year are cooler and for the other half warmer 
than the soil, cannot fail to exercise an influence on the climate of the sur- 
rounding country, which the etiologist cannot overlook. That subject will 
receive attention in the meteorological portion of this work. 

III. Lake Terraces and their effects. — Reference has been repeatedly 

* Michigan Geological Reports. ; Michigan Geological Reports. 

+ Geological Reports of Ohio. 



388 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

made to these terraces, especially as they are found on the south side of Lake 
Erie. To what extent they exist around the lakes generally I cannot say, 
but they are nowhere so distinctly developed, I think, as in the vicinity of 
that lake. They are regarded by the geologists as conclusive evidence, that 
Erie, and, consequently, all the other lakes, in past times, existed at more 
than one level above the present surface. These terraces consist of long 
flat ridges of sand, which prevent the rain-water from flowing off; and they 
are thus one of the immediate causes of swales, swamps, and sometimes 
ponds ; while the ridges, where the forest is cut down, fill the lower portions 
of the atmosphere with sand, whenever the wind blows. Superficial ditches, 
through the swamps and wet grounds, running parallel to the terraces, with 
deeper cuts at right angles to them, and, consequently, leading to the lake, 
would redeem all the terraces from their paludal condition, and greatly dimin- 
ish the prevalence of autumnal fever. 

IV. Marginal Lake Forests. — As a general fact, the margins of all 
the lakes bear heavy forests, even when prairies are found but a few miles 
from them. These belts of wood-land are valuable to all who live on the 
southern coasts, as they resist and break the force of the northern winds, 
which in winter sweep with such velocity over the watery surface. They 
are, in that respect, like the groves of the prairies of Illinois, and ought to 
be preserved. Where they surround a permanent lake-swamp, there is still 
another reason for their preservation. 

V. 1 shall finish the medical topography and hydrography of the upper 
lakes, with a reference to the observations of Volney.* In 1796, that dis- 
tinguished French traveler made a visit into the basin of Lake Erie, con- 
cerning the fevers of which he says: — "In a journey of two hundred and 
fifty miles, from Cincinnati to Detroit, begun on the 8th of September, in a 
company of twenty-five persons, we did not encamp one night, without one, 
at least, of the party being seized with a periodical fever. At Greenville 
[on the upper waters of the Great Miami], the head-quarters of the army 
that had just conquered the country, three hundred persons, from among 
three hundred and seventy, were sick of fevers. On arriving at Detroit, 
only three of our party were in health, and on the ensuing day, our com- 
mander, Major Swan, and myself were both seized with a malignant fever. 
This fever annually visits the garrison at Miami Fort [ now Maumee City ], 
where it has more than once assumed the form of yellow fever. * * * 
These periodical fevers are not immediately fatal, but they sensibly enfeeble 
the constitution, and shorten life. If they seize their victim at the end of 
October, they are likely to continue all winter, and reduce him to a state of 
wretched languor and debility. Canada, and the adjacent cold countries, 
are little subject to them." 

In the close of his article, after comparing various localities, he adds : 
" In the western country I would prefer to live, a hundred years hence, on 

* View of the Soil and Climate of the United States: 1804. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 389 

the margin of Lake Erie, for then it will not as now be infested with 
fevers." Half the time designated, has already elapsed, and the diminution 
in autumnal fever is such as to justify the expectation that his prophesy 
will be fulfilled. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE EASTERN OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN, 
CONTINUED. 



BASIN OF LAKE ONTARIO. 



SECTION I. 

HYDROGRAPHICAL OUTLINES. 

I. The Basin. — The Lake Erie Basin terminates at Buffalo, where the 
Niagara River has its efflux ; for all the water poured into that river by tribu- 
tary streams, is carried into Lake Ontario. In tracing the outlines of the 
Ontario Basin, after passing a short distance to the east from Buffalo, we turn 
to the south, and ascend upon the Appalachian Mountains, to the inter- 
locking sources of the Genesee and Alleghany Rivers, in latitude 42° ; then 
meander eastwardly, to the sources of the Susquehanna ; then turn north- 
eastwardly, to the Adirondack Mountains in Northern New York ; then north- 
westwardly into Canada West, until we approach the latitude of 45° ; and then 
curve round, by the south-west, to the place of departure at the Niagara 
outlet. Thus, the extreme latitudes of this basin, are from a little below 
42° to near 45° : its longitudes are from 75° to 80°. As the whole basin is 
habitable, and the best portions of the State of New York and of Canada 
West are included in it, no portion of the Eastern Basin is of deeper interest 
to the etiologist. 

II. The Lake. — The form of Lake Ontario, is that of an irregularly 
compressed oval, with pointed extremities. Its length is about one hundred 
and eighty miles; its mean breadth, thirty-five; its average depth, five 
hundred feet.* Its longest axis runs nearly east and west. The elevation 



* Michigan Geological Reports. 



390 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book r 

of its surface is two hundred and thirty-two feet above tide-water in the 
St. Lawrence, and three hundred and thirty-two below the level of Lake 
Erie. Its mean latitude is about 43° 30', or nearly a degree and a half 
north of that Lake. The geological position of Ontario is in the older 
Silurian rocks; but the country around it abounds in terraces and long 
parallel ridges, of loose or drifted materials, which bury up much of the 
rocky strata, and afford abundant evidence that the surface of the lake was 
once much higher than at present. The outlet of the lake, at its eastern 
extremity, is the St. Lawrence; on the north side, near that extremity, is 
the estuary of the River Treat, the only large tributary of that side. On 
the south, and nearly opposite, is the mouth of Black River; further west, 
the Oswego, and then the Genesee ; but the great supply of water, is that 
which must make the subject of the next section. 



SECTION II. 

BASIN OF THE NIAGARA RIVER. 

I. The eastern extremity of Lake Erie and the western of Lake Ontario, 
overlap each other for the distance of about sixty miles. The isthmus 
between them has a width of thirty or forty miles. It consists of two belts, 
one of the same elevation with the banks of Lake Erie — another much 
narrower, and rising but little over the surface of Ontario. The descent 
from the upper to the lower is abrupt, and as we advance along the precipice 
from east to west, it approaches Lake Ontario, so as greatly to narrow the 
lower belt at the head of that lake. The eastern end of this isthmus is 
traversed by the Niagara River, through which all the superfluous waters of 
the Upper Lakes make their way into the Lower, by a course nearly north, 
and through a distance of thirty-five miles. 

The tributaries of Niagara River are of inconsiderable size, and but two 
in number. That on the western side is — 

The Chippewa or Welland River, which drains the upper terrace of the 
isthmus, and enters the Niagara River, half-way between the two lakes. 
The tract drained by this little river, consists chiefly of slightly rolling table- 
land, with a substratum of old or Silurian lime and sand stone.* The 
surface, on the whole, appears to be dry. The Welland Canal, which begins 
by two heads, one in Lake Erie, and the other in Grand River, a few miles 
from the lake, traverses this district nearly at right angles to the Chippewa. 
I have not learned that those who reside near the banks, of the Chippewa 
or of the Canal, are subject to autumnal fever. On the eastern or opposite 
side of Niagara River, the chief tributary is — 

The Tonawanda, which enters the Niagara a short distance above the 
Chippewa. A dam, near its mouth, constitutes it a part of the Erie Canal, 
for fourteen miles, and, at the same time, interferes with the draining of the 

* Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



part if] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 391 

extensive swamps, which lie within its basin, not far from the towns of 
Lockport and Batavia.* Autumnal fever abounds in the neighborhood of 
these swamps, which lie in the latitude of 43° N., and at an elevation of 
six hundred feet above the sea. 

II. Niagara Kiver and the Falls. — The banks of this river, where 
it emerges from Lake Erie, are low, its current slow, and its surface always 
of the same elevation ; except when that of the lake is changed, by the 
action of the winds, or by the periodical rises and falls. Nine miles from 
Buffalo, the river divides into two channels, which, by their reunion, form 
Grand Island. At the distance of eighteen miles from the same city, the 
stream begins to descend a rocky inclined plain, and, by the depression of its 
beds, higher banks are developed. Here are the Rapids, in the course of 
which lies Goat Island, a wooded tract, composed of drift or diluvial materials, 
without swamps. The larger body of water passes on the western side of the 
island. Both the agitated and foaming torrents reach the precipice, imme- 
diately below the island, and plunge over it into the same abyss. The larger 
falls one hundred and fifty-eight feet — the smaller, one hundred and sixty- 
seven. From this pool, the depth of which is unknown, the water flows off 
in a comparatively quiet manner, with mural precipices on each side, which 
rise two hundred and fifty feet above its surface ; but, at the distance of a 
mile, the Rapids are reproduced; and to them succeeds, from a bend in the 
ravine, the Whirlpool; whence the stream flews, in a dark and frightful 
gorge, till between Queenstown and Lewistown it emerges upon the lower 
belt; and traversing it with a rapid current for seven miles, reaches Lake 
Ontario, having descended, in the whole, three hundred and thirty-two feet. 

All the geologists, who have visited the Niagara, have arrived at one 
conclusion concerning its cataract, and the chasm through which it flows. 
The rocks around and beneath the eastern end of Lake Erie (consisting of 
that limestone which, every where in the Interior Valley, underlies the black 
Devonian slate), crop out to the north, and constitute, at their termination, 
the hights of Queenstown and Lewistown, seven miles from the present 
margin of Lake Ontario. In ancient times these hights made the imme- 
diate bank of the lake, and then the Niagara River flowed through its whole 
length in a shallow trench, like that between Buffalo and Grand Island. 
Mr. Hall and Mr. Lyell have traced out the pebbly banks of this ancient 
river, from the Falls to the Hights of Queenstown,! and every visiter may 
do the same. At the geological epoch referred to, the strait between the 
two lakes, was like that between Lake Huron and Lake Erie at the present 
time. As the waters of Ontario subsided, the cataract was formed. The 
waters then began to fall from the hights upon the new lake-beach. By 
this fall, they broke up the lower strata, washed away their fragments, 
and the higher, losing their support, were broken off by the superincumbent 
weight, and thus the chasm was commenced. If the whole had been of equal 
density, a regular inclined plain would have been formed ; but being of 

* New York Geological Reports. f Travels in North America. 



392 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

unequal hardness, the river necessarily descended by steps. One of these 
steps is the present cataract. As the rock over which the stream now falls, 
from its rising to the north, occupied, several miles below, a higher level, the 
descent must there have been through a greater space than at the present 
spot ; and the longer the recession continues, the shorter will be the descent. 
Thus, the sublimity of the Falls is lessening with the lapse of time. 

As the attractiveness of the spectacle they present is felt and acknow- 
ledged by the world, the medical historian is saved the fearful task of 
attempting to present it, as an inducement to summer traveling by invalids ; 
and may limit himself to the humbler duty of answering the question, 
whether those who visit this locality in August and September, are in danger 
of contracting autumnal fever? The immense volumes of spray which are 
forever ascending, must necessarily render the local atmosphere humid; but, 
that condition does not seem to generate either intermittents or remittents. 
In the immediate neighborhood of the cataract there are no swamps ; yet 
they are not very remote ; for directly east, the country is level, and within 
three or four miles, there are swales and limited marshes. Five miles above, 
to the south-east, Cayuga Creek joins the Niagara. This creek drains a 
considerable tract of country, which is very flat and wet — known under the 
name of the Tonawanda Swamp. The shores of the river between the Falls, 
and this creek, present some marshes, a quarter of a mile in width. The 
lower end of Grand Island, four miles above the Falls, is flat and wet ; and 
Buckhorn Island, lying near it, has a surface of the same character. 

Autumnal fevers, both intermittent and remittent, prevail in the neighbor- 
hood of these islands ; also near the mouth of Cayuga Creek, and along its 
banks, from the beginning of August to the end of September; but the 
village of Niagara Falls is almost entirely exempt from both, though lying 
to the leeward of the paludal tracts.* The Canada side is equally healthy. 

In continuing the medical topography of the Ontario Basin, I propose to 
proceed eastwardly from the mouth of Niagara Biver. 



SECTION III. 

THE LAKE SHORE, FROM NIAGARA RIVER TO GENESEE RIVER. 

I. Fort Niagara. — This military post is situated on a point of land, at 
the junction of Niagara River with the lake. Its site, in N. Lat. 43° 15', is 
elevated several feet above the highest waves; and the country around, 
although remarkably level, is free from swamps or ponds. The returns for 
six years, give a ratio for intermittents of twenty-four per cent, per annum — 
for remittents, eleven per cent.T In the third and fourth quarters of the year 
1838, a detachment of troops from Florida furnished nearly all the cases of 
fever; which, consequently, should not be charged upon this post. The 



* Letter of Doctor G. Conger. + Medical Stat. U. S. A. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA 393 

tabular returns do not afford exact data for correcting the error from this 
source ; but if it were done, the ratios of intermittents and remittents would 
be greatly reduced. These outbreaks of intermittent and remittent fever, on 
coming into a cold climate, deserve to be recorded. 

II. Around the whole southern coast of Lake Ontario, there is a bank or 
terrace, similar to those on the south side of Lake Erie, briefly described in 
the last chapter. Its development is most striking from the head of the 
lake, west of Niagara River, round to Sodus Bay, east of Genesee River ;* 
after which, its elevation and distinctness of outline diminish. In several 
places, instead of a single ridge, the platform widens and is crowned with 
several low ridges or spines. Its distance from the lake varies from three to 
eight miles ; its elevation also varies in different places, but may be taken at 
an average of one hundred and ninety feet. In composition it consists of 
silt, gravel, sand, bowlders, shells, and fragments of wood.f Along the 
shores of the lake, between the ridge and the water, there are many ponds 
and marshes, formed by the obstacles which the shingle, or temporary raised 
beaches of the lake, present, to the discharge of the waters from the northern 
declivity of the ancient terrace. As new obstructions are forming by the 
action of the waves, while the same action, or the hand of art, is removing 
the older, it follows that the paludal character of this coast cannot be suc- 
cessfully obviated. To the south, or rear of the ridge, and between the low 
crests, where it divides into two or. more, there are swales, morasses, and 
sometimes ponds, which render the terrace unhealthy in autumn. In very 
wet seasons, Dr. Elwood, of Rochester, has seen the inhabitants more un- 
healthy than those on the lake shore, although there were no swamps near 
them. The paludal tracts on or behind the terrace, may be abated by ditch- 
ing, much easier than those adjacent to the lake ; into many of which the 
waters are driven by the winds, by ground- swells, or by periodical rises; 
while others, as already stated, have their outlets obstructed with materials 
rolled against them by the waves. 

III. At the mouth of the Genesee River there are tolerably extensive 
flats, on which the waters of the lake either stand permanently, or which 
they occasionally overflow. These flats were originally covered with trees, 
now partly cut down, and abound in aquatic plants. The estuary of the 
river passes through them. On the left-hand bank of this stream, stands 
the (comparatively) old and decaying village of Charlotte. In former 
times, Doctor Backus and Doctor Elwood, of Rochester, saw in this village 
a great prevalence of autumnal fever, which often assumed a malignant 
character. When I visited it, in 1847, Doctor Jones, its only physician, was 
still grappling with the same disease ; its type being generally intermittent, 
and seldom dangerous. 

* New York Geological Reports. f Ibid 



394 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION IV. 

BASIN OF GENESEE RIVER. 

I. A rapid survey of a part of the lake coast, in the last section, has brought 
us to the mouth of the Genesee River, which we are now to ascend to its 
sources in the mountains. The estuary of this river extends five miles from 
the lake, through a deep gorge of excavation. The navigation is arrested by 
falls, down which, by three successive leaps, the river descends two hundred 
and seventy -five feet. This descent is over the terminal out-crop of rocks, 
which, like those of Niagara, emerge from the south. The lake ridge passes 
from two to three miles north of Rochester, at a level of about one hundred 
feet below it, and is intersected by the gorge. 

II. Rochester, the largest town of Western New York, except Buffalo, 
is of such recent settlement, that it was not regarded even as a village 
of the woods, until 1817. Its latitude is 43° 8' N. ; its distance from the 
mouth of the Genesee River, seven miles ; its elevation above the lake, two 
hundred and seventy-five, — above the ocean, five hundred and six feet; — 
which is the average altitude of Cincinnati ; — and being just four degrees of 
latitude apart, they are convenient stations for estimating the influence of 
latitude on climate, and on the diseases which, directly or indirectly, are 
produced by it. 

The site of Rochester approaches nearly to levelness, and consists of a 
moderately deep bed of loam, overspreading the same kind of Silurian lime- 
stone that is found at Niagara Falls. Originally the surface was swaley, but 
at this time there are no paludal or pondy tracts. The Genesee River passes 
through the town from south to north, and has a rocky bed and banks. To 
obtain water for the Erie Canal, which here crosses the river, and also for 
milling purposes, a dam was erected across the river, producing a pond for 
several miles above, which was said to generate a great deal of autumnal 
fever. Several years afterward, a second dam, which raised the water two 
feet higher than the first, was constructed, and produced such an increase of 
autumnal fever, along the banks of the river, that after five years it was torn 
down.* A mile south of Rochester, there are high deposits of drift, which made 
part of a long range running parallel to the lake. They are not disposed in 
terraces but tuberosities, some of which are so elevated that the lake may 
be seen from their summits. 

Doctor Backus and Doctor Elwood came to Rochester in the years 1816 
and 1817, when it had not more than three or four hundred inhabitants, and 
the immediate vicinity of the village was a dense wood. At that time, and 
for many years afterward, intermittent and remittent fevers, frequently of a 
malignant character, were exceedingly prevalent. With the extraordinary 
growth of this beautiful city they have greatly diminished : nevertheless, they 
have not disappeared; for, as Doctor Ely informed me, sporadic cases of both 
occur every year, even in the depths of the city. 

* Doctor Ely, of Rochester. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 395 

III. The Genesee Flats. — At the distance of twelve or fourteen miles 
from Rochester, np the river, the celebrated Genesee Flats commence, and 
extend to Dansville at the mouth of the Canaseraga Creek, a distance of fifty 
miles. The Grenesee River descends into these flats on the western side, 
seventeen miles below where that creek enters them. The two streams unite, 
but even when thus augmented, the Genesee River bears no assignable pro- 
portion to the breadth of the flats through which it meanders with a sluggish 
current. They are, in fact, the bottom and bed of a drained lake, of the 
same class, in form and the direction of its axis, as the existing small lakes, 
which lie to the east, and discharge their waters into Oswego River. The 
width of these flats is from two to four miles. On each side, the ground 
rises by terraces or undulations, to a moderate hight in the north, and a 
much greater hight at the south, and is deeply overspread with diluvial or 
post-tertiary deposits, bearing or imbedding innumerable bowlders. By 
cultivation, the surface of this upland has become dry, with here and there, a 
swamp or pond. As to the flats themselves, they were originally covered 
by a dense forest, with tracts of prairie,* nourished by a soil abounding in 
organic matter; which, from the levelness of the surface, was badly drained, 
and on which the inundations of the river left ponds and marshes. The 
elevation of this lake-bed is six hundred feet above the ocean — its mean 
latitude, a little less than 43°. Its settlement began in the year 1788, but 
it was not until after the commencement of this century, that immigrants 
flocked to it, and the work of surface-transformation was undertaken in good 
earnest. Then it was that autumnal diseases began, and continued to pre- 
vail among the settlers so universally, that the expression, ' Genesee Fever,' 
became a familiar appellation. Doctor Backus and Doctor Elwood, who, as 
I have said, arrived at the infant village of Rochester in 1816 and 1817, 
were well-informed of the extraordinary prevalence of autumnal fever in the 
flats above them; and Doctor Bissell and Doctor Metcalf, who, three years 
afterward, settled in Geneseo, thirty miles above Rochester, had personally 
witnessed the annual recurrence of the disease, commencing in the spring, 
under the ordinary form of vernal intermittents, and continuing until arrested 
by the frosts of autumn. According to those gentlemen, the tertian type 
prevailed over all others. Malignant intermittents do not seem to have been 
frequent, but the remittent form was often unmanageable and fatal. Doctor 
Hunt, who came in 1825 to Mount Morris, where the Genesee River enters 
the western side of the flats, informs me, that the people who lived on or 
near them, including those of the village, were great sufferers from intermit- 
tent fever, which he learned had prevailed from the commencement of settle- 
ment. It was seldom fatal, and most of the deaths were from the remittent 
type. Doctor Salsbury. of Avon, on the eastern bank, below Geneseo, had 
settled there in 1830, when he collected traditionary accounts of the same 
prevalence. Doctor Lauderdale, who had come to Geneseo in 1840, had, 

* New York Medical Reports, Vol. II. 



396 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

from every source, received the same impression. Such was the effect of 
disturbing this alluvial surface, so rich in organic matter. 

With the progress of settlement and cultivation, although marshes remain 
and occasional floods occur, a signal amelioration in the state of autumnal 
health has taken place. All the gentlemen I have named testified to this 
as a fact; and although both intermittents and remittents continue to 
return annually, the number of cases, compared with the present population, 
is so small, that a residence in or around this beautiful and attractive locality, 
is no longer dreaded. 

In 1837 and 1838, the G-enesee Canal, from Rochester, was excavated 
through the flats, to its southern termination at Dansville. The work, as 
usual, was chiefly performed by unacclimated Irishmen, who, as Doctor Sals- 
bury informed me, suffered much from fever, especially while carrying the 
excavation through a swamp, on the opposite side of the river from Avon. 

IV. Basin of the Genesee, above the Flats. — The whole of this 
region is composed of hills and valleys, with a gradual rise of the country 
from six hundred feet, the level of the flats, to more than fifteen hundred, 
where the soiirces of the river interlock with those of the Alleghany, Susque- 
hanna and Cataraugus. The summit-level between Black Creek of the 
Genesee, and Oil Creek of the Alleghany — composed of an extensive mountain 
swamp — is fourteen hundred and eighty- six feet above the ocean, while 
other points are still higher ; as, for example, Lime Lake, a small body of 
water, which lies on a portion of the summit-level, between the tributaries of 
the Genesee, Cataraugus and Alleghany, at an altitude of sixteen hundred 
and twenty-three feet above the sea.* Geologically, the region we have now 
entered is composed of Devonian slate, surmounted with sandstone, and cap- 
ped on its highest points with the conglomerate which emerges from beneath 
the coal basin of Pennsylvania. As the G-enesee makes its way down this 
hilly declivity, it presents some striking cascades and deep ravines. In other 
places, it has bottom-lands of considerable width, which are also found along 
some of its tributaries. Most of the hills have long gentle slopes, and, in 
some places, are flatted into tracts of table-land. Swamps, chiefly overgrown 
with hemlock, are frequent, and not limited to the valleys. In the upper 
part of the basin, the head streams of the Genesee, Cataraugus, Alleghany 
and Susquehanna, constitute a sort of hydrographical labyrinth, from which 
the waters make their way into Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, the Gulf of 
Mexico, and the Chesapeake Bay. 

In ascending this mountain slope, although we go directly south, we find 
that the fevers which prevail on the flats below, and down to the shores of 
Lake Ontario, get less and less. They prevail more along the Genesee 
River, and for a short distance up its tributaries, than elsewhere; but at 
length are almost unknown in every kind of locality, even the most paludal. 
At the village of Pike, on the banks of the transparent West-Koy, six or 
eight miles from the Genesee River, and at an elevation (by estimate) of 

* New York Geological Reports. 



book i.] THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 397 

twelve hundred feet above the sea, Doctor Capron, who had resided there 
twenty-eight years, assured me they were unknown ; adding, that the stream 
abounded in trout, a certain sign of exemption from that disease. Cases of 
remittent fever, however, now and then occur. Doctor Minard, of the 
same village, confirmed these statements ; but informed me that both inter- 
mittents and remittents occur, to some extent, near the junction of the 
West-Koy with the Genesee, and, also, on the corresponding portion of a 
neighboring tributary, Cold Crjek. 

The summit-level on which the Genesee, in common with the Alleghany 
River, originates, lies between 42° and 42° 30' N. latitude, and has an ele- 
vation varying from thirteen hundred to sixteen hundred feet. It is about 
one degree farther south, and twelve hundred feet higher than the shores of 
Lake Ontario, between the mouths of the Niagara and the Genesee Rivers. 
Now, an autumnal fever, especially the intermittent variety, is the principal 
endemic of those shores, but almost unknown on this platform; and the 
difference must be ascribed to altitude, as swamps, streams, and organic 
matter abound in this region. 

V. Alpine Summer Residence for Invalids. — When describing the 
sources of the Alleghany River,* including Chautauque Lake, we were 
brought, by a southern route, upon the water- shed which we have now 
ascended from the north. It may be regarded as the great salient terrace, 
or projecting table-land, of the Appalachian Mountains — that portion 
which advances farthest to the north-west, from the central axis of the 
chain — that which approaches nearest to the great lakes. Its tabular yet 
undulating or hilly surface, results from its resting on a broad out-crop of 
Devonian shale and sandstone, in which the former greatly predominates. 
Its rugged and rocky eminences depend on remnants of superincumbent con- 
glomerate, the body of which lies further south, and at a lower level. 
These spots have a sterile soil, with the tree and shrub vegetation which 
belong to stony localities, at such an elevation. They make, however, but 
a limited portion of the whole district, and the extent of fertile land is 
such, that flourishing towns and villages, productive farms, good summer 
roads, and cheap and easy means of conveyance, are found in every part. 
Here, then, are all the requisites for a comfortable and curative summer 
residence. I will mention a few classes of patients, to whom it would be 
likely to prove beneficial. First. Those who are inclined to tubercular 
consumption, or in whom the disease, although fatally established, is not so 
far advanced, as to confine them to the house. To which may be added, 
children affected with scrofula in the external lymphatic ganglia, the skin, 
and the eyes. Second. Those who have had their livers and spleens de- 
ranged, in structure or function, or their constitutions otherwise shattered, 
by repeated attacks of autumnal fever, in low and hot situations. Third. 
Dyspeptics, from any and all causes; hypochondriacs, and those subject to 
chronic hysteria, or any other form of morbid sensibility. 

* Ante, pp. 277, 278, 279. 



398 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Every practical physician is aware of the frequent failure of all kinds of 
medication in these cases, and of the great value of cool and fresh air, in 
summer, united with active exercise, simple diet, new scenery, and the dis- 
use of medicines, or their use under these favorable circumstances ; all of 
which may be here enjoyed. ; . 

From Mayville, at the west end of Chautauque Lake, to Bath and El- 
mira, on the Chemung River, a branch of the Susquehanna, the distance is 
more than one hundred miles ; from Portage, on the Genesee, to Warren, 
on the Alleghany, more than fifty; and between these places there are many 
other interesting villages, which would aiford ample opportunities for choice 
and change. In some of these towns there are respectable, in the remain- 
'der, plain but cleanly and comfortable, taverns; the general style of living 
is adapted, by its simplicity, to the constitutions of the infirm ; and the 
milk of certain portions of the district, as around Chautauque Lake, from 
the qualities of the grass, is the best within the limits of our Valley. 
Churches of different protestant denominations are to be found in every 
village; which has likewise a nucleus of cultivated society; and one or more 
intelligent physicians, to be consulted in case of need. 

The summer climate of this region may be inferred from a few facts. I 
passed through it in the last week of July and first week of August, and found 
fires, at night, acceptable. Frost occurs regularly in June and August, and 
not unfrequently in July. I saw many fields of Indian corn that had been 
frost-bitten on the night of the third of August. Peaches are scarcely cul- 
tivated. The wheat, and even hay harvest, does not take place until August. 
In passing north to Lake Ontario, I met the scythemen, who had completed 
the harvest in the country below, advancing south, and mounting on the 
higher level, to continue their labors. 

It may be said that the Virginia Springs are more elevated, and, there- 
fore, better fitted for summer sojourn. But their greater elevation of five 
hundred feet, would, in the reduction of temperature, only equal a degree of 
latitude, while this region is four degrees further north. Nor can Saratoga 
be compared in its summer climate with this mountain platform ; for, 
although a degree further north, it lies twelve hundred feet nearer the level 
of the sea. The celebrated Springs of Virginia and New York are, more- 
over, places of amusement for the healthy, not rural retreats for the infirm; 
to some of whom, it is true, the mineral waters might prove beneficial ; but all 
other circumstances would combine to counteract their salutary influence. 

The enlightened physician, who conscientiously desires to redeem his 
patient, for three months of the year, from the deleterious agency of heat 
and malaria, or to countervail the debilitating effects of a protracted summer 
on others, in whose lungs the fatal work of tubercular excavation is going 
on, will, I trust, not regard the business-like details which I have been giving, 
with disfavor; but patiently read on, until he qualifies himself for overcoming 
the scruples of such valetudinarians, as may fear or fancy that, in going to 
the mountain terrace for the summer, they would languish for want of scenes 
and objects of interest. These are quite as numerous, diversified, and 



part i.] ' INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 399 

striking as in almost any other portion of the Interior Valley ; and I will 
briefly enumerate the most important. 

First. — This region comprehends the great Pine Forest of the Alleghany ' 
Mountains/ White pine, yellow pine, and hemlock, are the prevailing forest 
trees: in the barren soils, mingled chiefly with oaks, chestnuts, cbinque- 
pins, and whortleberries; — in the fertile, standing side by side, in strange 
association, with the sugar-tree, elm, beech, walnut, and birch. From this 
district it is^tbat pine boards make their way to the lakes, the Chesapeake 
Bay, and even the Gulf of Mexico. Every water-fall has its saw-mill, 
every stream its raft, and the ax of the sturdy laborer enlivens the quietest 
solitudes. Second. — A residence in Mayville, at the west end, or James- 
town, at the east end of Chautauque Lake, would afford to the invalid many 
delightful drives on the serpentine banks of that beautiful sheet of water, 
elevated seven hundred and twenty-five feet above the level of Lake Erie ; 
and a visit to Lime Lake, in the adjoining county of Cataraugus, would 
show him a smaller basin, at the altitude of ten hundred and sixty feet above 
Lake Erie, or fifty feet above Itasca Lake, in which the Mississippi has its 
origin. Third. — In the same county, near Great Valley Creek, he may 
ascend a hill, and on its summit, about two thousand feet above the level of 
the sea, explore a tract of more than one hundred acres, which presents huge 
masses of conglomerate, so separated and arranged, as to justify the fanciful 
appellation which it has received, of Rock-City. Fourth. — A visit to 
Portage would afford him a view of the Upper Falls of Genesee River; 
which, in the course of two miles, by three successive pitches, and some 
intermediate rapids, sinks four hundred feet ; each cascade displaying a pecu- 
liar beauty and grandeur; on which, however, the beholder can scarcely fix 
his attention, because of the emotions of awe and wonder, inspired at finding 
himself on perpendicular banks, which rise from three to four hundred feet 
above the surface of the river,* as it winds its way through the gorge. 
Fifth. — Many of the brooks which flow towards the north, abound in speckled 
trout, while the little lakes and rivers afford opportunities for successful 
angling, and many wild and rugged tracts invite to hunting. Sixth. — Such 
invalids as might, from taste or the hope of benefit, desire to visit a mineral 
spring, could, in a single day, or more, according to their position, descend to 
the Avon Springs in the Flats of the Genesee, twenty miles above Rochester, 
where they would find excellent accommodations, ample opportunities for 
bathing, and a copious supply of water, containing, according to Doctor 
Salsbury, carbonate and muriate of lime, and the sulphate of lime, soda and 
magnesia, with carbonic acid, nitrogen, and sulphureted hydrogen gases. 
These springs have been found peculiarly useful in disorders of the digestive 
organs, chronic rheumatism, and diseases of the skin. Seventh. — In a single 
day, or in two days, the valetudinarian might descend to Buffalo and the 
Falls of Niagara, whence, if he chose, he could make a voyage to Mackinac or 
Quebec, and then return to his mountain retreat. 

* New York Geological Reports. 



400 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

It remains to indicate to the invalid of the West and South, the routes by 
which this place may Tbe reached. That by way of Pittsburgh, through the 
Valley of the Alleghany River, is wild and picturesque, but rugged, badly 
provided, and wearisome. From Rochester, the trip up the Genesee Valley 
is direct and pleasant. From Buffalo, the ascent to Chautauque Lake can 
be made in a single day. But of all the routes, that from Dunkirk to May- 
ville, at the western extremity of Chautauque Lake, is to be preferred. The 
invalid, once on Lake Erie, may be landed at the port just named, and in a 
single hour will find himself on the western promontory of the platform, at 
least eight hundred feet above the surface of the water. 



SECTION V. 

BASIN OF OSWEGO RIVER, WITH ITS LAKES. 

I. This is the region of small lakes. It lies adjoining the Genesee Basin, 
and extends eastwardly to the sources of the Mohawk River, whicb flows into 
the Hudson. It rests, to the north, on Lake Ontario, extending even to its 
eastern boundary. To the south, it is subtended by the east and west 
branches of the Susquehanna — penetrating deeply between them. The 
Appalachian Mountains are here so depressed, that the water-shed between 
Seneca and Crooked Lakes, and the West Branch of the Susquehanna, 
where the Chemung Canal crosses it, is only eight hundred and ninety feet 
above the level of the sea. All the streams of this region, which take their 
rise in the mountain declivities, terminate in the lakes of the Oswego Basin, 
and are, therefore, small and short. The outlets of the lakes have their 
confluence in a common trunk, — the Oswego River; which reaches Lake 
Ontario, near its eastern extremity. The larger of these lakes, from west to 
east, are the Canandaigua, Crooked, Seneca, Cayuga, and Oneida. The 
smaller ones are equally numerous. The whole are long, narrow sheets of 
water, lying nearly parallel to each other, with their axes north and south. 
Their elevation above the sea varies from three hundred and eighty-seven to 
seven hundred and eighteen feet. A deduction of two hundred and thirty- 
one from these numbers, will give their altitude over Lake Ontario. In 
depth they vary : — Crooked Lake averages two hundred feet ; the greatest 
depth of Seneca. Lake, is five hundred and thirty feet; of Cayuga Lake, 
three hundred and ninety feet.* These numbers explain why they were not 
drained, when the Genesee Flats were laid bare. Their beds, in fact, are 
excavations in the Devonian and Silurian rocks, which appear in situ, on the 
opposite sides of each. Their immediate banks rise from ten to sixty or 
eighty feet above their surfaces, and the country between them, attains, by 
terraces or gentle acclivities, an elevation of several hundred feet in the 
south, but less in the north, where it assumes a more level aspect. At the 

* New York Geological Reports. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 401 

head of Cayuga lake there is an extensive swamp; "but, in general, its mar- 
gins are dry, till we approach its outlets, when we reach the most extensive 
paludal region which exists on the southern side of Lake Ontario. The 
outlet of Canandaigua Lake is into a stream called Mud Creek, which flows 
eastwardly. From the point of junction, the river takes the name of Clyde, 
and continues eastward as far as Montezuma, where it receives, through the 
Seneca outlet, the waters of Crooked, Seneca, and Cayuga Lakes, and then, 
continuing east, through Cayuga county into Onondaga county, unites with 
the outlets of Onondaga and Oneida Lakes, with which it forms the Oswego 
River.* By this channel, the course of which is nearly north-west, all the 
superfluous waters of fifteen lakes are discharged into Lake Ontario. 

II. Cayuga, Montezuma, and other marshes. — Around the lower end, 
and along the outlet of each lake, there are broad marshes, or tracts of low 
alluvion, which suffer inundation when the lakes are swollen by rains, or their 
waters driven to the north by southerly winds. The Cayuga outlet, which 
unites with the Seneca, before they unitedly join the Clyde, at Montezuma, 
has its whole course through a tract of marsh, which even begins in the lake 
itself. From Montezuma to the Onondaga outlet, twelve or fourteen miles, 
this marsh continues, preserving a width of two or three miles, and appearing, 
in summer, like an extensive meadow. There are, moreover, many detached 
swamps, and tracts of low, wet ground; so that the whole country, from the 
lower ends of the lakes to the shores of Ontario, between Great and Little 
Sodus Bays, may be considered as participating largely in a paludal charac- 
ter, while the actual marsh is estimated at sixty thousand acres. t At the 
present time, after forty years of settlement, the extent of swampy surface 
within the Oswego Basin is greatly diminished ; and many beautiful and 
flourishing towns, as Canandaigua, Geneva, Auburn, and Syracuse, have 
sprung up, to attest the salutary influence of cultivation. 

The center of this district is in latitude 43° ; the elevation of the marshes 
above the sea about three hundred and fifty feet ; that of much of the sur- 
rounding country from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet more. Let 
us inquire into the past and present state of autumnal health among its in- 
habitants. In 1792,| Doctor Coventry settled on the eastern bank of Seneca 
Lake, near its outlet, and opposite the new village of Geneva. The autumns 
of 1793 and 1794 were productive of a great amount of fever, which, how- 
ever, was not often fatal. In the village of Geneva, there was, in the autumn 
of one of the early years of its settlement, but a single person not down with 
fever. " In 1795 no rain fell either in June or July — the waters of the lakes 
lowered more than a foot — every little inlet became a seat of putrefaction — 
the heavens seemed on fire, the earth scorched, and the air saturated with 
pestilence — hogs were found dead in the woods, and the flies swelled, turned 
white, and laid in handfuls on the floors of the rooms. "§ In August, Doctor 
Coventry visited a family on the east bank of Cayuga Lake, where Aurora 

* New York Geological Report. f Ibid. 

t O'Reilly's Sketches of Rochester, 1838. § Ibid. 

26 



402 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

now stands. In one room lie found the mother a corpse, and in another, the 
father and two children were down with the fever of which she had expired; 
the symptoms of which, as described to him, resembled those of yellow fever. 

According to Doctor Ludlow,* this region was chiefly settled from 1791 to 
1804. From 1800 up to 1813 or 1814, intermittents and remittents pre- 
vailed every autumn, in all parts of the country ; but after that time, to the 
date of his publication, in 1823, they were less constant in their annual epi- 
demic recurrence. Of the year 1801, he says : "The diseases of spring and 
summer months were, principally, intermittent fevers, which prevailed through- 
out the country ; they were of the tertian type. None were exempt from 
them, except those who had undergone manyprevious attacks, without having 
taken any measures to interrupt their course. In September and October, 
remittents of a mild form appeared." 

In 1804, as Mr. Brownf wrote, the "Lake Fever" was of an intermittent 
type, and exceedingly prevalent, around the marshes of Oneida Lake. In the 
same year, President Dwight, on a tour through this region, says, in reference 
to its health: "The diseases which principally prevail here are the ague and 
fever, intermittents without ague, and bilious remittents. Fever and ague 
may be considered as nearly universal; almost all the inhabitants being 
sooner or later seized by it, within a few years after their emigration." 

Of the lake country generally, Doctor Reid, of Rochester, remarks, that in 
in its early settlement, intermittent and remittent fevers prevailed to such an 
extent, that it was regarded as a 'valley of bones/ a premature burying- 
place.J 

When at Auburn, Doctor Pitney, who had settled on Cayuga Lake as 
early as 1808, informed me, that there was then a great prevalence, over the 
whole of that country, of intermittents, quotidians, tertians, and quartans, — 
cases of which now and then assumed a malignant character. Remittents 
prevailed, also, but to a limited degree ; they continued to return annually, 
however, in an undiminished ratio, after intermittents had greatly abated. 

It appears from these testimonies, that marshes from three to four hun- 
dred feet above the level of the ocean, in latitude 43°, can generate a great 
annual prevalence of autumnal fever, often assuming a fatal character. We 
have seen, however, that the swamps of the Chautauque summit, at the hight 
of fourteen hundred feet, although a degree farther south, are innoxious. 
Such is the effect of elevation. When speaking of Fort Winnebago, west of 
Lake Michigan, it was stated, on the authority of our army surgeons, that 
autumnal fever is almost unknown at that post, though extensive marshes lie 
contiguous. The latitude of that post is 43° 31', its altitude eight hundred 
feet. Shall we ascribe the difference, in autumnal fever, between the two 
localities, to half a degree of latitude and four or five hundred feet of eleva- 
tion? There is no other obvious cause, as both were newly-settled regions; 

* Inaug. Disc. 1823 ; embodying the experience of Doctors McNab, Carter, and Van- 
derburg, of Geneva, and Doctor Hays, of Canandaigua. 

+ Med. and Phil. Register, Vol. IV. * O'Reilly's Sketches. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 403 

and yet the influence of altitude cannot be greater on the climate, than that 
of one degree of latitude ; whence we may conclude that the Montezuma 
marshes lie near the northern limits of autumnal fever, at the elevation of 
three or four hundred feet, and that if, at the same level, they had laid a 
degree and a half farther north, that is, on the opposite declivity of Lake 
Ontario, in latitude 44° 30', they would have been found comparatively 
harmless. 

Let us turn to the influence of settlement, cultivation, and town-building, 
on the autumnal health of the region under review. All accounts concur in 
representing it as of the most favorable kind. Both intermittents and re- 
mittents, it is true, still occur, but with greatly diminished frequency, in the 
most insalubrious localities ; while they have nearly disappeared from many 
places where they formerly prevailed every autumn. From General Swift 
and Professor Webster, who came in 1827 to Geneva, on the high and dry 
western bank of Seneca Lake ( where Doctor Coventry once saw all the 
inhabitants, except a single person, ill at the same time with fever ), I learned, 
that when they arrived, intermittents still prevailed to some extent, but have 
almost entirely disappeared ; a statement which was confirmed by Doctor 
Spencer, junior, of the same city, as far as it relates to the rarity of their 
occurrence at this time. At Auburn, Doctor Pitney assured me, that within 
the range of his practice, intermittents are incomparably fewer, than in 
former times ; remittents have also diminished in number, but not in the 
same ratio. From Doctor Briggs, of the same city, whose observations had 
been continued through a period of sixteen years, I learned that, for ten 
years after his arrival, in 1831, he did not see a case of intermittent ; but 
since the year 1840, a re-appearauce, to some extent, had taken place. Spo- 
radic remittents have occurred every autumn. The vicinity of the Monte- 
zuma swamps, as in early times, is still most infested. At Manlius, Doctor 
Nims assured me, that the neighborhood of the marshes is much less scourged 
than formerly, while the disease is almost unknown in more favored localities, 
where it once existed. By Doctor Hoyt, of Syracuse, the site of which, near 
the head of Onondaga Lake, was originally a portion of its bed, converted 
into a white cedar swamp, I learned that, when he arrived, in 1832, there 
was very little intermittent fever, but latterly it seemed to be increasing, At 
Salina, two miles down the lake from Syracuse, I was told by Doctor Daniels, 
who had resided there thirty-two years, that, in former times, autumnal fever 
was incomparably more prevalent than in latter years. These testimonies 
may be regarded as sufficient to show the amelioration produced by the hand 
of art ; but the perfect transformation of this region, although an easier task 
than if it lay farther south, will not be effected for a long time to come — 
perhaps never. 

It is proper to state, that the Erie Canal traverses the swamps, and the 
whole length of the district which has been described. Of the effects of this 
excavation on the health of the laborers, after the lapse of nearly thirty years, 
no reliable information can be obtained; nor am I able to say, whether the 
excavation or the filling of the canal with water, in other and more salubrious 



404 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

localities, was injurious to the inhabitants along its banks. From Doctor 
Trowbridge, of Syracuse, I learned, however, that, in the summer and au- 
tumn of 1846, intermittents prevailed generally along the canal, in its middle 
and western portions. Although most of the works of art, by which the 
wilderness is transformed into a settled and cultivated country, contribute, in 
the end, to its autumnal salubrity, it seems probable that canals do not. 

I have treated the lacustrine portion of the Oswego Basin as a whole, but 
must say something of a few localities. 

III. Syracuse and Salina. — The plain on which Syracuse is built, as 
the surrounding higher lands clearly indicate, was once covered by Onon- 
daga Lake. Its elevation above the sea is four hundred and twenty-five 
feet. When settlements were commenced, it was still a swamp, overgrown 
with white cedars. It is now transformed into dry land; but the part which 
lies nearest the head of the lake is still marshy, and the waters of that part of 
the lake are shallow. The plain lies to the south-east of the head of the 
lake. Onondaga Creek enters it from the same direction, and passes through 
the town, where a dam converts it into a pool. The Erie Canal traverses 
the center of the town, where it is joined by a canal from the town of Os- 
wego ; both of which are expanded into basins, in which a vast number of 
boats are always to be found. Syracuse is a great salt factory. The water 
is evaporated by solar heat, from wooden pans, on a vast scale, in the western 
and southern edge of the town, while to its north-west, beginning among its 
houses, an immense quantity is boiled down by wood fires. 

Salina is situated on the northern side of the lake, two miles north-west 
of Syracuse, on higher ground, but has the marshy borders of a creek to its 
north-west. Here, also, immense quantities of salt are manufactured by 
culinary heat. 

The etiological interest connected with these places ( as far as autumnal 
fever is concerned ) may be stated in the question, whether the manufacture 
of salt counteracts the influence of topographical conditions, in producing that 
form of fever? The effects of the manufacture on the atmosphere are two- 
fold ; first, by the liberation of a vast amount of caloric, and the generation 
of immense volumes of wood- smoke; second, the annual escape into the atmo- 
sphere of about two millions and a quarter of hogsheads of water in the form of 
vapor, carrying with it a minute quantity of salt. From all the information 
I could collect, autumnal fever has not diminished more in this locality than 
over the region generally, to which it belongs. Yet the testimony of Doctor 
Daniels and Lovejoy, and of Mr. Woodruff, salt inspector, the last of whom 
had resided in Salina forty-five years, was, that those who tend the furnaces and 
boilers, where they are immersed in a hot and humid saline atmosphere, suffer 
less from intermittent fever than those who, by their occupations, seldom 
come into the heated atmosphere. In visiting the pans for solar evaporation, 
on the western bank of Onondaga Creek, where the families of the tenders 
reside, I was told that their chief disease was intermittent fever. The con- 
clusion from these facts must be, that saline vapor does not counteract the 
cause of intermittent fever, but that culinary fire — a heated atmosphere — 



part, i.] INTERIOR- VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 405 

although it may "be humid, does exert a correcting influence. This, perhaps, 
is one reason why that disease disappears from the central parts of all our 
towns and cities, and suggests a preventive measure to those who live in 
marshy places. 

IV. Oswego. — This town, the largest on the southern coast of Lake Ontario, 
stands on both sides of the mouth of Oswego River, which approaches the lake 
with a bolder current than most of its tributaries. The estuary is bordered on 
both sides by high Silurian sandstone banks, overspread with drift. The 
town itself is built on two rocky slopes, which rise, on either side, from the 
water's edge to the hight of one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet. To 
the north-east, beyond the limits of town-settlement, there is a depression, 
which appears once to have been a swamp. On the shores of the lake there 
is no marsh. Fort Ontario stands on a bold promontory immediately below 
the junction of the river with the lake. Marsh-exhalation, at this place, 
seems to be at a minimum ; but the aqueous vapor abounds, for there is a 
canal, which supplies a vast number of mills with water, taken from the river 
above ; and their agitation of it promotes evaporation ; while the ceaseless 
dashing of the waves of the lake, against the rocky natural and artificial but- 
tresses of the harbor, contributes to the same result. If it be a fact, that 
paludal streams absorb poisonous gases, and give them out under mechanical 
agitation, no spot could be found where that liberation would more certainly 
take place; for this is the embouchure of the river which drains all the 
marshes of the region we have been surveying ; and those portions of its waters 
which escape agitation by the wheels of its numerous mills, are subjected to 
it as they enter the lake. The latitude of Oswego is about 43° 25' N. ; the 
elevation of the surface of the river, and that of the lake, two hundred and 
thirty-one feet above the sea; that of the town ranges from the water's edge 
up to three hundred feet above. A trading-house was established here, as 
far back as 1722 ; and, five years afterwards, a military post. Thus, the 
settlements here are of a much older date than those in the basin of Oswego 
River, and the soil has been exposed and stirred for a much longer period. 
Such a locality, in such a latitude, might be expected to be almost exempt 
from autumnal fever ; but that is not the case ; yet its prevalence, on the 
whole, is less than in the paludal region above — less, for example, than at 
Syracuse. The years 1828 and 1829 are remembered by Doctor Hart .and 
Doctor Hard as those of its greatest prevalence. The whole country was 
then affected. For the next fifteen years, it was only sporadic ; but from 
1844 to 1847, it became more prevalent. The sailors of the port are more 
subject to the intermittent form — the people of the town to the remittent. 



SECTION VI. 

BASIN OF BLACK RIVER. 
I. The coast of Lake Ontario, from Oswego River round to the St. Law- 
rence, is loamy, and sufficiently elevated to escape inundation from changes 



406 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

of level in the lake. The only stream of considerable length or volume is 
Black River, which enters the small bay on which it confers its name, at 
Sackett's Harbor. The sources of this river interlock with those of streams 
which flow into Oneida Lake, and into the Mohawk and Hudson Rivers. 
The Adirondack mountains limit the basin of this river to the east; the tri- 
butaries of the St. Lawrence to the north. The utmost sources of Black 
River are in a primitive formation; but lower ones are found in swamps, 
which impart to its waters the hue that has suggested its name. Other 
sources still, are in small lakes, lying on the plain which stretches from the 
base of the Adirondack Mountains to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence 
River. The river descends to the lake by a series of levels and precipices. 
Its alluvial grounds, after leaving the mountains, are broad. Its mean lati- 
tude is about 43° 45'. This part of the Ontario Basin is thinly peopled, 
and so little known that I can say nothing of its autumnal fevers 

II.. Sackett's Harbor, and Madison Barracks. — Both the town and 
barracks stand on a thinly covered, bed of old Silurian limestone, which, 
appeared to me nearly identical with that of Cincinnati. Black River enters 
the bay a short distance to their north. There are no marshes in the vicinity 
of either. The grounds around the garrison are so level, that they cannot 
be perfectly drained. The soil is dark, with much clay, and rests on a 
stratum of limestone, which is from one to three feet below the surface. 
The nature of the soil, and this superficial calcareous stratum, keep the im- 
mediate vicinity of the post, even after ordinary rains, boggy, and favoring 
terraqueous exhalation. The physical aspect of the surrounding country is 
waving and undulating. The soil is generally rich.* 

The returns from the post, for four years, show a prevalence of intermittent 
fever to the amount of twenty per cent, per annum, of remittent, three per cent. 
The last year of these returns was 1838. The next year, 1839, presented 
more autumnal fever than had been known previously ; and the people of the 
village suffered more than for twenty years before. The fever occurred, also, 
in the surrounding country. 

This is all that I can say of Sackett's Harbor; and with it we close the 
survey of the southern side of the basin of Lake Ontario, comprising western 
New York. In proceeding with the northern half, we shall return to the 
mouth of the Niagara River, anoVtravel round the lake to the outlet of the St. 
Lawrence, near which stands the town and barracks which have just been 
noticed. 



SECTION VII. 

COAST OF LAKE ONTARIO, FROM NIAGARA RIVER TO BURLING- 
TON BAY. 

I. The Mountain ridge through which the Niagara has cut its deep and 
narrow trough, from the Falls to Queenstown, is distant from the lake about 

* Medical Statistics U. S. Army. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 407 

seven miles ; but fifty miles to the west, at the head of Burlington Bay ( the 
western extremity of the lake ) it approaches much nearer. From this high- 
land range many short streams descend, and, traversing the lower belt between 
it and the lake, pour their torrents into that receptacle by estuaries, in which 
its agitated waters flow and ebb, and along which there are swampy regions. 
In general terms it may be said, however, that this portion of the lake coast, 
till we reach Burlington Bay, is less infested with swamps than some other 
parts. Its latitude is about 43° 15' N. ; its elevation above the sea, from 
two hundred and thirty-one to three hundred and fifty feet. In addition to 
the creeks which have been mentioned, it is traversed by the Welland Canal, 
which reaches the lake at Port Dalhousie. 

II. Niagara and Fort Mississaga. — The Canadian town of Niagara 
stands near the junction of the Niagara River with Lake Ontario, opposite 
the American Fort Niagara. The town faces on the river, but the fort is 
more immediately connected with the lake, over which the bank is so ele- 
vated, as not to be inundated by the highest swells of the lake ; but the soil 
is argillaceous, retentive of moisture, and, to the west of the town and fort, 
there is a considerable extent of swampy ground, particularly along Four 
Mile Creek.* The army returns do not instruct us as to the prevalence of 
autumnal fever in this locality ; but, as Niagara has been recommended as 
a place of summer resort, we may conclude that it is but little infested with 
that disease ; and this conclusion is supported by Doctor Melville, who in- 
forms me, that, after residing there a year, he had seen none of that fever, 
and was assured by the inhabitants, that both the village and its neighbor- 
hood have been, at all times, remarkably exempt. Niagara has been set- 
tled a long time ; and to this we may, perhaps, in part, ascribe its alleged 
autumnal salubrity. 

III. St. Catharine's. — This town, the population of which is three 
thousand five hundred, stands twelve miles west of Niagara, on the Welland 
Canal.f It belongs to the lower belt or level, but is distant several miles 
from the lake shore, and has the mountain ridge in its rear. From Doctor 
Mack, who has resided five years in this place, I learn that autumnal fever 
is more prevalent in the township of Grantham, of which St. Catharine's is 
the principal town, than in Niagara. " My experience at this place," says 
he, ' : extends through five years, during which, every autumn has been pro- 
ductive, in paludal spots, of a greater or less number of sporadic cases of 
intermittent and remittent fever, having a typhoid type. Once only, 1846, 
a mild remittent was epidemic. Between St. Catharine's and Niagara there 
is a long flat, on and near which there is generally a great deal of autumnal 
and vernal fever. The settlements along the immediate shores of the lake 
suffer every year with intermittent and remittent fevers and neuralgias. The 
Welland Canal, by its leakage, supplies moisture to favor the decomposition 
of organic matter. In one place it passes through a tamarack swamp, and 

* Tulloch's Statistics of the British Army, 
t Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



408 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

there the wretched laborers, and other inhabitants, exhibit a pallid and sallow 
hue of countenance ; the females are generally anemic ; and the latter end of 
September and beginning of October, always pass off with great mortality 
from typhoid affections. This has been the case, even when other parts of 
the country were quite healthy. Sometimes a violent dysentery prevails 
among the people living on the mountain ridge, while intermittents and re- 
mittents prevail in the lake belt below." 

IV. Burlington Bay : Hamilton : Dundas. — According to Doctor 
Bigsby,* Burlington Bay, constituting the western beak of Lake Ontario, is 
itself a small lake, communicating with Ontario by a creek running through 
a high sand reef. A canal has been dug through this bar. Around the 
extreme termination of the bay, there is an extensive marsh, through which 
the Desjardins Canal, five miles in length, extends up to the town of Dun- 
das; which stands in a cove, or retreating angle of the mountain ridge. The 
larger town of Hamilton, which was commenced in the year 1813, lies five 
miles from Dundas, on the south side of the bay. On account of a swampy 
margin, the principal part of the town stands a mile from the bay, in rising 
ground, closely embayed by the mountain ridge, which here ranges at the 
elevation of one hundred and fifty feet above the town.f To its east there 
are a few marshy inlets. By Doctor Craigie, of Hamilton, I am informed 
that Dundas, standing to the windward of the marsh, is healthier in summer 
and autumn than Hamilton, the sickliest portion of which is the western, 
which is most exposed to the swamp. By his meteorological observations, it 
appears that the westerly winds which waft the paludal exhalations from 
Dundas, and carry them over Hamilton, prevail about three hundred days 
every year. The type of fever is both intermittent and remittent. The lati- 
tude of this locality is about 43° 12' N. ; its elevation above Lake Ontario, 
from two hundred and thirty- one, up to two hundred and fifty feet. In ad- 
vancing westwarclly from the bay, we soon reach the Basin of Grand River, 
described in the last chapter. 



SECTION VIII. 

COAST AND BASIN OF LAKE ONTARIO, FROM BURLINGTON BAY TO 
THE VALLEY OF THE TRENT. 

I. The mountain ridge which presses so close on Burlington Bay, there 
leaves the lake, and, stretching off to the north, reaches the lower extremity 
of Georgian Bay, of Lake Huron. West of this ridge is the valley of 
Grand River of Lake Erie, already described. To the east, as far as the 
valley of the Trent, more than half the length of Lake Ontario, the northern 
basin of that lake is reduced to a width of thirty or forty miles ; and the lit- 
tle streams which traverse it to the lake, interlock in their origins with the 

* Topography and Geology of Lake Ontario, 
t Smith's Canadian Gazetteer. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 409 

waters of Lake Sinicoe, and the south-western tributaries of the Trent. 
Compared with its counterpart, on the south side of the Lake, which is the 
basin of Genesee River, this district has but little breadth. Its surface- 
geology is very remarkable. Starting from the lake shore, and exploring it 
directly north, the observer passes over a series of post-tertiary steppes or 
terraces, rising above each other, at unequal hights, and exhibiting various 
breadths of surface. In all, there are eleven ridges of this kind, and the last 
and highest is six hundred and eighty feet above Lake Ontario ; consequently, 
nine hundred and eleven above the sea. Beyond the summit-level, an ob- 
scure terracing of the same kind leads down to Lake Simcoe, the superfluous 
waters of which reach Lake Huron through the Severn, by a descent of one 
hundred and seventy feet, and consequently that lake has an altitude of 
seven hundred and forty- eight feet above the sea. The remarkable amphi- 
theater of natural benches which has been indicated, is composed of clay, 
sand, and gravel, supporting granitic bowlders from the north. On many of 
the terraces there are swamps, but large portions present a sandy soil, over- 
shadowed with pines, which, moreover, are sparsely scattered over every part. 
Several little rivers, or long creeks, cut through these terraces, and make 
their way to the lake, of which I may mention the Credit, Holland, Rouge, 
Humber, and Don. The rapid descent necessary to bring them from so high 
a level, in so short a distance, appears to have prevented the formation of 
wide and low bottoms. The latitude of this district extends from 43 Q 15' 
to 44° N.* Excluding, for the present, the lake shore, it may be stated that 
the region which has been so briefly sketched out, does not suffer much from 
autumnal diseases. Its being among the best settled portions of Canada 
West, is, of itself, an evidence in its favor, while its latitude, elevation, and 
sand-terrace, piny aspect, would suggest the same conclusion. It is not, 
however, wholly exempt from both intermittents and remittents, which, as 
Doctor Rees, of Toronto, informed me, occur more or less every year, up to 
the summit-level of the district, in latitude 44°, and at an elevation of nine 
hundred feet above the sea. 

II. The coast, from Burlington Bay to Toronto, a distance of forty miles, 
presents nothing very peculiar. Portions of the terrace are sandy, down to 
the water's edge, and bear pines ; but, as Doctor Nicol, of Toronto, informs 
me, the estuaries of Credit River, the Humber, and several smaller streams, 
are bordered with swamps, which, in summer and autumn, give origin to 
intermittent and remittent fevers, which sometimes become epidemic. The 
mean latitude of this coast is about 43° 20' N. 

III. City of Toronto. — The most populous and important eity on the 
northern, or, indeed, either coast of Lake Ontario, is Toronto, inN. Lat. 43° 
39' 4", and W. Lon. 79° 21' 5". Commencing near the level of the lake, 
at an elevation of two hundred and thirty-one feet, the plain on which the 
city is built rises gradually to the hight of one hundred and eight feet. The 

* Bigsby : Topography and Geology of Lake Ontario, — Lyell : Travels in North 
America.— Murray : Canadian Geological Reports. — Smith: Canad. Gaz. 



410 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [boor i. 

greater portion of the population reside at an elevation of about two hundred 
and fifty feet above the sea. Above the town, to the west, the immediate 
bank is higher, and also rises more rapidly from the water. On this part of 
the terrace, to the south-west of the center of the city, and near the lake, are 
the fort and barracks. A few miles further, in the same direction, to the 
summer and autumnal-windward, is the estuary of Etobicoke, a small river. 
To the north, a second terrace, twenty or thirty feet higher than the first, 
succeeds, and may be regarded as the second of the series of terraces just 
described. Adjacent to the city, to the north-east, are the low and swampy 
bottoms of the River Don ; which, however, are of no great extent. Imme- 
diately to the east, beyond the mouth of that little river, a sand-bar projects 
from the shore, to the south, and, curving round by the south-west, termi- 
nates in Gibraltar Point, below the town, thus forming the harbor. The 
surface of this bar rises but little above that of the lake, bears some grass 
and scattering trees, and has a number of small swamps and ponds, which lie 
to the south of the city. Several clocks project into the harbor, from two to 
four hundred feet, and present the usual aspect of filth and decaying wood. 
These accumulations are the greater, because the bar to the east prevents the 
movement of the waters in that direction by the westerly winds. In examin- 
ing portions of the town-plat, from which the trees had been recently cut 
down, I found the ground wet and boggy. Such is the medical topography 
of Toronto. Its settlement began under the name of Little York, near the 
close of the last century; 'but its present estimated population, twenty-five 
thousand, is the result of a rapid growth within the last few years; so that, 
in fact, it is still a new town, and the soil of its environs but in the process 
of transformation. Toronto seems at all times to have been subject to au- 
tumnal fever, especially in the intermittent form. More than thirty years 
ago, the population being about six hundred, when the ponds and swales of 
the plain on which the town was built were but partially dried up, and the 
vicinity was still in a state of nature, Doctor John Douglas, of the British 
army, found intermittent fever prevalent.* Doctor Taylor, surgeon of the 
81st Highland regiment, whom I saw in Quebec, was stationed for several 
years at this place, and during that time, a regiment arrived from England, 
of which a large proportion suffered from intermittent fever; while of another 
which came from the West Indies, nearly all escaped that disease; — a fact 
that deserves to be remembered. As to autumnal fever, at the present time, 
I learned from Doctor Rees, that both intermittent and remittents are com- 
mon, especially on, or contiguous to, the low grounds in the vicinity of the 
city, near the small rivers which have been mentioned. By Doctor Nicol I 
have been informed, "that both intermittent and remittent fevers are very 
prevalent in Toronto, and along the neighboring coast, especially near the 
mouths of the Don, the Etobicoke, the Humber, and the Credit Rivers, 
where there are extensive marshes. In spring and autumn, nearly one half 
the cases of disease relieved at the Dispensary, are intermittents. Both 

* Edinburgh Med. and Surg. Journal, Vol. XVI. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 411 

varieties of autumnal fever occur every year, but are much more prevalent in 
some years than others. They assume, at times, an epidemic character. 
Intermittens generally prevail more than remittents. Simple ague is most 
commonly met with — malignant in termittents are rare. The adynamic, or 
malignant form of remittent, is common near the mouths of the Humber and 
the Credit Rivers — in a less degree near that of the Don. It is called by 
the people the Lake-fever, and is often confounded with typhus. It is the 
most dangerous form of autumnal fever. On the steppes or terraces north 
of Toronto, inflammatory intermittents have prevailed to a considerable extent 
of late, where, formerly, intermittents in any form were by no means very com- 
mon. In many eases, the inflammatory excitement of some organs masks the 
true character of the disease." 

IV. The Coast, from Toronto to the embouchure of the River Trent. 
— At the distance of six or eight miles east from Toronto, there commences 
a tract of highlands, which rise from two hundred and fifty to three hundred 
feet above the lake. They are composed of drift, or post-tertiary materials, 
of the same kind with the terraces north of Toronto. Their summits, and 
the country in their rear, support pines. At their base, near the lake, there 
are extensive marshes, which extend up every little stream. These high 
bluffs at length decline into a bank of the same composition, from sixty to 
eighty feet in Light, which continues eastwarclly, and embays the new towns 
of Port Hope and Coburg, in the vicinities of which, as along the coast gene- 
rally, there are marshes.* The latitude of this coast is a little below 44°. 
I regret that I cannot state the extent to which it is infested with autumnal 
fever. 



SECTION IX. 

BASIN OF THE TRENT, AND THE BAY OF QUINTE. 

I. We have seen that the middle portion of the Southern Basin of Lake 
Ontario is essentially lacustrine — no less than eleven small lakes discharging 
their superfluous waters through the Oswego River. It is somewhat remark- 
able, that the corresponding locality on the opposite or northern side of 
Ontario, equally abounds in small lakes, which, by their confluence, form a 
river, the Trent, which, like the Oswego, takes an eastern direction. Unlike 
that river, however, it does not perforate the side of Ontario, but pours its 
waters into the head of a long, zigzag appendage of the lake, called the Bay 
of Quinte, which bears a relation to this lake, very like that of Green Bay to 
Lake Michigan, or Georgian Bay to Lake Huron. The axis of this bay and 
of the River Trent is the same, and, continued to the south-east, terminates 
in Lake Ontario, not far from the efflux of the River St. Lawrence. The 
same axis prolonged to the north-west, ends in the head or southern extre- 
mity of Georgian Bay; showing that the time was, when the latter might 

* Bigsby. 



412 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

have extended, or sent a river into Lake Ontario, near its lower end. 
Throughout its whole extent the Basin of the Trent is connected, on the 
south, with short streams, which flow directly to Lake Ontario ; on the north, 
with the tributaries of Ottawa River, which joins the St. Lawrence near 
Montreal. The larger of the lakes within the Trent or Quinte Basin, are 
Skugog, Balsam, Sturgeon, Pigeon, and Rice. The geological basis of this 
basin is Silurian limestone, and other rocks of that era ; but the surface is 
deeply overspread with drift, or post-tertiary deposits ; which, in some places, 
are arranged into steppes or terraces, but not so distinctly as in the region 
north of Toronto. 

According to Doctor Bigsby,* the River Trent flows rapidly over a shallow 
and rocky bottom, between high banks, through a beautiful country of steep 
hills and luxuriant valleys ; and, around the Bay of Quinte there are many 
bills and cliffs ; yet, as the same observer states, there are morasses. Some 
parts of the bay coast are marshy ; but it does not appear that the borders 
of the river and its tributaries, are particularly liable to inundation. Much 
of the soil is sandy, and supports an intermingled growth of pine and oak.f 
The whole basin is included between the forty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels 
of latitude — its mean elevation may be taken at four hundred feet above 
the sea. 

II. North of this basin there are low mountains, with primitive rocks, and 
the country, up to Hudson's Bay, is in a great degree uninhabited. Of the 
prevalence of autumnal fever within the basin, I can say but little, for want 
of information. Its hydrography suggests, that the topographical conditions 
requisite to the production of that fever in a lower latitude are not wanting; 
and the only specific account I have obtained, shows that the fever is not 
absent from the lower and southern part of the basin. Doctor Vanduyk, 
now of Oswego, New York, who resided ten years in the townships of Ernes- 
town and Thurlow, west of Kingston, and north of the Bay of Quinte, met 
with that fever every year ; and in 1828 it assumed something of an epidemic 
and even malignant character ; for he saw several cases of algid and sopo- 
rose intermittent. His latitude was 44° 10' — elevation above the sea about 
two hundred and fifty feet. Compared with Fort Howard, at the head of 
Green Bay, where the topography is highly favorable to the generation of 
autumnal fever, and yet it is almost absent, we are led to seek for the causes 
of the difference between that locality and this. They appear to be two — 
a difference of half a degree in latitude, that being in 44° 40' ; and of three 
hundred and fifty feet of altitude, that being five hundred and ninety feet 
above the sea. 



Phil. Mag. and Ann. of Phil., Vol. V. f Canad. Gaz. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 413 

SECTION X. 

KINGSTON. 

The old French fort, Frontenac, now the town of Kingston, was established 
nearly two hundred years ago. It stands in N. Lat. 44° 8', and W. Lon. 
76° 40', on the north, or left hank of the outlet of Lake Ontario, and, there- 
fore, at the head of the St. Lawrence River, on a slope which rises gradually 
from the water's edge to the hight of seventy feet, or three hundred above 
the sea. The basis of this slope is old Silurian limestone, which seems to be 
almost identical with that which forms the site of Nashville, Tennessee. We 
are here on the northern margin of the transition formations ; for immediately 
beyond Kingston, primitive rocks, in situ, make their appearance ; and, 
stretching in a zone from the north side of Lake Ontario across the St. Law- 
rence, form the Thousand Islands, and terminate in the granitic Adirondack 
Mountains of New York, west of Lake Champlain. Immediately east of the 
town lies the small Cataragui Bay, in which a little river of the same name, 
and the Rideau Canal, from Ottawa River, terminate. The water of this 
inlet is turbid. In one of its curves or indentations, on the north-eastern 
side of the town, I found it skirted with low, foul, alluvial ground. In the 
water there were several decaying docks ; and between, or near them, rafts 
of timber, on which weeds were growing. The water around was evidently 
the receptacle of a great deal of street, kitchen, and cellar filth, sent out from 
the numerous small and old houses, inhabited chiefly by poor Irish families, 
making up the mass of the population in that quarter of the town. This 
was the only source of insalubrious exhalation which I saw, in connection 
with the plat of the town ; which has but a slight covering of soil, and a de- 
clivity of its rocky surface, favorable to cleanliness. On the eastern side of 
the little bay there is a rocky promontory, one hundred and fifty feet high 
above the lake, on the extremity of which — once the site of old Fort Fron- 
tenac — now stands Fort Henry. A mile to the west of the town, a long 
narrow peninsula, called Point Frederick, stretches into the lake ; the ground 
in the vicinity of which is swampy, and the water around it shallow, stagnant, 
and muddy, with deposits of decaying vegetation.* 

Both intermittent and remittent fevers, but especially the former, prevail 
annually at Kingston. This is manifest from the returns of the British army ; 
but these diseases prevail less among the troops stationed in Fort Henry, than 
those which are quartered in the town, on the bank of the little bay which 
separates them. In a visit to his hospital, on the 8th of September, 1847, 
with Doctor Mcintosh, who had charge of one hundred and twenty artille- 
rists, five of the patients had intermittent fever, contracted in the town; and 
Doctor Mcintosh seemed familiar with the disease, as one annually occurring 
in 'Kingston. Doctors Sampson and Robinson, also, testified to the frequent 
occurrence of both forms of autumnal fever, among the citizens of the place. 

* Tullock's Stat. Rep. of the British Army. 



414 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Kingston, when compared with Jamestown, near Chautauque Lake, affords 
an instructive illustration of the influence of altitude in limiting autumnal 
fever. The topographical conditions, in reference to the production of that 
fever, are not materially different, and Jamestown is two degrees farther 
south ; yet, from its greater elevation of eleven hundred feet, it is almost 
entirely exempt. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE EASTERN, OR ST. LAWRENCE BASIN, 
CONCLUDED. 



SECTION I. 



THE RIVER ST. LAWRENCE, FROM LAKE ONTARIO TO THE ISLAND 

OF MONTREAL. 

I. The great natural canal, by which the superfluous water of all the 
lakes, with their confluent streams, over which we have passed, flows off to 
the Gulf of St. Lawrence, has its broad beginning in the northeastern 
corner of Lake Ontario, but a short distance below Kingston. For the dis- 
tance of about sixty miles its current is so gentle that it almost seems 
a mere arm of the lake. The "Thousand Islands" are found in this inter- 
mediate section, between the lake and the river proper. They are composed 
of granite and other primitive rocks. At length, the waters are collected 
into a single channel, and, moving with increased velocity, present the aspect 
of a true river ; which differs from most others in the Interior Valley, by the 
uniform elevation of its surface and the equally constant transparency of its 
waters. Its banks, consisting largely of drift or post-tertiary deposits, are 
sufficiently developed, and so firm as to be but little acted upon by its gen- 
tle current. In many places the stream divides and incloses portions of the 
bank, in the form of islands, which of course are not subject to inundation. 
The lower half of the distance to Montreal Island, affords many bold and 
impetuous rapids ; and above the island there are expansions of the stream, 
which have received the names of Lake St. Francis and Lake St. Louis; the 
shores of which, in some places, are low, alluvial, and marshy ; while along 
the river, generally, wherever a tributary enters, there is more or less of swamp. 
The affluent streams, however, are not numerous, and the whole are small. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 415 

II. Topography of the Country on the Southern side of thi3 
section of the St. Lawrence. — The basin or valley of the St. Lawrence, on 
its southern side, has no great breadth, and is terminated by the Adirondack 
Mountains of Northern New York, which maybe seen, as blue mounds in the 
horizon, in descending the river. These mountains constitute the culminating 
dome of the streams which flow into the St. Lawrence, on the north; into 
Lake Champlain, on the east; into the Hudson and Mohawk, on the south; 
and into Lake Ontario, on the west. The same mountains have numerous 
small lakes, at the hight of fifteen or eighteen hundred feet.* The streams 
which descend from them to the St. Lawrence are cold, transparent, and inha- 
bited by trout. The principal are the Oswegatchie, Indian, Kacket, Grass, St. 
Regis, and Salmon. Even these, however, are of moderate length and volume; 
for the belt of country which they traverse is narrow, compared with its length. 
They abound in falls and rapids. Some of them originate in swamps, which 
impart to their waters a darkish hue. The lower and flatter portions of this 
region are less lacustrine than the higher. Indian River expands into Black 
Lake near Ogdensburg, and then joins the Oswegatchie. Near the St. Law- 
rence the general aspect of this region is level, or terrace-like, and rolling, with 
tracts of woodless plain. It then becomes hilly, and at last mountainous. Its 
lower or northern extremity, constituting a sort of peninsula between the 
St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain, is chiefly a dead level, and but little 
elevated above the water. The underlying rock of this tract, in its 
southern part, is granite,— near the river, old quartzoze sandstone, and other 
transition rocks. The surface abounds in drift, or post-tertiary deposits, 
supporting granitic bowlders, which lie at the base of those mountains ; from 
which, in the opinion of Mr. Hall,f the erratic blocks of primitive rock, 
found in the south-west, down to the banks of the Ohio, were transported. 

III. Ogdensburg. — This is the most important town of the region we are 
surveying. Its position is immediately below or east of the mouth of the 
Oswegatchie River, on a high bank of the St. Lawrence, overspread with, or 
composed of, drift, resting on the oldest Silurian rocks, from which, near 
the town, the water falls, in reaching the St. Lawrence. On the opposite 
or western side of this little river, the bank, by two terraces, attains even a 
greater elevation than the plain on which the town is built, and has the 
same composition. Near the junction of the two rivers are several acres of 
alluvial ground, part of which is perpetually covered with water, while the 
whole is liable to inundation from floods in the Oswegatchie. A short dis- 
tance from its mouth, there is a dam, creating a pool, .in which a vast 
number of ' saw-logs,' floated from the interior, are constantly accumulated. 
From this pond, mill-races pass through the alluvial ground. 

Doctor Sherman came to Ogdensburg in 1825, when it was still a newly- 
settled locality, and found autumnal fever prevailing. In the following year 
it was universal, extending to both sides of the St. Lawrence, up and down 

* New York Geological Reports. 

f Geological Report of the State of New York; Second and Fourth. 



416 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the river; also, around Black Lake, which lies a few miles from the St. 
Lawrence, and along all the small streams, — invading, in a mitigated degree, 
even the highest and dryest ridges and terraces. In 1827 and 1828 it 
recurred, but with less violence; and then ceased until 1835 or 1836, when 
a slight invasion was experienced. Again it disappeared until 1845, when 
cases occurred, followed, in the two next years, by others. Its type was 
both intermittent and remittent — in the recent invasions the remittent form 
predominating. The testimony of Doctor Laughlin, who arrived in 1835, 
corroborates, as far as it goes back, that of Doctor Sherman. In 1846, he 
saw it occurring in surrounding localities, where it was said not to have 
appeared before. He had formerly lived twenty miles south-east of the St. 
Lawrence, in a broken country, where the fever did not occur. 

In comparing this locality with Green Bay, the latitude of both being 
44° 40' N., we find the topographical condition of the latter decidedly more 
fitted to produce autumnal fever than that of the former ; and yet the disease 
has prevailed to a far greater extent here than there ; a difference which 
may be referred, perhaps, to the difference of three hundred and fifty feet in 
their altitude. If we extend the comparison to Fort Winnebago, one degree 
and ten minutes south of Ogdensburg, but five hundred and seventy-five 
feet higher, the evidence is still more conclusive ; for, while the topographical 
circumstances at that post are more favorable to the origination of the fever, 
its prevalence is less. Again, when we compare Fort Snelling, at the junc- 
tion of the St. Peter's and the Mississippi, we have evidence of the same 
kind. That post is only thirteen minutes north of Ogdensburg, but five 
hundred and twenty feet more elevated, and autumnal fever occurs in the 
most limited degree only, notwithstanding the topography might favor its 
production. 

Of other localities within the region, the outlines of which have been 
sketched, I cannot speak, for want of information. 

IV. The Northern bank of the St. Lawrence, from the Lake to 
Montreal. — This is a long and very narrow belt, traversed by short and 
inconsiderable streams. Narrow as it is, however, it embraces a number of 
small lakes. The immediate bank of the upper part of this section of the 
river is high and dry, and does not, like the banks of the Ohio, decline from 
its margin, but becomes, in many places at least, still higher, as we go back 
from the river. Its geological constitution is the same as that of the region 
just described. 

V. Prescott. — The town of Prescott stands opposite Ogdensburg, in N. 
Lat. about 44° 45'. It is built on a limestone slope, its site inclining to the 
river, and well- drained. A mile in its rear there is a swamp now partly 
cultivated. Doctor Scott, who had resided many years in the town, declared 
to me, that intermittent fever had not originated either in the town or around 
the swamp. According to Doctor Sherman, of Ogdensburg, however, cases 
occurred here in 1826, when the disease assumed an epidemic character 
at Ogdensburg. Remittent fever, Doctor Scott informed me, now and then 
presents itself. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 417 

The first rapids of the St. Lawrence occur four or five miles "below Pres- 
cott and Ogdensburg. 



SECTION II. 

BASIN OF OTTAWA RIVER. 

I. Ottawa River, the largest tributary of the St. Lawrence, has its principal 
sources about N. Lat. 48° 30', and W. Lon. 76°, where they interlock with 
those of the lake and river Abbitibbe, of Hudson Bay. At first, it runs west 
of south for two hundred and fifty miles, when it enters Lake Temiscaming ; 
whence it sweeps to the south-east, through a region of lakes, ponds, swamps, 
and forests ; expanding, contracting, dividing, re-uniting, moving quietly on 
long levels, and descending in cataracts or rapids, until it joins the St. Law- 
rence at Montreal Island, after running a course of between six and seven 
hundred miles. It receives the waters of many tributaries, both from the 
north and the south, and may be said, in general terms, to drain all the north- 
ern and middle portions of the region between Montreal ana 1 Lake Superior, 
up to the waters of Hudson Bay. Its basin comprehends about eighty 
thousand square miles.* Above Lake Temiscaming, situate on an expan- 
sion of the river called Grand Lac, the Hudson Bay Company have a post ; 
and another on that lake in N. Lat. 47° 19', and W. Lon. 79° 31', at the 
altitude of six hundred and thirty feet above the sea. 

The Ottawa is to the St. Lawrence, in one respect, what the Alleghany is 
to the Ohio. It passes through pine forests, and most of the people who 
inhabit or labor on its banks, are engaged in the lumber trade. For about 
one-third of the distance from its mouth to its source — that is, as far up as 
the mouth of its largest tributary, the Madawaska, which flows from the 
south-west — it passes through a country tolerably well settled; beyond that 
point the settlements are thin, and, at length, cease altogether. In general, 
its banks are low, broad, alluvial, and subject to inundation. t 

H. Bytown, the only important town within the Ottawa Basin, stands 
,on the right bank of the river, at the distance of one hundred and five miles 
from its mouth. Adjoining the town there is a garrisoned fort. The eleva- 
tion of the river, below the falls, which are near the town, is one hundred and 
eight feet above the sea. There are here, in fact, two towns — the older, on 
lower ground, and the newer, a mile farther up the river, on a higher terrace. 
The fort stands between them, and a canal to Lake Ontario starts from 
between them. The population of Bytown is seven thousand. About one- 
third of the people of the lower town are Canadian French, the remainder 
chiefly Irish.J As this locality is near the latitude of 45° 30' N., I regret 
not being able to state in what degree it is affected by autumnal fever ; nor 

* Canadian Geolog. Survey. \ Smith's Canad. Gaz. 

t Martin's Brit. Col. 

27 



418 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

am I informed to what extent that fever prevails along the river above the 
town. 

III. The Rideau Canal. — This canal, which connects Bytown with 
Kingston, is largely a slack-water improvement of Rideau River, passing 
through the lake of that name and some others. " Thousands of acres of 
land have been flooded by the damming of the river to form the canal, and 
immense quantities of timber have been consequently destroyed. Great 
numbers of trees are still standing, dead, and surrounded by water, and give 
those portions of the banks of the canal a decayed, deserted, miserable ap- 
pearance."* From Doctor Nichol, of Perth, I learn that the region near the 
middle portion of this canal abounds in swamps and small lakes, with a pre- 
vailing sterility of surface. Its latitude is about 45°. Intermittent fever 
occurs every summer, and has been epidemic twice, in the years 1820 and 
1847. In the former, the healthy were not in sufficient number to look after 
the sick : in the latter, which occurred in harvest time, the prevalence of the 
fever was such as to interfere with the labors of the season. This is the first 
locality, in the latitude of 45°, in which we have met with such epidemics. 
Its elevation above the sea is probably about three hundred feet. Remittent 
fever is exceedingly rare, especially in its malignant or congestive form. 

IV. The Ottawa River, below Bytown. — Doctor McCullough, of Mon- 
treal, who resided ten years on the banks of this portion of the Ottawa, as- 
sured me that intermittents and remittents were unknown along the river, 
for a distance of more than thirty miles, over which his observations extended. 
Nevertheless, Doctor Calder, who resides at Lachine, Montreal Island, in- 
formed me that he had seen cases of intermittents from that river, but could 
not say in what part of its basin they were contracted. 



SECTION III. 

ISLAND AND CITY OF MONTREAL. 

I. The Island. — The map of the Island of Montreal ( PI. XVI) will 
render an extended description unnecessary. Much of its surface presents a 
low platform of pebbles, and other transported materials, resting on transi- 
tion limestone, and covered with productive soil, greatly incumbered, in many 
parts, with erratic blocks of primitive rock. There are, however, ridges, or 
coteaux, composed of transported materials, which rise to the Light of one 
hundred feet, or more, above the general level of the island. A plateau of 
this kind traverses the southern part of the island, running south-west and 
north-east, from near Lachine to the center of the city of Montreal. That 
part which penetrates the city, is, however, but a kind of isthmus, or narrow 
eape; for an excavation has been made by ancient currents, so as to form a 
hollow or valley through the north-west part of the city. In this depression 

* Smith's Canadian Gaz. 



PL. XV 




Irani Stavdy's Majj of Ccuuula 



Face p 41 B, 



C.Jk Fuller V&CEngr. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 419 

a small wet-weather stream still flows, and in former times there was, along 
it, a considerable extent of swampy ground, rendered foul by filth from the 
town. In looking from this terrace between Montreal and Lachine, to the 
south upon the lower platform through which a canal passes, several spots 
appear to be swaly. High diluvial terraces of the same kind are found on 
other parts of the island, but its coasts generally are low and flat, and those 
of its western extremity, above Lachine, are sometimes overflowed by floods 
in Ottawa River, or from the force of westerly winds acting on the waters of 
the Lake St. Louis, an expansion of the St. Lawrence. Lastly, in the rear 
of the city, stands the noted mountain of Montreal, the hight of which ac- 
cording to Captain Bayfield * is seven hundred and sixty feet above the 
river, and seven hundred and seventy-eight above the sea. This mountain 
is composed, in its lower parts, of old Silurian limestone, through which a 
great mass of green stone has been projected, and forms its upper part, which 
is divided into two summits.t 

Lachine is an old French village, formerly the emporium of the fur-traders 
and voyageurs. It stands on a low rocky shore, nine miles west of the city ; 
where there is an extensive basin to supply the canal, the bottom of which 
presents strata, changed from a horizontal to a nearly vertical position; an 
effect produced, no doubt, by the same force which threw up the green- 
stone of the mountain. Opposite the island, are the last rapids of the St. 
Lawrence. 

II. Montreal. — The city stands on the south side of the island, in Lat. 
45° 31' N., and Lon. 73° 34' W. It was settled by the French as far back 
as 1642; and came into the possession of Great Britain one hundred and 
twenty-one years afterward. Its population maybe estimated 'at thirty- 
five thousand, — composed of Canadian-French, Irish, English, and Scotch, 
with a few from Germany and the United States. 

Montreal is built on two terraces. The lower, lying next the river, pre- 
sents at its margin the finest permanent wharves, of any city in the Interior 
Valley. The upper, which is not many feet higher, has but little breadth, 
and in its rear there is a depression or hollow, in which a sluggish brook 
was originally skirted with narrow swamps. Immediately beyond it is the 
base of the mountain. The canal from Lachine enters the St. Lawrence 
through the edge of the city, to its south. For a long time after the settle- 
ment on this spot, much of the island, — even places within the limits of the 
town, — had not yet been subjected to those transformations which cultiva- 
tion and public hygienic labors effect. Thus, within the memory of the 
present inhabitants, as Professors Holmes and Hall informed me, the hollow, 
of which I have spoken, then in the rear of the town, but now almost in the 
heart of the city, was in a condition which occasioned intermittent fever ; a 
disease which at the present time is nearly unknown on the island. In tra- 
versing the fever wards of the Montreal General Hospital, with Professor 
Hall, on the 1st of September, 1847, I met, among the cases of continued 

* LyelPs Travels. f Ibid. 



420 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

fever, one which seemed to have an intermittent type, but found by inquiry, 
that the patient had lately sojourned at Oswego, in the State of New York. 
In examining the summer and autumnal reports of this Hospital, as pub- 
lished in the British American Journal, I find the same absence of this form 
of disease: one or two cases of intermittent — sixty, eighty, or ninety, of 
continued fever. At Lachine, some of the old inhabitants assured me that 
they never had intermittent fever, except when it was contracted up the St. 
Lawrence. Doctor Calder, in three years, had seen no case originating in 
that village. On the whole, we find that a paludal tract, such as has been 
described, may, in the latitude of 45 p 30', when near the level of the sea, 
give origin to intermittent fever. The transformation of that tract has 
nearly annihilated that type of autumnal disease ; but remittents, tending 
strongly to a continued form, still occasionally appear. 



SECTION IV. 

REGION SOUTH AND NORTH OF THE ST. LAWRENCE, BETWEEN 
MONTREAL AND QUEBEC. 

I. Basin oe Lake Champlain. — The long, deep, and narrow trough of 
Lake Champlain, lies nearly north and south, between the Adirondack 
Mountains of New York, on the west, and the Green Mountains, of Ver- 
mont, on the east. Its head, or southern extremity, is found about latitude 
43° 30' N., — its lower or northern end, a little above 45°, where it termi- 
nates in the Richelieu or Sorelle Eiver. The course of this river is, also, to 
the north ; which causes it to approach the St. Lawrence very obliquely — 
the direction of that river, below as above Montreal, being north-east. 
Their junction is at Fort Henry, below Montreal, a little above the latitude 
of 46°. The elevation of the surface of this lake, the lowest of any consid- 
erable size in the eastern or St. Lawrence basin, is ninety-three feet above 
the ocean, and one hundred and thirty-eight below Lake Ontario. Some 
portions of the chasm which constitutes its bed, are five hundred feet beneath 
the level of the sea. Lake George, having an axis nearly parallel to that of 
Champlain, is connected with its southern portion, and extends the Cham- 
plain basin down to the latitude of 43° 25', * which is the spot where the 
Great Interior Valley approaches nearest to the tide-water of the Atlantic 
Ocean, and where we find the greatest depression of the water-shed which 
divides them from each other. Throughout the southern half of Lake 
Champlain, on its western side, the Adirondacks press so close upon it, as 
greatly to limit its basin. The first considerable river originating on the 
northern slopes of those mountains, is the Au Sable ; the next is the Saranac, 
which enters the lake at Plattsburg. On the eastern side, beginning near 
the head of the lake, and traveling down, we meet with Poultney, Otter, 

* New York Geological Reports. 



part I.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 421 

Onion, and Mississique, which have their extreme sources on the flanks or 
among the summits of the Green Mountains of Vermont, where they inter- 
lock with tributaries of the Connecticut River. The Champlain basin is 
much wider on this side than the other. The three principal towns on Lake 
Champlain are Whitehall and Plattsburgh, in the State of New York, and 
Burlington, in Vermont. Of their liability to autumnal fever, or of its 
prevalence on the intervening lake shores, I am uninformed. 

II. Valley of the Richelieu. — The outlet of Lake Champlain, com- 
mencing in latitude 45°, terminates in the St. Lawrence, forty-five miles 
below Montreal, near latitude 46° ; thus traversing a degree of latitude, by 
a course eighty miles in length, and varying a little east of north. The 
narrow neck of land between Richelieu and the river into which it pours 
the superfluous waters of Lake Champlain, is mostly a dead level, with a 
surface rising but a few feet above the St. Lawrence. On the opposite or 
eastern side, the aspect is much the same. The country on each side is fer- 
tile, and has long been settled and cultivated. Something might be said, 
if I had adequate materials, of a few points : The Isle aux Noix, twelve 
miles from the lake, — the town of St. Johns, ten miles further down, — that 
of Chambly a few miles below, and that of Sorelle, at the junction of this 
river with the St. Lawrence. 

Isle aux Noix. — This islet is a quarter of a mile wide, and three quarters 
long. Its surface, composed of vegetable mold and alluvion, rises only four 
or five feet above the ordinary surface of the river, and much of it, there- 
fore, is liable to inundation, in the spring and in wet seasons. Much of the 
surrounding country to some distance from the river is low, swampy, and 
covered with cedar, hemlock, and pine. This island is the site of a British 
post.* The Army Statistics do not tell us whether intermittent fever pre- 
vails in this locality; but I am informed by Doctor G. W. Douglas, 
Quarantine Physician, at Gros Isle, and Professor Hall, of Montreal, that 
it does. 

Chambly. — I cannot give the medical topography of this spot, but Doctor 
Kimber, after a residence of twenty-seven years, informs me, that cases of 
autumnal fever are extremely rare ; and that when intermittents do occur, 
they are in persons who contracted them on the banks of Lake Champlain. 
He has never seen an intermittent that was generated in Chambly, or its 
neighborhood. Remittents are met with, now and then, but are almost lim- 
ited to individuals affected with sub-acute gastritis, or some other chronic 
ailment, or have been poorly fed and lodged. 

III. The ' Eastern Townships.' — The region directly east of the 
Richelieu has received this appellation. It is watered by several rivers, all 
of which, like that just mentioned, flow nearly from south to north, — having 
their sources at the base, or on the northern escarpments of the Green and 
White Mountains of Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. The most im- 
portant of these streams, beginning with that contiguous to the Richelieu, 

* Tulloch's Statistical Reports of the British Army. 



422 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are the Yamaska, which enters the Lake St. Peter, an expansion of the St. 
Lawrence ; the St. Francis, which originates largely in Lake Memphrema- 
gog, and joins the St. Peter below the last; the Nicollet, which enters the 
same lake, further down; the Becancour, which joins the St. Lawrence still 
further down ; lastly, the Chaudiere, which throws its waters to the level of 
that river by a remarkable cataract, in the neighborhood of Quebec. Most 
of this region lies between the latitudes of 45° and 46° 30' N. and the 
longitudes of 70° and 73° W. The surface of this region, generally, if we 
exclude the mountains which bound it to the south, is composed of a rich 
mold, resting on loam, with a sub-stratum of gravel, below which are forma- 
tions of primitive and transition rocks. In its southern part there are a 
number of small lakes, and along many of the streams there are tracts of 
alluvial bottom, some of which are prairies. In their descent from the 
mountain escarpments, the rivers abound in falls and rapids, but as they 
advance to the St. Lawrence their currents become sluggish, from the pre- 
vailing flatness of the country, which, however, is relieved by some insu- 
lated mountains. 

The whole region was originally covered with various kinds of forest trees ; 
but as a belt near the St. Lawrence was settled by the French, nearly two 
hundred years since, it now exhibits the aspect of an old country ; up some 
of the rivers, these settlements also extend for some distance, but the greater 
part of the eastern townships were settled by emigrants from Great Britain 
at a much later date ; and large portions are still covered with forest.* 

IV. Hatley. — I can say but little of the special medical topography of 
this region, having only seen it from the St. Lawrence. The town of Hat- 
ley, high up the St. Francis Biver, near Lake Memphremagog, is situate in 
Lat. 45° 12' N. From Doctor Gilbert, one of its physicians, I learn that 
" Autumnal fevers both intermittent and remittent are unknown within fifty 
miles of the place, except in persons arriving from the west." I have to 
regret that no notice of the topography of the region is included in his 
communication. 

V. Shores oe Lake St. Peter. — I am indebted to Doctor Von Iff- 
land, now of Beauport, near Quebec, for the following facts : About ten 
miles below the mouth of the river Bichelieu, on the south side of Lake St. 
Peter, there is a large tract of low marshy ground, frequently covered by 
inundations from the St. Lawrence, as well as by floods from heavy rains. 
There is in the soil abundance of organic matters. About the end of Au- 
gust, almost every year, from 1823 to 1826, when he resided there, remit- 
tent fever made its appearance, prevailing more or less, according to the 
character of the preceding spring and summer. When the spring was dry 
and the summer hot, so as to evaporate the waters of the ditches and marshes 
to dryness, the fever became epidemic, and continued until the copious rains 
of autumn re-filled those receptacles. Nearly all the cases which happened 
after frost occurred, took on the form of intermittents. 

* Martin : History of the British Colonies. Vol. III. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 403 

About five miles from this locality, to its south-west, there is a stream 
called Third River, which was choked up with decaying logs and brush, so 
that in freshets it overspread the adjacent level lands, and generated marshes. 
About the year 1823, five or six families settled in log cabins near the river 
at this spot, and began clearing the forest. In the first autumn every mem- 
ber of all the families sickened with intermittent fever ; but after the lapse 
of three years, when the necessary transformations were effected, the disease 
ceased so entirely that Doctor Yon Iffiand thinks no case has occurred since 
1826. The latitude of this spot is 46° N.— its altitude but a few feet 
above the level of the sea. 

VI. The Townships generally. — Doctor Douglas, of Gros Isle, writes 
to me as follows : — -" I have been informed by the old settlers in the eastern 
townships, that thirty years since (1818) intermittent fever was a common 
disease in the neighborhood of lakes and low grounds, though now it is 
unknown." 

I have given all the facts I have been able to collect, relative to autumnal 
fever, on the south-east side of that portion of the St. Lawrence, which ex- 
tends from Montreal to Quebec, and from the forty-fifth to near the forty- 
seventh parallel of latitude, at an elevation but little above the tide-water 
in the river. The conclusion from the whole seems to be, that in the pro- 
gress of settlement, clearing, and first cultivation, both intermittents and 
remittents prevailed, but have ceased; although topographical causes remain 
which would generate them, even to an epidemic degree, in a more southern 
climate. We must now pass to the north side of the river. 

VII. North side of the St. Lawrence. — The immediate bank of the 
river on its left-hand side, from Montreal until we come within twelve or 
fifteen miles of Quebec, like that of the right-hand side, is so depressed as 
to be but a few feet above the surface of the river. The low and level re- 
gion on this side is, however, much more limited than on the other. By 
terrace-like rises it becomes elevated into mountains, at the distance of 
thirty or forty miles. Of this region, Doctor Gilmour, of the town of 
Three Rivers, remarks, — " This part of Lower Canada is generally sandy; 
some districts are well watered by beautiful rivers; the inhabitants very 
poor, but healthy and long-lived. Intermittent and remittent fevers are 
scarcely known; I have never seen any but imported cases, or such as had 
suffered from previous attacks contracted out of the lower province." The 
region within which these observations were made stretches obliquely from 
the forty-sixth to the forty-seventh parallel, and, near the St. Lawrence, 
rises but a few feet above the level of the sea. 

The largest river which traverses this region is the St. Maurice, whose 
embouchure is formed into a delta, by two small islands which divide it into 
three channels, immediately above which is the old French town Trots 
Rivieres, now the ' Three Rivers' just mentioned, Its latitude is about 46° 
22' N. — its position equi-distant between Montreal and Quebec. 

VIII. The Eiver prom Montreal to Quebec. — The succession of 
rapids which begins near Prescott and Ogdensburg, terminates at or a little 



424 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

below Montreal- From that city to the head of tide-water, at the Three 
Kivers — mouth of the St. Maurice — the fall is only eighteen feet, much of 
which is in the expiring rapids below the city. Then follows a level, more 
than one hundred and fifty miles long, with banks rising but little above the 
surface of the water. This flat extends off from both sides of the river; 
but, as we have seen, much further on the southern than on the northern. In 
this stretch of the river we have the expansion — ten miles wide and twenty 
miles long — called Lake St. Peter. As we approach Quebec, the high- 
lands come in upon the river, which narrows, and no longer exhibits alluvial 
shores. Such are some of the facts which have suggested the opinion, that 
the region between the two cities was once a lake, and that the existing 
Lake St. Peter is all that remains of it. The low banks of this section of 
the St. Lawrence seem to have been at all times the favorite abode of the 
French, who still constitute the mass of their population. 



SECTION V. 

QUEBEC. 

I. The approach to this celebrated city {PI. XVII), the oldest in the Inte- 
rior Valley of North America, is signalized by rocky and rising banks, of 
which that on the left or northern side becomes almost perpendicular, and, at 
length, terminates in a bold promontory of old Silurian or transition rocks, 
rising from three hundred and thirty to three hundred and forty-five feet 
above the tide-water, whicb ebbs and flows at its base. This termination 
it effected by the junction with the St. Lawrence of the River St. Charles ; 
which bears a relation to the northern side of the head-land not unlike that 
of the greater river to its southern. The high extremity which overlooks 
the St. Lawrence is called Cape Diamond, and supports the citadel of the 
fortress, — for Quebec is a fortified city. From these hights, there is a gen- 
tle escarpment, up the promontory, to the plains of Abraham, and across it 
to the estuary of the St. Charles ; the final descent into which, however, is by 
a rocky precipice, to which the ramparts of the fortification conform. The 
plateau stretches westwardly between the two rivers, to the distance of eight 
or nine miles, when it is interrupted by a deep and broad depression, one 
end of which terminates in the trough of the St. Lawrence — the other, in 
that of the St. Charles. In ancient times there was, no doubt, a flow of 
water through this depression, from one river to the other, making an island 
of what is now a promontory. 

For four or five miles up the St. Lawrence from Cape Diamond, the river 
approaches so near the base of the precipice, that there is only room for a 
single narrow street or road, which, for a portion of the distance, is com- 
pactly built along — in some parts on one, in others on both sides. In the 
rear of these crowded habitations, are the Cliffs, from two to three hundred 



PL.XVII. 



1 (§ m is a 3 .<§ 



./.•/, '///"v '3o"ji:l.jo\}6'.30" 

J Citadel elevation Si. if! 
'> Wolfs Monument 
3 General Hospital 




Sta.vely's Jfu/> o/ 1 Ca.na-da 



CA.Fullev TJ.S.C. JSnar. 



* 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 425 

feet high, immediately in front of which, the river coves are overspread with 
rafts of timber, the great commercial staple of Quebec. 

As this slip of habitable shore passes round Cape Diamond, it widens ; and, 
at length, admits of another street, to which a third is added, before it reaches 
the junction of the St. Charles with the St. Lawrence. The squares, how- 
ever, are very small ; and the streets in general barely wide enough to permit 
carriages to pass each other. This is the Lower Town, which has the aspect 
and reality of a close and grotesque huddle of business and family houses, 
l which the most searching winds must fail to purify, and the filth from 
I which is cast into the river among the adjoining wharves. On turning the 
head-land, and entering the valley of the St. Charles, the belt widens into 
an alluvial bottom, in which there are many small squares, with wider 
streets, a better style of architecture, and less density of population. 

The Upper Town stands on the northern or St. Charles slope of the pro- 
montory, partly within and partly without the walls of the fortification. 
Portions of it have sufficient width of street, and houses in modern taste ; 
but the older parts are amorphous, compact, and strangulated. The St. 
Charles is an alluvial river, tortuous near the city, and expanding into an 
estuary; portions of which are daily laid bare by the ebbing of the tide. 
Beyond it, there are cultivated diluvial terraces. The opposite, or southern 
bank of the St. Lawrence, presents hills of considerable elevation. Imme- 
diately below the junction of the St. Charles, the river expands into a 
basin, which constitutes the harbor, into the south side of which point Levy 
projects, and on which there is a town. 

For one hundred and sixty years after its settlement by France, Quebec 
received but few immigrants from any other nation. In 1763 it passed into 
the hands of Great Britain. The emigration from France was then suc- 
ceeded by that from England, Scotland, and Ireland, which has continued 
ever since. A considerable military force has always been quartered in the 
city, and a large number of seamen are generally in its port. The popula- 
tion of the city and its suburbs amounted in 1844 to 32,876 — that of the 
county of Quebec, to 45,676, composed of the following classes : 



Natives of England, - 


1,598 


" Ireland, - 


7,267 


" Scotland, - 


981 


e< Canada, of French origin, 


27,698 


" " of British origin, 


7,734 


Continent of Europe, or otherwise, 


276 


United States, 


122 




45.676 



This table does not, however, give the proportions in the city, for the re- 
lative number of Canadian French in the country is greater than in town. 

II. Such is the medical topography of Quebec ; and it presents two locali- 
ties well-fitted to generate autumnal Jeyer ; — the coves of the St. Lawrence, 



* Cowan's Quebec Guide. 



426 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

with their macerating logs, and the estuary of the St. Charles. That fever, 
however, seems to be here unknown, as an original disease. Dr. Parant, 
one of the oldest and most observing of the French physicians, assured me 
that he had seen no case not contracted up the St. Lawrence. Dr. Morrin, 
after an experience of nearly thirty years, affirmed that autumnal fever, as an 
indigenous disease, was absolutely unknown ; and added, that those who 
came with intermittent fever from the country above, got well spontaneously. 
The late Dr. Racy, from a shorter course of observation, testified in the 
same terms. Dr. J. Douglas concurred in these statements, and added, that he 
had repeatedly seen persons attacked with intermittent fever, several months 
and even a year after they had visited localities in the south-west, where it 
was prevailing. Finally, the hospital reports, for 1826 and '27, as published 
in Tessier's " Quebec Medical Journal" confirm the statements of these gen- 
tlemen. 

In referring to the causes of this exemption, we must not forget that 
Quebec was settled in 1603 or '-4, and that autumnal fever is, especially, a 
disease of newly peopled countries. When it disappears, however, it is be- 
cause the topographical conditions on which it depends are removed. But 
although much of the country surrounding Quebec has long been cultivated, 
an entire abatement of those conditions has not taken place ; for the coves of 
the St. Lawrence could never have been in a worse condition than at pre- 
sent ; and the estuary of the St. Charles is still in a state to favor the pro- 
duction of that fever. We may conclude, then, that the absence from Que- 
bec of the fever, is, in part, attributable to its latitude, 46° 47' 30" north. 
The same, however, cannot be said of remittent fever, cases of which now 
and then occur, but invariably tend to a continued type. 



SECTION VI. 

ESTUARY OF THE ST. LAWRENCE. 

I. Taking the head of tide- water as the beginning of the estuary, it 
starts from the town of Three Rivers, at the mouth of the St. Maurice, 
eighty-four miles above Quebec. From that point to the island of Anti- 
costi, where the river St. Lawrence opens by two broad mouths into the Gulf 
of St. Lawrence, the distance is about four hundred and fifty miles. That 
island lies in the northern part of the Gulf. The latitude of its western end 
is 49° 52' 29" N., its longitude 64° 36' 54" W.* Thus its latitude is nearly 
the same with the sources of the Missouri river, which lie in longitude 112° 
W., making the breadth of the valley forty-eight degrees of longitude, 
or about two thousand two hundred miles on a straight line. 

It deserves to be noted, as illustrating the natural mechanism of the great 
intermontane valley, that an air-line from the island of Anticosti over the St. 

* Martin's Hist. Brit. Col. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 427 

Lawrence, Lake Ontario, and Lake Erie, strikes the Mississippi at the mouth 
of the Missouri river, without attaining a greater land- elevation than seven 
or eight hundred feet ; and, consequently, it follows, that one hundred miles 
above Fort Leavenworth, the Missouri river has sufficient elevation to pour 
its waters into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, instead of the Gulf of Mexico, 
thirty degrees further south. But we must return to the estuary. 

Immediately below Quebec the river divides, and, by re-uniting, forms the 
beautiful and long-cultivated Island of Orleans ; the northern side of which 
has marshy shores, but they are not aguish. Below this island, the river 
never contracts to its former limits, but gradually widens to the gulf. At 
Gros Isle, the quarantine station for the port of Quebec, thirty-two miles 
below the city, the water has a brackish taste, which, of course, increases as 
we descend ; and unites with the increasing width and depth, in giving to 
the estuary the character of a bay, or deeply penetrating arm of the sea. 

The popular belief that the Appalachian Mountains terminate when they 
reach the St. Lawrence below Quebec, is erroneous. They are only inter- 
rupted, and re- appear on its northern side. Thus the estuary of the river 
lies in a broad chasm of the mountain chain, the bottom of which, like that 
of the great lakes, is far below the level of the sea ; and, from the interior 
of the State of Alabama, to the inhospitable regions of Labrador, through 
twenty degrees of latitude, this is the only gap in the mountain chain, which 
sinks to the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. 

II. On the south side of the estuary, the high lands approach more or 
less closely to the river, as far down as Ccipe Gaspe, at the Gulf of St. Law- 
rence, where they terminate. Opposite Quebec, they reach the river, but 
not as mountains ; further down they recede, and leave a belt of settled and 
cultivated interval-land, in the county of L'Islet; to which several other 
belts, generally narrower, succeed; but the proportion of inhabitants, who 
are chiefly French, gets less and less as we descend. From the close prox- 
imity of the mountains, the rivers on this side of the St. Lawrence are all 
short, none equaling the Chaudiere and other tributaries of the great river, 
between Quebec and Montreal. 

I learn from Br. Marmette, who has resided nine years in the county of 
St. Thomas, thirty-three miles below Quebec, and practiced his profes- 
sion also in the parishes of Berthia and St. Pierre, that the length of 
coast with which he is familiar, is about eighteen or twenty miles, with a 
breadth of from one to eight. Near the river, in many places, the surface 
is flat, but it rises in the manner of an amphitheater, to the high hills or 
mountains, which are at the distance of a few miles, and at which the settle- 
ments terminate. The elevation is from twenty-five to two hundred feet 
above the level of the tide-water of the St. Lawrence ; but there are in the 
belt a number of hills, either wooded or cultivated. Two small rivers, hav- 
ing numerous tributaries, water the belt, which embraces but few marshes, 
and they are of limited extent. Several considerable tracts, however, are 
subject to inundation in the month of April; but the water is always pure, 
and flows off before the onset of summer, leaving a cultivable surface, some 



428 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

parts of which, converted into meadows, have "been ditched. The people 
of this district are chiefly employed in agriculture, and in getting out timber 
and stone for exportation. Dr. Marmette has never seen a case of inter- 
mittent fever that originated in the district, and does not "believe that it is 
ever produced below Quebec. 

Dr. Michaud, who has long resided further down the coast, at St. Louis de 
Kamouraska, about latitude 47° 31' north, informs me that within the basin 
and near the banks of the little river Ouelle, which traverses the belt between 
the mountains and the estuary of the St. Lawrence, there is a wet savanna 
or marsh, about five miles long and three broad, which abounds in vegetable 
matters in a state of decay. The belt presents many diluvial terraces. The 
population is chiefly agricultural. Of fourteen thousand and sixty- seven 
cases of disease, treated by him, but three were intermittent fever. Two 
of these patients had contracted the disease at a previous period in the 
United States, and the third had sojourned in a paludal situation in the 
States, ten years before he was seized with the disease in Kamouraska. In 
the conclusion of his letter, Dr. Michaud makes the following statement, 
which he believes to be true : " Neither intermittent nor remittent fever 
has ever originated in the vicinity of marshes situated between the forty- 
seventh and forty-ninth degrees of latitude, that is, from Quebec to the 
Gulf of St. Lawrence." 

It would seem, from the united testimony of the two gentlemen who have 
been quoted, that we have here, at the level of the sea, passed beyond the 
geographical limits of autumnal fever. 

III. The valley-land on the other or northern side of the estuary is still 
narrower, and the cultivation more limited. 

The first river below Quebec, is the Montmorenci, of no great length or 
volume, but remarkable for its falls, eight miles below the city. The next 
and by far the largest which enters the estuary is the 

Saguenay. — It joins the St. Lawrence, one hundred and forty miles below 
Quebec, and at its mouth has been sounded to the depth of two thousand 
feet, without finding bottom ; two miles up, its depth is eight hundred feet, 
and at the distance of nearly fifty miles, the sounding lead descends to the 
depth of three hundred feet. 

The rocky hills rise with exceeding steepness, on both sides of this river, 
to the hight of twelve or fifteen hundred feet. At length we reach the place 
where this river descends into this deep rocky chasm, by a series of ra- 
pids from Lake St. John, though its true and more distant sources are the 
water-shed between the St. Lawrence and Hudson Bay* Rugged as are 
the shores of the Saguenay, they are not without inhabitants, who might 
present to the medical inquirer, opportunities for ascertaining the character 
of autumnal diseases, in the latitude of 48°, at the level of the sea, though 
remote from its shores ; but I have not been able to acquire the requisite 
information. 



* Rep. of Com. for exploring the Saguenay, 1829. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 429 

Below the Saguenay there are other but lesser rivers, near the mouths of 
which, and around many small bays of the estuary, there are feeble settle- 
ments, concerning which nothing can at present be said, of interest to the 
etiologist. 

IV. The Gulf of St. Lawrence must receive a passing notice to com- 
plete our survey of this basin. As but one great river enters the Gulf of 
Mexico, so but' one enters the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and these great rivers 
have their waters interlocked, from the sources of the Alleghany and Gene- 
see, round to those of the Mississippi, and St. Louis of Lake Superior, a 
distance of more than one thousand miles. To the south-east, the Gulf of 
St. Lawrence opens into the Atlantic Ocean, by a broad strait ; to the north- 
east, into Davis Strait, by a narrower, called Belle Isle. Labrador lies to 
its north, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to its south-west and south, 
Breton Island to its south-east, and the great Island of Newfoundland to its 
east. Around this island, in front of the Gulf, lie the famous sub-marine 
shoals of Newfoundland, a moment's reference to which, I hope may be par- 
doned. If the reader will turn to the hydrographical map [PI. 7], he 
will see, that the course of the Lakes and the St. Lawrence, from the sources 
of the rivers which enter the western end of Lake Erie, is nearly north-east. 
If he will then carry his eye on the same'meridian, to Cape Florida and the 
Havana, he will perceive the origin of the Gulf Stream, and tracing it by 
the arrows, will find that its general course is to the ^banks of Newfound- 
land, and that the marine and continental rivers flow nearly parallel, yet 
slightly converged, being separated by the Appalachian mountains, and the 
plains connected with them. Still further, it has been shown, when treating 
of the Gulf of Mexico, that a part of the waters of the Mississippi are car- 
ried through the straits of Florida, and make a portion of the Gulf Stream. 
Thus different parts of a shower, falling near the center of the continent, 
notwithstanding they take nearly opposite directions, at last mingle over the 
banks of Newfoundland, carrying with them more or less of the surface, 
either in solution or suspension. Finally, if the reader will glance his eye 
upon Davis Strait he will perceive by the course of the arrows, that 
a current, which brings down icebergs from Baffin's Bay, sets, also, upon the 
banks of Newfoundland, and must transport thither more or less of the 
debris of the arctic regions of the continent. Thus, one terrestrial and two 
marine currents, meet over those sub-marine beds, and contribute to build 
them up from the depths of the ocean ; while the organic matter, thus trans- 
ported, attracts such shoals of fishes, as to render this spot the fishery of 
the world. Such is the magnificent system of hydrology, in which our great 
Interior Valley plays an important part. 



430 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 



SECTION VII. 

PARALLEL BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI AND ST. LAWRENCE RIVERS. 

I. The Mississippi flows nearly from north to south ; the St. Lawrence, 
originating in the same region, flows to the south-east, and then to the north- 
east, being turned by the flanks of the Appalachian Mountains. The 
sources and embouchure of the former are in the same meridians — of the 
latter in the same parallels : One is a river of latitudes, the other of longi- 
tudes. It results from these dissimilitudes — First, That the banks of the 
Mississippi will forever present diversities of organic life, both vegetable and 
animal, far exceeding the varieties offered by those of the St. Lawrence ; 
Second, That the diversities of disease along the former will always be more 
numerous and striking, than along the latter. 

II. "While the multiplied sources, primary and collateral, of the two rivers 
are found at nearly the same elevation above the sea, those of the Missis- 
sippi reach it by much longer routes than those of the St. Lawrence; and, 
descending by regularly inclined planes, present, in their course, but few la- 
custrine pools and cascades. On the other hand, the St. Lawrence is char- 
acterized, almost through its whole length, by reservoirs or lakes, rapids and 
cataracts, exceeding in number, beauty and sublimity, those of any other 
river of the continent. 

III. The quantity of water discharged, annually, by the Mississippi, is 
much less, in proportion to the area of its basin, than that discharged by the 
St. Lawrence ; which results from the following causes : First, But little 
rain, comparatively, falls on the western portions of the Mississippi basin ; 
Second, The deeper deposits of loose, diluvial materials, which bury up its 
rocky strata, permit more to sink into the earth; Third, Greater quantities 
escape upon the low and broad alluvial plains which border its rivers, than 
upon those of the St. Lawrence, much of which does not flow back, but is 
either evaporated or absorbed; Fourth, The higher heat of the climate 
through which the Mississippi flows, for half its entire course, favors greater 
evaporation than can take place from the St, Lawrence. This evaporation, 
on the lower Mississippi and the southern tributaries, continues in activity 
throughout the year, but in the basin of the St. Lawrence, it is almost sus- 
pended for one-third of that period. 

IV. The amount of drift-wood and softer vegetable matter, borne down to 
the sea, or lodged along its banks, by the Mississippi, is incomparably greater 
than that of the St. Lawrence; which results from the looser alluvial bot- 
toms, higher freshets, and more regular descent of that river and its tribu- 
taries ; and hence it follows, that while the former is thus making deposits 
in the sea, to be converted into coal, for the benefit of future ages, the latter 
will be found unfruitful in such benefactions. 

V. A still greater difference exists between these rivers, in the quantity 
of earthy matter which they transport to the sea. Many of the larger tri- 
butaries of the Mississippi, and that river itself, for its lower fourteen hun- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 431 

dred miles, are always turbid ; but the St. Lawrence, on the other band, is 
always transparent; and most of its affluents, even wben swollen, have 
less muddiness tban those of tbe Mississippi. This depends on two 
causes, — one geological, the other mechanical : First, The proportion of 
sandy and argillacious drift or diluvium, overspreading the basin of the Mis- 
sissippi, is greater than that of the St. Lawrence basin ; and it embraces ex- 
tensive friable deposits, tertiary and cretaceous ; Second, It abounds in soft 
shales and marls. On the other hand : First, The basin of the St. Law- 
rence presents a great predominance of hard primitive and transition, or old 
Silurian rocks, which undergo disintegration very slowly ; Second, The lakes 
into which the streams of that basin first pour their muddy waters, become 
the depositories of their silt, and decant clarified waters into the St. Law- 
rence. It has resulted from this, that while the Mississippi has filled up 
the bay, or arm of the gulf, which once projected far into the continent, and 
is now constructing a cape in the Grulf of Mexico, the St. Lawrence has 
made but little progress in that labor, and is still met by the tides nearly five 
hundred miles from its gulf. 

VI. In regard to the transportation of ice to the sea, the two rivers differ 
still more widely. The Mississippi carries none whatever, and is never fro- 
zen over, through the lower eight hundred miles of its course : the St. Law- 
rence, however, freezes every winter, and, below Lake Ontario, is obstructed 
with ice for one-third of the year. This ice destroys the equability of climate 
along the St. Lawrence. The breaking up begins in Lake Erie and the Ni- 
agara river, then in Lake Ontario, and, progressively, in the river below. 
By the rapid current in the Niagara and the St. Lawrence, the ice is carried 
down to the estuary, where it lodges, to a late period in spring, giving to its 
banks, at and beyond Quebec, a much tardier opening of vegetation, compared 
with that of the Island of Montreal, than would result from the differenoe 
of latitude. On the lower part of the Mississippi, where this disturbing in- 
fluence does not exist, the increment and decrement of heat are left to the 
joint influence of latitude and elevation. The annual range of the tempera- 
ture of the two rivers, in their lower sections, is not the same. In summer 
and autumn, the Mississippi and its tributaries, greatly reduced in volume, 
have the heat of their waters very much raised ; but the quantity of water 
in the St. Lawrence varies but little, and is nearly all derived from deep 
lakes ; hence its summer, compared with its winter heat, is much less than 
that of the Mississippi ; thus reversing, as we shall hereafter see, the law of 
mean atmospheric winter and summer temperature. 

VII. In their scenery, the lower portions of these great rivers differ as 
widely as in other characteristics. On the Mississippi, from Memphis to 
Baton Rouge, the voyager sees bluffs to his left hand, which gradually get 
lower and lower, until they disappear; and he finds himself in the midst of 
a swampy plain, which all along had met his eye, to the right. For two 
hundred and fifty miles he looks down upon this new creation of the waters, 
of which the highest ridges are the dykes which confine the river to its 
proper bed. They at length cease, and before his boat floats on the gulf, 



432 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

lie sees the agitation which it raises, drive the turbid waters of the river, 
over its low and sedgy banks, to mingle with the green tides of the sea. 
On the St. Lawrence, from Montreal to Quebec, there are also low banks, 
but higher lands in their rear, and blue mountain masses in the distance; 
which, as the voyager advances, approach the river, and embrace it more 
or less closely, to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The birches, maples, and 
larches, here represent the cotton-tree, liquid- amber, live oak, and cypress, 
with its dark silvery tresses of long moss ; orchards of plums and apples, 
are substituted for the peach, fig, and orange tree ; and fields of wheat, oats, 
peas, timothy, and potatoes, take the place of cotton, sugar, and rice 
plantations. 

VIII. By a single aspect, only, is the traveler on the Lower St. Law- 
rence, reminded of the Lower Mississippi. The depressed banks between 
Montreal and Quebec, like those through the ancient Delta of the Missis- 
sippi, above and below New Orleans, are the favorite abodes of the French. 
The ' habitant ' and the ' Creole, ' under the same national instinct, have 
placed their cottages in village-ranks, on the banks of their respective 
rivers, and cultivate long narrow parallelograms in their rear; but the 
verandahs, climbing roses, Camillas, and pomegranates, which decorate these 
humble dwellings in the south, are wanting on the rigorous shores of the 
north ; and by their absence, chiefly, is the voyager preserved from the de- 
lusion, that he is not within the Delta of the Mississippi, when his boat is 
rapidly moving on this portion of the St. Lawrence. 

IX. If these two rivers, with their respective geological accompaniments, 
had been placed respectively, in each other's geographical position, their 
medical histories would have been widely different from what they now are. 
The alluvial deposits of the Mississippi would, it is true, have carried au- 
tumnal fever, somewhat further north than we now find it ; but the greatest 
difference from the present state of health, would have been found in the 
south, where a mountain range, and the almost total absence of deposits of 
silt and organic matter, would have nearly precluded those fevers, which the 
burning sun of summer and autumn now quicken into annual prevalence. 



SECTION VIII. 

OF THE ST. LAWRENCE, AS A PLACE OF SUMMER RESORT FOR 

INVALIDS. 

When the invalid, in quest of a cooler and purer summer air, in connec- 
tion with exercise and recreation, arrives on the southern shores of Lake 
Erie, he may turn either to the north-west or north-east. In the former 
case, he will make the voyage upon the Upper Lakes, which has been al- 
ready described ; in the latter, he will visit the Niagara and St. Lawrence, 
with the lower lakes, Ontario and Champlain. 

As the Falls of Niagara fill every imagination, it is unnecessary to speak 
of their solemn, monotonous, and unequalled sublimity, which does not 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 433 

long sustain the deep emotion which, they at first inspire. It will be more 
profitable to point out to the inquiring and contemplative invalid certain 
objects, the examination of which cannot fail to interest and excite him. 
First, By a careful inspection of the rocks, he will discover the mode in 
which they are cut through, and the recession of the Falls has been effected. 
Second, By tracing the gravel banks which are found on both sides of the 
deep ravine, he will perceive, that a broad surface- stream (such as the river 
now is above the rapids) once flowed where the chasm has since been exca- 
vated. Third, He should visit the whirlpool on the Canada side, and 
trace the channel, now filled with drift and rubbish, by which the river, or a 
part of it, formerly reached Lake Ontario, near St. David's, several miles 
west of the present outlet.* Fourth, He should then ascend the hights of 
Queenston, which, though less amazing to his senses, will be found more 
suggestive to his mind, than the Falls themselves. By his side, the lower 
end of the dark and winding chasm, with the leaden-green waters, in deep 
but silent agitation, as they escape from their rocky imprisonment ; before him, 
broad sloping terrace, down which they are quickly gliding to the bosom of 
Lake Ontario ; on every side, the signs that the waves of the lake once 
dashed against the cliffs, from which he now sees them, at the distance of 
many miles, and that the Niagara, at seme remote period, threw down its 
torrents from the very summit on which he is meditating. Thus planted, 
as it were, at the beginning, in both time and place, of two mighty events — 
the retreat of the Lake and the recession of the Falls — he will soon feel that 
the pleasures of sense are superficial and fleeting, compared with the deep 
and bewildering emotions, which arise from a contemplation of the powers 
by which changes so mighty have been brought forth. But a sojourn of an 
hour will not raise these discursive and lofty meditations. He should linger 
for a day, cross the river, look up the black gorge from which it is issuing, 
ascend the hights of Lewiston, and then descend, and wander among the vast 
fragments of fallen rock, which in ages long passed, were polished by the 
dashing waters of the Lake. Thus will his mind be roused into action, and 
come at length to apprehend the magnitude of the problems which nature 
here presents for solution. 

When the invalid has embarked on Lake Ontario, he should descend by 
its northern coast, and spend a day, or more, at Hamilton, Toronto, and 
Kingston ; where, in the absence of natural scenery of a striking character, 
he will find novelties in art and society, which will stimulate his senses and 
mind, in a different way from the wild grandeur of Niagara ; and thus, by a 
new agency, extend the salutary impression there made. 

At Kingston he will reembark for the St. Lawrence, and his first stopping- 
place should be Ogdensburg, on the American side. The voyage will be 
through the Thousand Islands. The elements of this landscape are a broad 
plain, overspread with water, sending up through its surface masses and 
groups of granite, and other primitive rocks, bare and weathered on their 

* Hall and Lyell. 
28 



434 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

low summits, or lightly covered with soil, supporting stunted pines, oaks, and 
maples. He has now exchanged the sublimities of Niagara for the beau- 
ties of the St. Lawrence, and a corresponding change will take place in his 
emotions. Among the Islands, and below, to Ogdensburg, the current of the 
river is slow and unruffled. A few miles further down, the first rapids 
begin, and thence to the Island of Montreal the mingled grandeur and 
beauty of the voyage raise it above any other of equal length, in the trav- 
eled portions of the continent. Everywhere the banks have an aspect of 
stability, and govern the river, not existing at its mercy like those of the 
Mississippi. Now they approach, and now they are widely separated by an 
island ; here is a stretch of gentle current, and there a frightful cascade, in 
which the light-green and limpid waters are dashed into white foam, as they 
rush furiously down the rocky slope, to repose in some broad basin, with 
grassy margins, and prepare themselves, as it were, for a new descent. Fi- 
nally, the blue summits of the mountains which overshadow Lake Cham- 
plain, and afterward those of Canada East, begin to peer above the hori- 
zon, and by the solemn quietness of their aspect, mingle a new emotion with 
those which the river had awakened. 

A day on the Island of Montreal, is the fashionable allotment ; but a 
week will not exhaust the sources of interest to an inquiring invalid ; who 
can there command every comfort, while he substitutes the novelties of its 
social condition for those of natural scenery, in a higher latitude than he can 
reach in the valley of the Mississippi. 

The voyage to Quebec will bring only repose of feeling. He is now on 
tide-water ; the rapids are at an end, the river widens, and at length expands 
into the beautiful Lake St. Peter, then contracts : its course is straight, its 
banks so low, as barely to rise above the high tides, and so thickly over- 
spread with the cottages of the 'Habitants? and the more ambitious dwell- 
ings of the Seigneurs, that, but for the perfect transparency of the waters 
they inclose, he might fancy himself on the Lower Mississippi. 

A week at Quebec will not exhaust the curiosities of nature and art in 
which it abounds, nor bring into existence all the historical recollections 
which it can awaken. Cape Diamond and its citadel — streets with dwell- 
ings on one side, and batteries bristling with cannon on the other - — embra- 
zures and windows in juxta-position — long ranges of steps from the Lower 
to the Upper town — gates guarded by sentinels — soldiers, sailors, and cit- 
izens, mingled on the same narrow pavement — dogs as well as ponies in 
harness, and drawing their little wagons through the streets — French and 
English signs in alternation, on the doors, and the dialects of the two na- 
tions, blended within. Thus the foreign invalid, or hypochondriac, may 
absorb something through every pore, to change the condition of his nervous 
system. But, escaping from the city, he may drive over the elevated plains 
of Abraham; then, at the distance of nine miles, visit Lorette, and see a 
remnant of the oldest civilized Indians of the continent ; then, at an equal 
distance, devote a day to the celebrated Falls of Montmorenci; and, on 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 435 

another, feast his eyes on those of the river Chaudiere, with its wild, roman- 
tic scenery. 

Quebec is the ultima thule of those who make hasty voyages, for idle 
amusement, or from mere restlessness; but as I am writing for the benefit 
of invalids, who need the invigorating influence of a cool summer climate, in 
connection with exercise and new scenes and objects, I shall add, that the 
voyage, when practicable, should be continued beyond Quebec, to the Riviere 
du Loup, at the distance of one hundred and twenty miles, or even to the 
Saguenay, thirty miles further down. The great breadth of the estuary, 
now become a bay, the mountain scenery on both sides, and the coolness of 
the climate, in a higher latitude than the utmost sources of the Mississippi, 
would greatly add to the benefits which a southern valetudinary might 
promise himself from travels in the north. 

Returning to Montreal, he should not ascend the St. Lawrence any higher, 
but cross by rail-road to Lake Champlain, whose grand and picturesque 
scenery may still interest him, if he have not become cloyed by the natural 
wonders of the Niagara and St. Lawrence. At the end of this voyage, he 
may rest at Saratoga, and, then, either descend the Atlantic plain, and visit 
the cities of the sea-board ; or, turning to the west, make his first stopping- 
place at Syracuse, where the extensive salines will present a new object of 
interest. From that town he may make a short canal voyage through the 
beautiful Oswego Valley, which presents several objects of interest, to the 
town of that name, and there embark for Rochester; or he may continue 
from Syracuse, by land, and visit the beautiful serpentine lakes of western 
New York, reaching the city of Rochester by rail-road. Having gratified 
his curiosity, by the various views which may be had of the Falls by which 
the Genesee River descends nearly three hundred feet in three miles, he may 
either proceed to Buffalo, by Niagara, or ascend the Genesee River, and 
visiting its upper and still grander cascades, traverse the mountain plain to 
Chautauque Lake, and thence descend to Dunkirk, on the southern shore of 
Lake Erie. 

Conclusion. — The topography of the St. Lawrence or Eastern basin is 
now closed, but not completed. If, in its progress and at its end, some 
pages have been devoted to places of hot -weather residence, or routes of 
summer travel, for the victims of our southern climates, or the invalids of 
our numerous cities, my brethren, on reflection, will, I trust, approve rather 
than condemn the object. Nearly all the settled portions of the southern or 
Mexican basin are comparatively flat and uniform, without lakes or moun- 
tains, and deficient in running streams and water-falls. The basin of the 
St. Lawrence is its north, and opens to its invalids, in hot weather, a re- 
treat which they cannot have in any other direction ; for the southern por- 
tions of the Appalachian Mountains are too inaccessible, and the Rocky 
Mountains too remote. It is not sufficient for the physician to advise his 
patient, laboring under a chronic infirmity, to leave off medicine and de- 
pend on travel. When he prescribes the former, he directs where it can 
be obtained; and, in like manner, when he recommends the latter, he 



436 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

should be able to lay down the appropriate and practicable route ; in doing 
which, he should draw his information from the books of his profession, 
and convince his patient that he is familiar with what he recommends, or 
but little confidence will be reposed in his advice. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE HUDSON AND ARCTIC HYDRO GRAPHICAL BASINS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

The Mexican and St. Lawrence Hydrographical Basins, include nearly all 
the white or Caucasian population of the Interior Valley of North America ; 
but its medical topography would be incomplete, and imperfect, even in ref- 
erence to the diseases of those basins, if some general geographical and hy- 
drographical views were not taken of the more desolate and unpeopled re- 
gions which lie to their north, and are quite equal in area to those which have 
been described. The Hudson Basin, moreover, at one point of its southern 
border — the sources of Red River — dips into the Mexican as low as the lati- 
tude of 45° 30'; thus bringing a part of the northern basins within the 
limits of prospective settlement and cultivation. The value of a study of 
the physical geography and meteorology of the northern regions may be con- 
cisely presented under the following heads : 

I. It is an admitted fact, that if the Rocky Mountains, and other Alpine 
ranges, which lie to the west of the Mexican and St. Lawrence Basins, did 
not exist, but the great plain which they now subtend stretched out to the 
Pacific Ocean, our climates would be entirely different from what they now 
are ; and hence it follows, that he who would understand the latter, must be 
aware of the existence of the former. If this be true, — and it cannot be 
denied — it is obvious that the meteorologist should know whether the north- 
ern regions are a flat, or overspread with mountain chains. 

II. In tracing out the combined and separate influence of soil and climate 
on our diseases, it is necessary to examine them to the very limits of the 
continent, in the north, or until they cease from climatic changes. 

III. The Northern Basins embrace many tribes of Indians, whose physi- 
ology and diseases are to become subjects of study, in the closing part of 
our work. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 487 

IV. In the extreme north there are permanent settlements of Esqui- 
maux, a different race from the Indians, the study of whose constitutions 
and maladies, under the remarkable circumstances in which they live, cannot 
be without interest. 

V, Both the Hudson and Arctic Basins have been explored by so many 
Europeans and Americans, that many valuable observations have been 
made, on the effects of long- continued, intense cold, on the constitutions of 
the Caucasian races, thus represented in those frigid and dreary regions ; all 
of which stand in curious and striking contrast with the effects of the high 
and prolonged heat of the tropical regions around the Gulf of Mexico. 

A topography of the north is not necessary, however, to the developments 
here indicated ; and I shall limit myself to such comprehensive geographical 
and hydrographical views, as may be condensed into a single chapter, be- 
ginning with the Hudson Basin, which lies immediately north of the two 
which have been described.* 



SECTION I. 

THE HUDSON HYDROGRPHICAL BASIN. 

I. The Bay. — A large portion of this basin is overspread with the in- 
land sea, absurdly called Hudson's Bay, which lies a little to the north-east 
of its center. In figure it resembles the transverse vertical section of a 
mountain. Its base lies nearly in the seventy-ninth meridian, while its apex 
reaches to the ninety-fifth. The sixtieth parallel of north latitude passes 
through its center. Its southern extremity, called James' Bay, sinks to the 
fifty-first degree of latitude, and the opposite rises to the arctic circle. Its 
area is nearly the same with that of the Gulf of Mexico, from which, how- 
ever, must be deducted the large Island of Southampton, lying in its north- 
ern part, in mean latitude 63°, opposite the entrance of Hudson's Straits, 
which connect the bay with Davis' Straits and the Atlantic Ocean. The 
surface of this bay is so obstructed with ice, as to render its navigation im- 
practicable eight months out of every twelve. Even in July and August, 
Parry and Franklin found the straits which lead to it embarrassed with ice- 
bergs; and in its northern regions, great fields of floating ice frequently 

* For the principal facts of this chapter, I am indebted to the following works, to 
which I shall seldom refer specially in the text, after having cited them here : — 
Hearne's Overland Journey to the Polar Sea, 1769 — 1772. Mackenzie's Voyage 
down McKenzie's River to the same sea, 1789. Parry's First Voys-.ge through Baffin's 
Bay, 1819—1820. His Second, 1822—1823. His Third, 1822—1825. Franklin's 
First Overland Journey from Hudson's Bay to the Polar Sea, 1820—1823. His Second 
from Lake Superior to the same sea, 1822 — 1823. Richardson's Narrative of his 
Travels with Franklin, and several of his papers on the geology, zoology, botany, cli- 
mate and inhabitants of the arctic regions of America. Long's Second Expedition, to 
Lake Winnipeg, 1823. Ross's Second Voyage through Baffin's Bay, 1829—1833. 
Back's Arctic Land Expedition, 1833— 1835. 



438 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

inclosed the ships of the former, as they had previously done those of other 
navigators. During winter, this ice is everywhere accumulated on its inhos- 
pitable shores, which, even on its southern side, remain frozen to rocky hard- 
ness, throughout the longest summers, at the depth of three or four feet he- 
low the surface. In some parts the coasts are bold and rocky ; in others, 
low and swampy, like those of the Gulf of Mexico ; — and this, according 
to Doctor Richardson, is especially true of those which lie farthest south. 

Although Hudson's Bay was discovered by the intrepid but unfortunate 
English navigator whose name it bears, as early as 1610, its desolate shores 
have but few civilized inhabitants, except the officers, voyageurs, and trap- 
pers of the United Hudson's Bay and North West Fur Companies. They 
reside or congregate at a few factories, chiefly near the mouths of rivers, on 
the southern coast, from the mouth of Nelson's River to the head of James' 
Bay, where there are some limited settlements of a more permanent kind. 
This failure in the colonization of the shores of a sea, which correspond in 
latitude with those of the Baltic, where we find the large cities of Stock- 
holm, Copenhagen, and St. Petersburg, will cease to excite surprise, when 
we reflect on the physical condition which has been described ; and as this 
condition is permanent, the colonization of these coasts must forever remain 
extremely limited. 

II. General Hydrography of the Basin. — A single glance at the 
map ( PI. I), will disclose the hydrology of this basin. Small lakes abound 
everywhere, except in the south-west. To the east, in the direction of Da- 
vis' Straits, and to the south-east and south, toward the St. Lawrence and 
its parent lakes, the country is, in fact, essentially lacustrine. From the 
north-west side of Lake Superior, a chain of small lakes, connected by Win- 
nipeg River, extends north-westwardly to Lake Winnipeg, the largest lake 
within the basin. Beyond it, in the same direction, the lacustrine zone 
continues, until the basin is traversed from south-east to north-west. 
South-west of this chain the number lessens ; but to its north-east they 
abound, quite to the shores of the great bay. All these lakes are either 
the sources, expansions, or receptacles of rivers, which finally mingle their 
fresh waters with the briny tides of the bay. Of these rivers, beginning in 
the east, the principal are, East Main, Rupert, Abbitibbe, and Albany; 
which, originating in the water- shed that separates the St. Lawrence and 
the Great Lakes of that basin frOm the Hudson, discharge themselves into 
James' Bay. Then follow, in advancing westwardly, the Severn, Hayes', 
Nelson, and Churchill Rivers, which pour their more copious torrents, inclu- 
ding the overflows of Lake Winnipeg, into the southern side of the bay. 
Further north, is an extensive group of small lakes, having their outlet 
through a short river, into the head of Chesterfield inlet, a long, narrow 
arm of the bay, lying nearly in latitude 63°. Of the region in the north, 
between the bay and the polar seas, but little is accurately known, except 
that they abound in ice, and are frightfully desolate. From this rapid 
hydrographical survey, we perceive, that the Hudson Basin, with the excep- 
tion of its extreme south-west, presents a vast extent of watery surface, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 439 

which for more than half the year is bridged over with ice, sometimes ten or 
twelve feet thick. 

III. Physical Geography of the Basin, north-east of the chain 
of Lakes which includes Lake Winnipeg. — This, which is the larger 
portion of the basin, includes the bay. Its rocks are chiefly, if not entirely, 
primitive. The covering of soil is thin and infertile. The annual vegeta- 
tion is scanty, but advances rapidly during the short summers. The patches 
of thin forest are composed largely of terebinthinate trees, with oaks, ma- 
ples, poplars, birches, and willows, generally of stunted size. It probably 
has no mountains which rise to the altitude of two thousand feet, except 
they should lie on its eastern margin near the Labrador coast. Its north- 
west and north includes a part of the " Barren Ground," of which something 
will be said in the next section. The variety of its resident quadrupeds is 
not great ; the bison is not found within six hundred miles of the bay, and 
perhaps does not inhabit this portion of the basin ; moose and reindeer 
abound; grallic and graminivorous birds migrate in winter; in summer, 
the birds of the south, especially the water-fowl, arrive in great numbers, to 
hatch and rear their young.* 

The northern shores of Hudson's Bay are thinly inhabited by Esquimaux. 
Scattering hordes of Indians inhabit the regions south and south-east of 
the bay. The fur companies have establishments at the mouth of Churchill 
River, Hayes' Biver, Albany Biver, Moose Biver, and Bupert's Biver, also 
at the outlet of Lake Winnipeg, and a few other places ; but there is no 
European colony. It need scarcely be stated that autumnal fever does not 
occur anywhere in this half of the basin we are now exploring. 

IY. Begions south and west of Lake Winnipeg. — It is agreeable 
to turn from a region so desolate, to one which displays a very different 
character. Its limits, to the north, are the water-shed which divides the 
Saskatchawan, of Lake Winnipeg, from the Athabasca, of the Arctic basin ; 
to the west, the Bocky Mountains ; to the south, the sources of the Mis- 
souri, Mississippi, and St. Lawrence. Its area is equal to five or six of the 
larger states of the Valley of the Mississippi. Its chief rivers are the Sas- 
katchawan, which flows from the slopes of the Bocky Mountains, eastwardly 
to Lake Winnipeg ; Bed Biver, which flows to the north, from the water- 
shed which separates it from the Mississippi; and the Assiniboin, which 
drains the country between them, and joins Bed Biver, just before the latter 
pours its waters into the lake. The region we are now in, has everywhere 
a sub-stratum of secondary rocks, and its surface is smoothed down into 
plains, which are, in fact, a continuation, to the north, of those traversed by 
the Missouri Biver. The trees are chiefly found along the streams; the 
short grass supports buffalo and other quadrupeds; the streams are fre- 
quented by the fur-animals ; and the tribes of Indians are more populous 
than in the other portions of the Hudson Basin. After these general no- 
tices, it will be proper to give a minuter account of some portions. 



* Richardson. 



440 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Y. Valley of Red River. — The best topographical account of this 
valley, is that given by Colonel Long,* who describes the river as originating 
in part, on the same plateau with the Mississippi, in part on the high plain 
north of the Coteau des Prairies, and, partly, in the intervening depression, 
where it interlocks with the St. Peter's. Its length is about five hundred 
miles, but the plain over which it flows is so little inclined to the north, that 
its current is gentle, and its bed exceedingly tortuous. It has no falls, and 
its junction with Lake Winnipeg is by a broad, marshy estuary, overspread 
with aquatic grasses. Throughout its whole course, the banks are low, and 
unsupported in the rear by hills ; its bed is, in fact, a mere trench, dug 
through the prairies. The margins are overshadowed with forest trees, 
which increase in size and number as we descend the river. 

Colonel Long's party encamped, by night, on the prairies near the river; 
in reference to which Professor Keating, the historiographer of the expedi- 
tion, observes : — 

" These nights made a more lively impression on several of the party, than 
any of those that had preceded them. The beautiful and boundless expanse 
of the prairies, as seen by the bright moonlight which we enjoyed during that 
period, the freshness of the night air, the stillness of the scenery, interrupted 
only by the bowlings of the wolf and the lowing of the buffalo, the recol- 
lections of the dangers from Indians which had lately threatened us, and 
against the recurrence of which we were then watching ; all these were likely 
to suggest to the mind melancholy yet not unpleasant reflections." 

Among the tributaries of Red River, the most important is the Assini- 
boin, which makes its way from the west. In length and volume, it is equal 
to the river, with which, about in latitude 50°, its waters mingle. The to- 
pographical character of the basin of this tributary, is probably analogous 
to that of Red River. 

Settlements. — About the year 1812, Lord Selkirk attempted to plant a 
European colony, consisting of English, Scotch, and Swiss, on the banks of 
Red River. Two settlements were effected, of which the upper or southern 
was near latitude 49°, at the mouth of the small river Pembina, which gave 
its name to the village ; the lower, at the mouth of the Assiniboin, a degree 
further north. It was called after that river, and constitutes one of the 
most northern settlements (fur-trading houses excepted) in the Great Inte- 
rior Valley. In the year 1833, the population of the colony amounted to 
three thousand and seventy, and may now amount to five thousand, f 
This, I believe, is the only Colony within the Hudson Basin, and the 
most northern permanent agricultural settlement in the Interior Valley. 
Colonel Long, who visited this colony, in the month of August, 1823, 
found the people in health, and says nothing in his journal of autum- 
nal fever. I am, however, informed by him, that not a single case of 
that disease was seen in the colony; and Doctor Rowand, after residing 

* Second Expedition, Volume II. 

f History of the British Colonies, by R. M. Martin, Vol. Ill, p. 534. 



part i..j INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 441 

there more recently, has assured me, that both interrnittents and remittents 
are unknown ; yet the topographical conditions are favorable to their pro- 
duction. If we may rely on these observations, the latitude of 49° N. is 
beyond the limits of those forms of fever. But doubtless, they cease short 
of that parallel, though, from the absence of settlements, the latitude cannot 
be assigned. On the St. Lawrence, we have found them occurring near the 
forty-seventh degree, but at the level of tide-water; in this basin, at an 
elevation of seven or eight hundred feet, they may be expected to cease fur- 
ther south. Colonel Long says that his party could hear of none beyond the 
forty-fifth degree; but I have already mentioned (on doubtful authority) 
their occurrence at Sandy Lake, in the latitude of 46° 48'.* 

VI. Valley of the Saskatchewan. — According to Doctor Richard- 
son, f secondary limestone is the sub-stratum of this great valley, and prob- 
ably of the whole region from Red River and Lake Winnipeg, to the base of 
the Rocky Mountains. Argillaceous deposits are common along the lower 
part of the river; but, further west, the surface becomes sandy or gravelly, 
and the limestone formations are buried up. The former region presents 
forest trees on the banks of the river ; but the latter is destitute of that 
embellishment, and produces only short grass. On the north fork of the 
Saskatchawan there are beds of coal. No colony has yet been planted on 
the banks of that river ; but the fur-trading establishments are numerous. 
It does not appear that any of them are infested with autumnal fever ; but 
goitre and cretinism are endemic in some localities, — of which more will be 
said hereafter. 

Much of the great region west of Lake Winnipeg and Red river, seems 
fitted for settlement, but its remoteness, and the motive of keeping it as a 
hunting and trapping ground, will, perhaps, long prevent its colonization. 
Its aboriginal and fur-trading populations are more numerous than those of 
any other portion of this basin, in which respect it is not without interest 
to the medical historian. 

VII. Locality of the pole of Magnetic Intensity. — The intensity of 
terrestrial magnetism is measured by the number and strength of the oscil- 
lations of the needle in a given time. Observations have disclosed that, in 
each hemisphere, there are two poles or foci of magnetic intensity, neither 
of which is coincident with a pole of dip and direction. One is within the 
basin we are now exploring, in lat. 52° 19' N. and Ion. 91° 59' W. ( See 
PL I). The isodynamic lines, or lines of equal intensity, are " closed and 
irregular curves " which have their common center at the spot which has 
been indicated.! It is worthy of remark, that Professor Forbes, of Edin- 
burg, has shown that the magnetic force diminishes as we ascend from the 
level of the sea. 



* Ante, p. 331. 

f Franklin's First Journey to the Polar Sea, p. 452. 

X Major Sabine : Transactions of the Royal Society for 1846— Proceedings of the 
British Association. Ibid. 



442 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

This comprehensive outline of the widely extended Hudson Basin, is all 
that our plan requires. We must now leave it for the fourth and last basin, 
of which a notice equally concise will be sufficient. 



SECTION II. 

THE ARCTIC HYDROGRAPHICAL BASIN. 

I. Limits. — This basin includes the remainder of the Interior Valley of 
North America (PL 7). In the north, it is everywhere terminated by the 
Polar Sea, which bounds it from the eighty-first to the one hundred and 
thirty-sixth or thirty- seventh meridian. The range of coast has the mean 
latitude of 70° N. The eastern part of the basin, which lies between Hud- 
son's Bay and the Polar Sea, is comparatively narrow. The longitude of this 
portion is between S1 Q and 95°. After traveling westwardly from the Bay, 
through ten degrees of longitude, we find the Arctic basin dipping down to the 
south, and, following the line of separation between it and the Hudson Ba- 
sin, to the Rocky Mountains, we see it as low as the fifty-fourth parallel; 
from that point, pursuing its western boundary — the Rocky Mountains — 
to the Polar Sea, we pass through sixteen degrees of latitude. 

II. Lakes. — This basin, like the Hudson basin, is traversed nearly from 
south-east to north-west by a chain of lakes, which is a continuation of that 
referred to in the last section ( See PL I). The principal elements of this 
lacustrine axis, counting from the south, are Lake Athabasca, Great Slave 
Lake, and Great Bear Lake, with numerous appendages and straits. A line 
drawn through them and prolonged to the south-east, would cut Lake Win- 
nipeg, Lake Superior, Lake Huron, and Lake Erie. The mean latitudes and 
longitudes of these lakes are nearly as follows : — 

Athabasca Lake, N. lat. 59° W. Ion. 109°. 

Great Slave " " 61° 30' " 113° 30'. 

Great Bear " " 66° « 120°. 

Between, and to the north-east of, these large lakes, in the direction of 
Hudson's Bay and the Polar Sea, there is a countless number of small 
lakes and ponds, some of which are connected with the larger, others insu- 
lated. To the south-west they are less numerous. 

III. Rivers. — A chain of small lakes stretches northwardly, from the 
eastern end of Great Slave Lake, and gives origin to the Thlew-ee-choh, 
Great Fish, or Back's River ; discovered and first descended by the enter- 
prising traveler whose name it bears. This river, the most eastern, as yet 
known of the Polar Basin, flows by a rapid descent, nearly north-east, to the 
sea, in Lat. 67° IV N. } and Lon. 94° 30' W. 

Copper Mine River, first descended by Hearne, in 1771, and afterward 
by Franklin, in 1820, has its origin and termination near the northern shore 
of Great Slave Lake. Beginning, like the last, in a chain of small lakes, it 
descends to the Arctic Ocean, in Lat. 67° 48' N., and Lon. 115° 37' W. Its 
banks are more or less wooded. On the opposite or south-west side of the 



*art i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 443 

Athabasca, Slave, and Bear Lakes, the number of ponds and small lakes, as 
already stated, is much less ; but the rivers are of greater length and volume, 
being supplied by the Rocky Mountains. Although receiving different names, 
they finally unite into one trunk, first descended by Mackenzie, in 1789, and 
subsequently by Franklin, in 1823. It has received the name of its first 
navigator, and deserves a more extended notice than the preceding. 

Mackenzie's River is of Rocky Mountain origin. Under the name of 
Athabasca, it commences in those mountains, about in latitude 52° and 
longitude 116°, and flowing to the north-east, pours its waters into the lake 
which bears its name. A few degrees further north and west, the same 
mountains send down another, the Unjigah, or Peace River ; which, flowing 
nearly in the same direction, passes close to the western extremity of Ath- 
abasca Lake, with which it is connected by straits or bayous, through 
which, when swollen, a part of its waters enter that lake, to be returned 
when it subsides. Having established this connection, it turns to the north, 
and taking the name of Slave River, pours its accumulated waters into the 
south side of the Great Slave Lake. Still further north than the sources of 
the Athabasca, the Rocky Mountains throw down another river, the Turn- 
again, or IAards, which first flows to the east, and then to the north, to join 
the outlet of Great Slave Lake, and form the Mackenzie, which, pressing 
hard upon the base of the Rocky Mountains, seeks the ocean by a north- 
west course. On its way, the volume of its water is augmented by the efflu- 
ent or outlet of Great Bear Lake. Its junction with the Arctic Sea, mark- 
ed by a broad estuary, abounding in islands, is in mean Lat. 69° N., and 
Lon. 136° "W. Thus it drains the north-west corner of the Great Interior 
Valley, and takes the same rank among the rivers of the Arctic Basin, with 
Nelson's River in the Hudson, the St. Lawrence in the basin of that name, 
and the Mississippi, in the Mexican basin. 

IV. Physical Geography or the region west op the Lacustrine 
Axis. — The region lying between Athabasca, Slave, and Bear Lakes, on 
the one hand, and the Rocky Mountains on the other, traversed, as we have 
just seen, by the rivers which compose the main trunk of the Mackenzie, is, 
properly, a continuation of the great inclined plain, which descends east- 
wardly from the base of the Rocky Mountains, and has been already de- 
scribed as making a part of the Hudson and Mexican Basins; but in these 
high latitudes it becomes much narrower. Extending, with some modifica- 
tions, from the mouth of the Rio Grande, of the Gulf of Mexico, to the 
embouchure of the Mackenzie, in the Arctic Sea, it ranges through forty-four 
degrees of latitude, and is doubtless the longest tract of the kind, which the 
earth anywhere presents. From south to north, it. has certain characters in 
common : First, It is most elevated near the Rocky Mountains, which eve- 
rywhere bound it to the west. Second, The secondary formations which 
constitute its surface, are more or less buried up with the debris of the rocks 
and that of the mountains. Third, It is deficient in springs, because the 
rains which fall upon it are imbibed by this debris, and not afterward col- 
lected into subterranean streams. Fourth, Its scanty forests are chiefly 



444 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

found on the humid banks of the rivers. Fifth, The intervening plains 
(prairies) are covered with grass. Sixth, It is the great pasture-field of the 
bison, which, except in the valley of the Ohio, has not been found in num- 
bers, east of its limits ; but ranges north upon it, up to the fifty-second degree 
of latitude.* Seventh, It is inhabited throughout by Indians, who wan- 
der over it, like the wild herds on which they subsist. Eighth, Like that 
part of the Hudson Basin which lies to the south, it is a fur-country, and 
the Hudson's Bay, and North West Companies, have factories in various 
parts of both. 

If autumnal fever does not exist in the prairies of the Hudson Basin, at 
the latitude of 49° N., we should not expect to read of its occurrence in the 
same latitude in the region west of the lacustrine axis, and we have no ac- 
counts of its existence there. 

V. Physical Geography of the region east of the Lacustrine 
Axis. — The topography of this portion of the Arctic Basin, presents a stri- 
king contrast with that just described. While the latter enjoys a sub-stra- 
tum of secondary rocks — argillaceous, calcareous, and carboniferous — the 
disintegration of which, with the debris of the mountains, brought down by 
many large rivers, gives a soil capable of supporting a tree and herbaceous 
vegetation, up to the latitude of 68° or 69°, thus rendering it habitable ; 
the former is composed almost entirely of primitive rocks, of which gneiss is 
the principal, with extreme deficiency of soil, and excess of water, because 
the strata below are impervious, while the prevailing flatness of surface 
leads to its accumulation into swamps, pools, and small lakes, which the se- 
verity of its winters converts largely into ice, that is not entirely melted in 
summer. For a certain distance, east and north-east of Great Slave and 
Athabasca Lakes, the sterility is less, and open forests of dwarf pine, pop- 
lar, birch, and willow, are not entirely wanting ; but beyond a line, drawn 
from the middle of Great Bear Lake, in latitude 65°, to Hudson's Bay, in 
latitude 60°, the Arctic, like the adjacent portion of the Hudson Basin, is 
utterly uninhabitable by civilized races. The region to the north-east of that 
line constitutes, in fact, the " Barren Ground" of the Indians and the Bri- 
tish traders and travelers. Of the last, it has been traversed by Hearne, 
Franklin, Richardson, and Back ; while Boss was imprisoned for three years 
on its icy coast, in the Gulf of Boothia, not far from the mouth of Thlew- 
ee-choh, or Back's Biver. All the accounts of these hardy and courageous 
travelers, concur in representing this great region, with the exception of the 
banks of Copper Mine Biver, which are the best, as one of the most repulsive 
and uninhabitable on the globe ; and yet it is more or less traveled over by 
Indians in summer; and its northern borders are the permanent residence of 
tribes of Esquimaux, whose subsistence, however, is drawn chiefly from the 
sea, through apertures made in the ice. 

VI. The Arctic Ocean. — No portion of the universal ocean is less 
known, than that which throws its eternal ices on the northern coasts of the 

* Richardson. 



part, i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 445 

Interior Valley of our continent. For more than two hundred and seventy 
years, all the attempts to cross it, to the west, from Baffin's Bay, have ended in 
disappointments, equaled only by the intense sufferings of those who have 
regarded the glory of discovering a "North-west Passage" from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific Ocean, as paramount to all exposures, hardships, and perils. 
Not even a coasting voyage, in the latitude of seventy degrees, from the pe- 
ninsula called Boothia Felix, to Behring's Straits, has yet been performed. 
In a latitude four degrees further north, Melville Island, in longitude 110°, 
is the furthest land which has been explored in the western voyage. Whether 
the Arctic Sea extends to the north pole is. quite unknown; but since the 
continents of both the old and the new world terminate near the same lati- 
tude, the presumption is in favor of the existence of a true polar sea. The 
route from Baffin's Bay to Melville Island, is through Lancaster Sound and 
Barrow's Straits. On the south lies Cockburn Island, unexplored — on the 
north the land is probably insular. From the straits, Prince Regent's Inlet 
dips down to the south, with the island just named on its east, and the pe- 
ninsula of Boothia Felix on its west. The termination of this inlet is in an 
expansion called the Gulf of Boothia. These lands are buried up in snow 
and ice through most of the year, and are destitute of trees. Much of them 
rises but a few hundred feet above the level of the sea, and not a single eleva- 
tion deserving the name of mountain has been met with. To the west of 
them lies an impenetrable icy ocean. 

VII. Locality of the Pole of Cold. — Thermometrical observations 
in the polar regions, have enabled the mathematical meteorologist to deter- 
mine, that there is not one pole of cold for the northern hemisphere, and 
that, coincident with the terrestrial pole, as might have been expected — but 
two, of which one is in the continent of Asia, the other of America, nearly 
180 degrees apart. These regions of lowest terrestrial temperature, are 
nearly in the same latitude. That of America ( PI. I) covers the sound, 
strait, inlet, peninsula, and island mentioned under the preceding head, which 
lie in the mean longitude of 90° W., and the mean latitude of 75° N.* 
Thus, the Valley of the Mississippi, the Upper Lakes, and Hudson's Bay, 
are directly south of the pole of cold for this continent. 

We have seen in the preceding section, that the pole of magnetic inten- 
sity is found between Lake Superior and Hudson's Bay, in the ninety-second 
meridian, and consequently it coincides, in longitude, with the pole of cold. 

VIII. Locality of the Magnetic Pole of Direction and Dip. — 
Modern researches in terrestrial magnetism have demonstrated that, instead 
of two poles of magnetic dip and direction, corresponding to the poles of 
the earth; there are two in each hemisphere, all of which are found at some 
distance from the terrestrial poles. In the northern hemisphere, one exists 
on the continent of Asia, the other on that of America. By calculation 
from numerous data, their places were assigned, a priori, with such precision, 
that an observer was enabled to reach that of this continent, and, by experi- 

* Kaemptz's Course of Meteorology, London Ed., by C. V. Walker. 



446 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES, ETC. 

ment, confirm the results of mathematical deduction. In the summer of one 
of the tedious years, during which the British ship Victory, commanded by 
Captain, now Sir John Ross, R. N., was lying, ice-bound, in Victory Harbor, on 
the western side of the Gulf of Boothia, Commander, since Captain James 
C. Boss, aware of their proximity to the spot which had excited so much 
curiosity in the scientific world, made a journey of thirty miles, along the 
south-western coast of the peninsula called Boothia Felix, and, on the first 
of June, 1831, found himself on the Magnetic Pole. The needle no lon- 
ger had any horizontal motion, and its dip was 89° 59' 86", within less than 
a quarter of a minute of being vertical. The latitude of the place where 
this observation was made, proved to be 70° 5' 17" N., its longitude 96° 
45' 48" W. A cairn of sea- side pebbles was erected, and the British flag 
left waving over it.* 

It will be observed that the magnetic pole of dip and direction is 17° 46' 
N., and 4° 46' W. of the pole of magnetic intensity ; and that it falls within 
the (imperfectly defined) limits of the pole of cold. In reference to more 
southern parts of the Interior Valley of the continent, the astronomical me- 
ridian of 96° 45' 48", passes nearly over the center of the great plains be- 
tween the Mississippi Biver and the Rocky Mountains. 



TOPOGRAPHY CONCLUDED. 
With these notices of the Arctic Basin, our geographical, topographical, 
and hydrographical survey of the Interior Valley of North America is 
brought to a close ; except when the study of particular forms of disease 
may recall us to the work of description. Of the four hydrographical ba- 
sins, the two southern are not equal in area to the two northern ; yet they 
must forever contain nearly all the civilized inhabitants of the Valley. From 
the G-ulf of Mexico to the Polar Sea, the distance is equal to forty degrees 
of latitude ; and if this be divided by the fiftieth parallel, that portion of 
the valley which lies beyond it, will remain nearly destitute of inhabitants, 
while much the larger part of the other will admit of settlement, though in 
very unequal degrees. The inhospitable character of the northern basins 
does not result, however, from the nature of their surface alone, but from 
that and their climate combined, of which we shall see conclusive proofs in 
the investigations on which we are now prepared to enter. If the different 
basins were separated from each other by parallels of latitude, the climate 
of each might, like its topography, be studied by itself; but many portions 
of the two eastern lie in the same latitudes with the two western, and conse- 
quently possess the same climates ; it will be necessary, therefore, to study 
the meteorology of the whole in connection, beginning in the south and 
proceeding to the north. 

* Ross's Second Voyage, Am. Ed. p. 331, Trans. Roy. Soc, 1836, Part I, p. 52. 



PART SECOND. 

CLIMATIC ETIOLOGY 



CHAPTER I. 

NATURE, DYNAMICS, AND ELEMENTS OF CLIMATE. 



SECTION I. 



GENERAL VIEWS, 



I. Climate occasions Diseases. — As no fact in etiology is more uni- 
versally admitted, than the influence of climate in the production of disease, 
it follows that he who would understand the origin and modifications of the 
diseases of a country, must study its meteorology. The effects of climate 
are both predisposing and exciting. Thus, the long-continued action of a 
particular kind or condition of climate, may bring about such changes in our 
physiology as to incline us to some particular form of disease ; while sudden 
changes often act as exciting causes to other diseases, to which we may be 
inclined, from agencies not connected with climate. Again, the influences 
of climate are both direct and indirect. The former result from the imme- 
diate action of the atmosphere on our systems — the latter from its action 
on the matters which are accumulated on the surface of the earth, which 
are thus made to send forth agents of an insalubrious character. Thus, the 
same state of the earth's surface which in one climate may prove highly per- 
nicious, in another may be altogether harmless. 

II. Climate cures Diseases. — But climate must not be studied with a 
reference to etiology only ; for it can cure as well as occasion disease. It 
modifies the effects of blood-letting, medicines, and regimen ; and although 
it maintains some diseases against the united powers of the most active and 
appropriate articles of the materia medica, it cures others in the absence of 
the whole. Considered as a therapeutic agent, it is, when skillfully ordered, 
entitled to great confidence. Its action is not often speedy, but the certainty 
of its salutary effects, in general, compensates for their slow development. 

III. Definitions op Climate. — In physical geography, the word cli- 
mate expresses a zone of the earth, running parallel to the equator, of such 
width that the longest day at its northern limit is half an hour longer than 



4-18 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

that of its southern limit, supposing we are in the northern hemisphere; 
but in etiology and therapeutics, the term is used in a different sense, and 
simply expresses states of the atmosphere. These states involve, or consist 
in, varying quantities or qualities of certain elements of the air itself — its 
caloric, light, and electricity; its aqueous vapor, fogs, mists, and clouds; its 
dews, rain, hail, frost, and snow ; its weight and density ; its movements or 
winds ; its factitious gases, and mechanical impurities ; all of which may he 
very different in different times or places of the same geographical climate, 
and nearly the same in different zones. 

IV. Climate of a Globe op uniform surface.— If the earth, with its 
present form and relations to the sun, had a smooth, uniform, terrestrial sur- 
face, of the same mineral composition, and were destitute of both air and 
water, the temperature of its crust in every latitude would bear a fixed rela- 
tion to the solar influence. If, then, an atmosphere were added, winds would 
be created, and blow with a uniform velocity and direction, as the same sea- 
sons returned. But if mountains were anywhere upheaved, or the atmos- 
phere should be impregnated with aqueous vapor and electricity, this uni- 
formity would be disturbed ; which prepares us for considering the proper 
elements of climate. 

V. Elements of Climate on the Globe as it exists. — The crust of 
the earth is not uniform in chemical composition or surface ; it abounds in 
mountains, plains, and valleys, distributed in a very irregular manner; por- 
tions of it are densely overshadowed, while others are destitute of forest ; 
the larger part is covered with oceans, lakes, rivers, and swamps; an elastic 
atmosphere rests upon the whole ; and every part — solid, fluid, and aeriform, 
— is permeated by electricity. Were the earth, with this surface, removed 
from the influence of the sun, the phenomena of climate would be annihila- 
ted ; in that luminary, then, reside the dynamics on which they depend ; and 
the rays of light and heat, are the efficient agents by which its quickening 
influence is exerted on the earth. When they reach its surface, their effects 
are, substantially, according to the angle of incidence ; but falling on mate- 
rial elements so diversified, a vast variety of movements are generated, and 
results or phenomena the most complicated, are incessantly developed. 
Thus, unequal degress of heat are accumulated in portions of a continent 
having the same latitude, but different elevations ; or, as they are covered 
with forests or destitute of shade ; the heating and cooling of the land and 
water do not proceed according to the same laws ; aqueous vapor is raised 
into the air from the oceans and transported over the continents, by winds, 
generated by the unequal heating of the atmosphere, to be condensed and 
precipitated, on regions remote from those in which the evaporation took 
place ; in the condensation of the vapor, caloric is liberated, — by the evapo- 
ration of the fallen water it is absorbed ; the clouds intercept the rays of 
the sun and limit their effects upon the surface, but, at the same time, arrest 
and throw back much of the caloric which radiates from the surface ; dead 
calms and hurricanes rapidly succeed each other ; electrical phenomena are 
generated; the luminous solar rays are decomposed by the clouds, which 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 449 

they tinge with various colors; finally, different gaseous exhalations, 
from decomposable matters lodged on the surface of the earth, ascend into 
the atmosphere. 

VI. The Elements of Climate not the same in different parts of 
the Earth. — It results from what has been said, that the elements of cli- 
mate are not precisely the same in any two regions of the globe ; and, 
therefore, that the climate of every region, even in the same latitude, must 
possess some peculiarities ; the causes of which are to be sought in the phy- 
sical geography and hydrography of the region itself, and of those by which 
it is immediately surrounded. For this aid to the study of the Climate 
of the Interior Valley of North America, the necessary facts have been 
given in Part I ; but as they are scattered through several hundred pages, 
it will be useful to collect and condense them into one section. 



SECTION II. 

CAUSES WHICH MODIFY THE CLIMATE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 

I. As the axis of the Valley lies nearly in the meridian, and reaches 
from the torrid to the frigid zone, it presents in its climate all the modifi- 
cations which can result from the different effects of the sun's rays, in the 
different latitudes. 

II. The elevation of its surface above the level of the sea, in a broad 
zone, running nearly through its center from south to north, is remarkably 
uniform; yet the southern half of the Valley inclines a little toward that 
luminary, and the northern declines at an equal angle from it. As the for- 
mer augments, and the latter diminishes, the califacient power of the solar 
rays, the climatologist ought, perhaps, to regard the sum of the two, as an 
element of the peculiarities of our climate, but its value cannot be esti- 
mated. 

III. The proportion of watery surface varies widely in different parts of 
the Valley. In the Southern Basin, the neighborhood of the Gulf, and the 
delta and trough of the Mississippi, present nearly all the surface that is, 
either constantly or occasionally, covered with water. To the east of that 
river, the whole country is without lakes or extensive morasses, and the 
rains, from the ridgy character of the surface, are collected into running 
streams. To the west, the vast regions, quite up to the Rocky Mountains^ 
constitute an inclined plane, with but few rivers, and scarcely a single lake 
or swamp, of sufficient area to deserve consideration. The soil is bibulous, 
and the rains are absorbed. Thus the greatest part of the surface of this 
region is not fitted to afford a large quantity of vapor. The Eastern Basin 
is essentially lacustrine; having, in addition to the great lakes from 

29 



450 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Ontario to Superior, a countless number of smaller ones, often bordered by 
extensive swamps; it must, therefore, supply a vast amount of vapor. 
The Northern Basins, with the exception of the plains which lie in their 
western portion, abound in watery surfaces, to an extent still greater than 
the Eastern ; and although lying far in the north, most of that region must 
necessarily exhale an immense quantity of vapor during the warm season. If 
the waters of the Eastern and Northern Basins were transferred to the 
Southern, it cannot be doubted that a remarkable change of climate would 
be the consequence in both. 

IV. In the Southern Basin, a zone around the Gulf of Mexico is covered 
with trees ; and all the regions east of the Mississippi, up to, and including, 
most of the Ohio Basin, quite up to the summits of the Appalachian 
Mountains, were originally overspread with compact and lofty forests. 
From the Ohio Basin, west, to the Mississippi River, the prairies divide the 
surface with the wood-lands, and in many parts of Illinois and Southern Wis- 
consin they predominate. West of the Mississippi, the zone of wood-land 
country, below the mouth of the Missouri, is from one to three hundred 
miles broad ; but the prairies press much more closely on the upper section of 
the river. In all parts of the prairie region, even to the Rocky Mountains, 
the trees are almost confined to the banks of the rivers. The broad inter- 
vening plains are sandy; but fertile enough to be clothed with short grass. 
There are no herbless deserts. The Eastern Basin is generally wooded. 
In the two Northern Basins, the extent of forest is greatly diminished; the 
larger part of what exists, except in its southern portion, is composed of 
small trees with a limited amount of foliage. To the north-west and north 
of Hudson Bay, the " Barren Ground," of vast extent, is almost destitute of 
trees. The western portions of these hyperborean Basins, are as deficient in 
forest, as the western half of the Southern Basin. Thus the wood-lands of 
the great Valley, are chiefly found toward its eastern side, from the Gulf of 
Mexico to Hudson Bay. These forests retard the heating of the earth's sur- 
face in summer, by intercepting the rays of the sun; and at night they dimi- 
nish the radiation of heat from the same surface; and the radiation takes place 
from the canopy of leaves. In both summer and winter, they diminish the 
velocity of the winds. On the treeless plains, the power of the sun is 
greater, the nocturnal radiation from the ground greater, and at all times the 
velocity of the winds (the forces which generate them being the same) 
is more rapid. A necessary effect of settlement and cultivation, is the de- 
struction of the forest ; and thus every year, the wooded is making an ap- 
proach in area to the woodless part of the Valley. 

V. The forest lands have a much denser population than the prairies ; 
and all the modifying influences of heated air, smoke, gases, and aqueous 
vapor, liberated and sent abroad in the atmosphere, exist in a much higher 
degree to the east than to the west of the Mississippi River. 

VI. The mountains which bound the Valley on either side, deserve great 
consideration. To the east, or rather south-east, the Appalachians stretch, 
in many parallel or coalescing ridges, from Alabama to the region north of 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 451 

the Gulf of St. Lawrence, rising from two to five thousand feet above the 
sea. They no doubt contribute to some extent, to give direction to certain 
winds. When an easterly wind prevails, they deprive it, by condensation, of 
a portion of the moisture with which the warm Atlantic Ocean had imbued 
it, and reduce its temperature ; and hence, on the banks of the Ohio, and in 
other central portions of the Valley, a south-east wind never raises the ther- 
mometer as high as a south-west. These mountains, in the valley of the Mo- 
hawk (Lat. 43 °N.), are depressed to the low level of four or five hundred feet 
— the axis of the depression being east and west. In the valley of Lake 
Champlain there is a depression, to within one hundred feet of the level of 
the sea, in a direction from south to north. The long estuary of the St. 
Lawrence presents a depression to the level of tide-water, running nearly 
north-east and south-west. These depressions afford avenues for the winds 
which blow in the direction of their axes. 

But the mountains of the western side of the Valley, exert on its climate 
a far greater influence than those of the east. The Andes may be too re- 
mote for effect upon it ; but the long and low depression which lies between 
them and the Cordilleras of Mexico, constituting the Isthmus of Panama, on 
the south and south-west sides of the Carribean Sea, opens a passage for the 
winds of the Pacific Ocean into the Gulf of Mexico. Further north, the 
Cordilleras, the Rocky Mountains, the Californian Maritime Alps, or Sierra 
Nevada, and the enormously elevated, littoral mountains of the British and 
Russian Dominions, constitute, from the equatorial to the polar seas, 
a broad and elevated mountain barrier, with but two depressions, the South 
Pass, which is eight thousand feet above the ocean, and the valley of 
the Gila, ten degrees further south, which is four thousand feet. Thus, 
through its whole length, the influences of the Pacific Ocean are nearly shut 
off from the great Valley. The difference of level between these mountains 
and the inclined plane which constitutes the western side of the Valley, no 
doubt, often causes the descent of their cold air, in the form of temporary 
winds; and when the atmosphere of the Pacific surmounts them, it comes 
down upon us, deprived, to a great extent, of both its caloric and its vapor. 
In this respect, the modifying influence of the Rocky Mountains on our cli- 
mate, is much greater than that of the Appalachians. Let us now turn to 
the seas, on which the Valley opens to the south and north. 

VII. The Gulf of Mexico subtends the Valley to the south. The southern 
side of that sea coalesces, by a broad strait, with the Carribean Sea, the south- 
ern coasts of which are low, and among the hottest on the globe. Thus, to 
the south of the great Valley, and projecting into it, as high as the thirtieth 
degree of north latitude, there is an immense basin of tropical water, from 
the surface of which come those volumes of hot and humid air, which consti- 
tute the southern winds of the Interior Valley. The south-west wind, which 
advances from or traverses the mountain regions west of the Gulf of Mex- 
ico, and also the Rocky Mountains further north, is both dryer and cooler. In 
summer, it sheds but little moisture on w the great prairies ; and, from the dry 
and shadeless condition of their surface, is often so much heated, as to produce 



452 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

occasional hot days very far north. These currents, like those from the Gulf, 
in making their way to the polar regions, traverse the country around Hud- 
son Bay, and at last reach that in which, as we have seen, the Pole of Cold is 
situated. Were the Gulf of Mexico rolled away, by an upheaving of moun- 
tains in its bed, the climate to its north-east would undergo a signal change ; 
as would that of the whole Valley, if the western mountain chain were sunk, 
so as to let in the mild and damp atmosphere of the Pacific Ocean. 

VIII. To the north, the Valley is subtended by Hudson Bay and the 
Polar Sea. North of the former and within the latter, lies the Pole of Cold, 
or region of North America in which the mean temperature of the year is 
least. It is worthy of remark, that all the southern and south-western 
winds which can reach this spot, must have descended from or crossed the 
Rocky Mountains, in latitudes where their crests are covered or embossed 
with perpetual snow. Without attempting here to assign the fundamental 
causes of the low temperature of the region of maximum cold, it may be 
safely affirmed, that if the Rocky Mountains, north of the South Pass, in 
latitude 42°, were sunk to near the level of the Pacific Ocean, the rigor of 
the Pole of Cold, would be greatly diminished. By what route the polar air 
from that icy region, makes it way back to the equator, I cannot say. It 
certainly does not traverse the Interior Valley, in volumes sufficient to com- 
pensate for those which flow in the opposite direction. When it does blow, 
it is always cold ; and thus our Valley, being placed between one of the hottest 
and one of the coldest seas of the globe, must forever be subject to sudden 
vicissitudes and wide extremes of temperature. 

IX. This brief general view of the elements of our climate, has prepa- 
red us for entering on its statistics ; which consist of observations made on 
several different conditions of the atmosphere, at various stations. Before 
proceeding to examine these elements in detail, we may advantageously con- 
sider for a moment their relations and mutual dependence. While the sun 
constitutes the first cause, or primum mobile, of all the phenomena of cli- 
mate, the whole do not immediately depend upon the influence of that orb. 
By its action on the surface of the continents and seas, it imparts heat to the 
atmosphere, but in very unequal degrees ; and that heat becomes the cause of 
many effects, or meteorological appearances. These are losses of statical 
equilibrium, and the production of winds, which transport hot air into colder 
regions, and cold air into hotter. In the former case its vapor is precipita- 
ted in the form of rain or snow ; in the latter, it passes into a state of 
more perfect suspension, and the atmosphere becomes more transparent. In 
the condensation of vapor, electrical phenomena are produced, and caloric is 
given out, which raises the temperature of the atmosphere. On the other 
hand, the evaporation from the earth's surface, and from the objects it sup- 
ports, after rain, cools the whole. In studying a group of phenomena so com- 
plicated, it is necessary to take them up in succession, which we shall now 
proceed to do. 



jtT ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 45; 

CHAPTER II. 

TEMPERATURE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 



SECTION I. 

MEAN TEMPERATURE OF THE YEAR. 

I. Difficulties of the Subject. — In attempting to ascertain tiie mean 
temperature of the atmosphere for each degree of latitude, in the vast 
Interior Valley of North America, the first difficulty is the want of obser- 
vations at a sufficient number of places; especially under the same par- 
allels, and to the east and west of the Mississippi, or synclinal axis of the 
Valley. The second is, that some observers have not made their observa- 
tions at the hours of the day most proper for showing either its extremes, 
or its mean heat. The third, that many thermometers have been inaccurate. 
The fourth, that the positions in which they have been kept, have been 
differently chosen. Thus, with a few honorable exceptions, the results 
are but doubtful approximations to the truth. However all this may be 
regretted, we need not be astonished, for the Valley is too recently and 
sparsely settled, to have raised up a body of professed meteorologists ; and 
practical physicians are, in general, too much occupied, and too often absent 
from home, to make and record regular observations. At first view, the 
registers kept at the various military posts, under the direction of the Sur- 
geon General of the United States' Army, might seem worthy of implicit 
confidence ; but after visiting a considerable number of these posts, I have 
come to the conclusion, that, from the frequent change of officers, the wrong 
position of instruments, and other causes, many of the army registers are 
not as accurate as could be desired. As a class, the registers kept 
at the academies of Western New York, are probably the most exact, and 
in general, extend through the greatest number of years. 

II. Object to be kept in View. — In studying our thermometrical 
statistics, we should constantly keep in view the law of decrease of mean 
temperature, as we advance from south to north ; for when it may be found 
out, we can, by calculation, determine the mean temperature of places, at 
which no observations have been made, and thus construct a table of 
mean temperatures for every parallel of latitude. Should the ratio of de- 
crease vary, as we proceed from the tropical to the polar regions, the law of 
variation being ascertained, the calculation might still be made. At pre- 
sent, the number of reliable observations is too few to afford us rigorous 
results ; but the discovery of such a law should be kept in mind as a de- 
sideratum. 

III. Ascertained Mean Temperatures. — We cannot, I suppose, pro- 
ceed with this subject in a more natural method, than to give in a tabular 



454 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

form all the results which I have been able to collect. In doing this, it 
will be proper to commence in the equatorial regions, at the level of the 
sea, where the maximum of heat corresponds to the minimum of latitude 
and elevation, and thence proceed to the polar regions, where the minimum 
of heat corresponds to the maximum of latitude. It will be proper, at the 
same time, to give the altitudes above the Ocean, of the places of observa- 
tion, and their proximity to, or remoteness from, seas, lakes, and mountains ; 
which, as far as may be practicable and convenient, I shall do. A critical 
examination of the tables, will soon disclose to the reader, some embarrass- 
ing anomalies. He will see a lower mean temperature assigned to a place, 
than that of a place further north. This may sometimes be explained by 
difference of altitude ; but, in many instances, may be regarded as the evi- 
dence of inaccurate observation. Time only can be relied upon for the cor- 
rection of these errors ; which are not peculiar to meteorology, but neces- 
sarily belong to all the inductive sciences. 



PART II.] 



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460 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

IV. Law of decrease op Mean Temperature prom increase op 
Latitude. — M. Humboldt informs us, that the equatorial mean heat of 
82° extends north, to Lat. 10°. Melville Island, the most northen station 
of the table, lies 64° 47' further north, and has a mean temperature 83° .07 
less, which, divided by the difference of latitude, gives 1° .28 as the reduc- 
tion of temperature caused by each degree of latitude, from the equatorial 
to the polar regions inclusive. If this ratio were uniform, it would be 
easy, by making allowance for the differences of elevation, to calculate the 
mean temperature of any given place. But the ratio varies in a remarkable 
manner, and to this point we must now give attention. 

From Cumana to Havana the distance is 12° 42', and the reduction of 
temperature 4° .22, which gives a decrement of .33 (thirty-three hun- 
dredths) of a degree of temperature for every degree of latitude. 

Between Key West and Fort Brooke, the difference of latitude is 3° 23', 
of temperature 4° .08, which gives a ratio of 1° .20. 

Between Fort Brooke and the thirtieth parallel the difference of latitude 
is 2° 03' — of temperature 2° .28, affording a ratio of 1° .11. 

The difference in latitude between Key West and the thirtieth parallel, 
near New Orleans, is 5° 26' — that of temperature 6° .36, from which 
results, as the ratio 1° .17 of reduced heat for a degree of latitude. This 
ratio, which is nearly identical with that of the whole range, is about three 
times as great as the ratio from the equatorial limit to Key West. 

From Key West to St. Louis, the distance is equal to 14° 03' — the 
difference in mean heat 21° .12, giving a ratio of 1° .50; but when we sub- 
tract from the difference of temperature 1°, for the elevation of St. Louis 
above the sea, the ratio falls to 1° .43. 

Between Natchez and Huntsville, the latitude is 3° 11', and the difference 
of mean heat 7° .13, which gives a ratio of 2° .28. But as the latter rises, 
gradually, four hundred feet above the former, one degree must be deducted 
from the whole difference, when the ratio is reduced to 1° .92. 

From Huntsville to Nashville 1° 25' ; difference of mean heat 1° .27 ; 
ratio 0° .90. The elevation of both places nearly the same. 

When we compare Natchez and Nashville, having a difference of latitude 
equal to 4° 36', and of mean temperature equal to 8° .40, we obtain as the 
ratio 1° .82. The difference of altitude between these places, is from 
three hundred to four hundred feet, and the rise gradual, so that we may 
deduct a degree from the difference in their mean temperature, as the effect 
of greater elevation, when the ratio of reduction is diminished to 1° .60. 

On comparing the thirtieth parallel, near New Orleans, with Natchez, the 
latter being 1° 34' north of the former, and having a mean temperature 
3° .26 lower, we find that the ratio of reduction is 2 P .08 of mean tempera- 
ture for 1° of latitude. The elevation of Natchez over (the thirtieth 
parallel near) New Orleans, is two hundred and sixty-four feet ; and if we 
allow 0° .66 of the difference in temperature, to result from that cause, we 
have a ratio of decrease equal to 1° .66 for a degree of latitude; which is a 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 461 

rate of reduction greater, by .72, than that from Key West to the thirtieth 
parallel, at New Orleans. 

Between Natchez and St. Louis the difference of latitude is 7° 3', the 
difference of mean temperature 11° .50, which gives a ratio of 1° .63 for a 
degree of latitude. If we make the allowance of one-third of a degree for 
the difference of elevation, about one hundred and thirty-three feet, we have 
a ratio of 1° .58. 

Between Nashville and St. Louis the difference of latitude is 2° 27' — of 
mean temperature 3° .10, giving a ratio of 1° .26 ; but as Nashville is about 
two hundred feet the higher of the two, by a gradual ascent, half a degree 
must be added to its mean temperature, when the ratio of decrease from 
latitude becomes 1° .17. 

Between Nashville and Cincinnati, at nearly the same level, the difference 
of latitude is 2° 56' — of mean temperature 4° .86, which data give 1° .69 as 
the ratio. 

Fort Armstrong, with an elevation, by gradual ascent, of about one hun- 
dred and eighty feet above St. Louis, and a higher latitude of 2° 55', has 
a mean temperature 4° .92 less. According to these data, the ratio of 
decrease is 1° .69. If we allow for the difference of altitude, the ratio is 
reduced to 1° .51. 

Fort Crawford (Prairie du Chien) lies 4° 26' north of St. Louis, and 
three hundred feet above its level; their difference in mean temperature 
is 8° .01, giving a ratio of 1° .80. As they differ in elevation, by gradual 
ascent, three hundred feet, we must subtract .75 (three quarters of a 
degree) from the difference between their temperatures, when the ratio is 
reduced to 1° .63. 

Fort Snelling lies 6° 15' north of St. Louis, at an elevation, by slow 
ascent, three hundred and eighty feet higher ; the difference in their mean 
temperature is 10° .21, from which results the ratio 1° .62; but when we 
equalize their elevation, the ratio falls to 1° 47. 

The elevation of Portsmouth and Rochester is nearly the same; the 
difference in their latitude is 4° 22' — in their mean temperature, 8° .94, 
which gives a ratio of 2° .04. 

Cincinnati and Rochester have the same elevation, and differ in latitude 
4° 1'. The difference in their mean temperature is 7° .38, which gives a 
ratio of 1° .83. 

The difference in elevation between Marietta and Rochester, is too little 
to require attention ; their difference of latitude is 3° 42', of mean tempera- 
ture 6° .39, from which results the ratio 1° .73. 

From Cincinnati to Fredonia, the change of latitude is 3° 20' ; the dif- 
ference in mean temperature is 4° .95, and consequently the ratio of diminu- 
tion is 1° .48. If we make allowance for the difference of elevation, about 
one hundred and sixty feet, say .45, or near half a degree, the ratio is 
reduced to 1° .35. 

The difference of latitude between Cincinnati and Pompey, is 3° 50' — of 
abrupt elevation eight hundred and sixty feet — of mean temperature 10° .96, 



462 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

from which results a ratio of 2° .85 ; but when we allow 4° of temperature, 
for the difference of altitude, the ratio is reduced to 1° .81. 

Between Rochester and Montreal, the difference of latitude is 2° 24' — of 
mean temperature 1° .85, giving a ratio of only .77 — little more than three 
quarters of a degree ; but Montreal lies near five hundred feet below 
Rochester, for which we must add to the difference in temperature, about a 
degree and a quarter, when the ratio is raised to 1° .29. 

Fort Brady lies 4° 04' north of Fredonia, and the difference of their 
mean temperature is 8° .23, which gives a ratio of 2° .02. As Fredonia 
is one hundred and thirteen feet higher than Brady, we must add to the 
difference between them, about one-third of a degree (.33), when the ratio 
is raised to 2° .10. 

The distance north, from Rochester to Fort Brady, is 3° 23' — the dif- 
ference of elevation only ninety feet; the range of mean temperature 5° .80. 
Disregarding the difference of altitude, the ratio of decrease is 1° .71. 

Fort Howard lies 6° 03' north of St. Louis, and the difference in their 
mean temperature is 10° .76, which gives a ratio of 1° .78; but the greater 
elevation (near two hundred feet) of the former requires the deduction of 
(.50) half a degree, when the ratio is brought down to 1° .69. 

Fort Winnebago lies 4° 54' north of St. Louis, and is 10° .47 colder, 
consequently the ratio of decrease of temperature, is 2° .14 ; but as its 
elevation is four hundred feet greater, by gradual rise, we must subtract a 
degree from the difference, when the ratio is reduced to 1° .93. 

From Fort Howard to Fort Brady, the distance in latitude is 1° 50' — the 
difference in mean temperature 3° .98, giving a ratio of 2° .17. The 
difference in elevation is too small to require notice. 

Cumberland House is in N. Lat. 53° 57', or 15° 20' north of St. Louis; 
the difference in their mean temperature, is 23° .35, from which results, as 
the ratio of decrease, 1° 52 ; but as the former has four hundred feet of 
greater altitude, by gradual rise, a degree must be deducted from their 
difference, which reduces the ratio to 1° .46. 

The distance from Fort Snelling to Cumberland House, in latitude, is 
9° 04' ; the difference of mean temperature is 13° .14, giving a ratio of 
1° .45, the elevations being nearly the same. 

From Cumberland House to Fort Chipewyan, N. Lat. 58° 43', the dis- 
tance is 4° 46' — the difference of mean annual heat 2° .82, affording a ratio 
of 0° .4. As the latter is three hundred feet lower, .75, or three-fourths of 
a degree, must be added to the difference of temperature, when the ratio 
becomes, .75, or three quarters of a degree. 

Fort Reliance, or Resolution, in latitude 62° 46', lies 4° 03' north of Fort 
Chipewyan, and the difference of their mean annual temperatures is 7° .72, 
which gives a ratio of 1° .90. As the latter is one hundred and fifty feet 
the higher, .37 must be added to the difference, when the ratio is increased 
to 1° .99. 

Fort Enterprise, in latitude 64° 28', lies 1° 42' north of Fort Reliance, 
and their difference of temperature is 7° .28, giving a ratio of 4° .28. As 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 463 

the former is five hundred feet higher than the latter, a deduction must be 
made from the difference of temperature of a degree and a quarter, when 
the ratio is reduced to 3° ,54. 

Melville Island, in latitude 74° 47', lies 12° north of Fort Reliance, and 
has a mean temperature 22° .54 lower, which indicates a ratio 1° .88, As 
the latter is three hundred and fifty feet more elevated, 87 hundredths of a 
degree must be added to the difference, when the ratio rises to 1° .95. 

From Fort Churchill to Melville Island, the distance is 15° 45' of lati- 
tude — the difference of mean temperature 26° .27 — the ratio 1° .67 ; both 
stations being at the level of the sea. 

Fort Franklin is 6° 10' north of Fort Churchill, and two hundred feet 
more elevated ; the difference in their mean heat is 7° .96 ; the ratio of de- 
crease 1° .29. The ratio, when they are reduced to the same level, is 
1° .21. 

From Fort Franklin to Melville Island, the latitude is 9° 35'— the dif- 
ference of temperature 18° .31 ; the ratio 1° .94. The greater elevation of 
the former, two hundred feet, requires half a degree to be added to the 
difference, when the ratio rises to 1° .96. 

Fort Churchill lies 12° 32' north of Fort Brady, and has a temperature 
15°.42 less ; but as it is six hundred feet lower, the difference must be 
increased 1°.5, making it 16°.92, when the ratio is 1°.35. 

From Fort Snelling to Fort Churchill 14° 09' of latitude — difference of 
mean heat 19° .85 — ratio 1° .40. As the difference of elevation in favor of 
Snelling is seven hundred arjd eighty feet = 2° must be added to the 
difference of temperature = 21° .85 — giving a ratio of 1° .54. 

From Fort Churchill to Winter Island, the range is through 7° 09' of 
latitude; the difference of mean heat, 19° .11; the ratio (both at the level 
of the sea) 2° .67. 

Igloolik lies 10° 18' north of Fort Churchill, and has a mean temperature 
22°.70 less, with a consequent ratio of 2°.20. Both at the level of the sea. 

From Fort Churchill to Victoria, or Felix Harbor, 10° 58' of latitude; 
21° .44 of difference in temperature; ratio 1° .96. 

From Nain, N. Lat. 57° 08', to Winter Island, distance 9° 03' of latitude- 
difference of temperature, 20° .19; ratio 2° .23. 

Nain to Victoria, or Felix Harbor, 12° 52' of latitude — difference of mean 
heat 22° .52— ratio 1° .75. 

Winter Island to Igloolik 3° 09' of latitude — difference of mean heat 
30 .59— ratio 1° .14. 

Melville Island lies 4° 47' north of Felix Harbor — difference of tempera- 
ture 4° .83— ratio 1° .01. 

Winter Island to Port Bowen, difference of latitude 7° 03' — of mean heat 
2° .47— ratio 0° .35. 

Felix Harbor to Port Bowen 3° 14'— difference of temperature 1° .26 — 
ratio 0° .39. 

Igloolik to Port Bowen, distance 3° 54' — difference of temperature in 
favor of the latter, though further north, 1° .12; ratio of increase of 
temperature 0° .30. 



464 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

V. Law of decrease of Mean Temperature, from . Altitude — Tn 
examining the elevations given in the preceding table, we do not find suffi- 
cient data for determining the ratio at which the thermometer falls, as we 
ascend from the level of the sea. Of the eighty- two stations, many are 
at or near that level, and but six rise above a thousand feet. The greater 
number are below five hundred. Let us select such places, lying nearly in 
the same latitude, as admit of being compared. 

Vera Cruz, at the level of the sea, in N. Lat. 19° 12', has a mean 
temperature of 77°. Xalapa, situated 20' further north, ought to have a 
temperature of 76° .73; but observation has made it 67° .64, or 9° .36 less 
than what its latitude demands. Now the elevation of Xalapa over Vera 
Cruz, is four thousand three hundred and thirty feet, and to this elevation 
we may ascribe the difference. By dividing the difference of altitude by the 
difference of temperature, we obtain four hundred and sixty- seven feet as 
the ratio for 1° of temperature. Again, the difference of mean temperature 
between Vera Cruz and the City of Mexico, their latitudes being nearly the 
same, is 15° .12, while the latter is elevated seven thousand four hundred and 
fifty-one feet over the former ; which gives four hundred and ninety-three 
feet, for 1° of reduced annual heat. 

Fort Armstrong and Council Bluffs, in mean latitude 41° 30', but distant 
from each other more than 5° of longitude, present the anomaly of a mean 
temperature nearly half a degree (.43) higher at the Bluffs, which have an 
altitude five hundred and forty- seven feet greater than Fort Armstrong. 

Marietta and Fort Leavenworth, in mean latitude 39° 24', but 13° of 
longitude apart, differ in their elevation three hundred feet ; but in their 
mean temperature vary less than half a degree (.47). 

The region on the south side of Lake Ontario, furnishes several data, on 
which greater reliance may be placed. 

Cayuga and Springville are 13' of latitude apart, and when allowance is 
made for this, the difference in their mean temperature is 4° .20 ; but their 
difference in altitude, is six hundred and seventeen feet, which, divided by 
the difference of temperature, gives one hundred and forty-seven feet as the 
ratio for 1° of temperature. 

Onondaga and Pompey, in the same latitude, differ in mean temperature 
4° .27 — in altitude eight hundred and fifty feet ; which gives a ratio of two 
hundred feet. 

Fredonia and Cayuga, in the same latitude, vary 4° in temperature, and 
three hundred and fifty-six feet in elevation, which gives a ratio of eighty- 
nine feet. 

Hudson and Fredonia, when the effect of difference of latitude is cor- 
rected, vary in mean temperature 3° .50, and differ in altitude four hundred 
and twenty- three feet, which gives a ratio of one hundred and twenty- one 
feet. 

Lowville and Lewiston, allowance being made for difference of latitude, 
vary in mean temperature 3° .24, and in elevation five hundred and 
twenty- eight feet, which affords a ratio of one hundred and sixty feet. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 465 

Rochester and Pompey, when correction is made for the difference of 
latitude, vary in mean temperature 3° .88 ; the difference in their elevation 
is seven hundred and ninety-four feet, from which results a ratio of two 
hundred and five feet. 

This is a more rapid reduction than Humboldt has assigned. In the tem- 
perate zone, according to that celebrated philosopher,* through an elevation 
of three thousand feet, the mean heat decreases 1° of Fh. for every two 
hundred and fifty-three feet of ascent. It is well known, however, that in 
places having the same latitude, the ratio of decrease varies in a remark- 
able manner, from the influence of local causes, and the course of the winds, 
so that no uniform expression of the amount can be fixed ;f of which we 
have sufficient evidence in the few observations embraced in this article. 
Thus, while on the south side of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, we have the 
result just given, we find in the Yalley of the Mississippi results of a very 
different kind. In all the observations which have been quoted, much 
allowance, however, should doubtless be made for the inaccuracy of ther- 
mometers, and the inexactness of ordinary observers. Nevertheless, after 
having done this, we must admit, that the gradual ascent, from the beds of 
the Ohio and Mississippi to Fort Leavenworth and the Council Bluffs, and 
the boundless plains which surround those posts, probably exerts an influence 
in counteracting the effect of elevation. 

In the absence of data for a rigid determination of the influence of alti- 
tude, in the reduction of the mean heat of our climates, I shall assume two 
hundred feet for one degree, in those portions where the elevations are 
abrupt; and four hundred feet for the great inclined plain, between the 
Mississippi and the Eocky Mountains, up which the ascent is so gradual, 
that the surface appears to the eye to be horizontal. These ratios can by 
no means be regarded as anything more than loose approximations; but 
they will not be without their utility, when we desire to estimate the mean 
temperature of a place where thermometrical observations have not been 
made, by applying to it the results of observation at a neighboring place in 
the same latitude, but having a different elevation. Thus, for example, we 
know the mean annual heat of Fredonia, on the southern shore of Lake 
Erie, in latitude 42° 26', to be 48° .85, the altitude of the place of observa- 
tion being seven hundred and eight feet ; but we do not know the 
temperature of the neighboring region around Chautauque Lake, the eleva- 
tion of which is about one thousand five hundred feet. But if we divide the 
difference, eight hundred feet, by two hundred feet, the quotient, 4°, 
subtracted from 48° .85, gives us 44° .85 as the mean temperature of the 
upper table. 

Again, as the mean temperature of Marietta, in latitude 39° 25', at the 
elevation of six hundred feet above the sea, is 52° .81, if the average hight 

* Edin. Encyclop. of Geography : Vol. I, Art. Meteorology, 
f Kaemptz's Course of Meteorology. 
30 



466 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

of the Appalachian chain, in the same latitude, be taken at two thousand 
feet, the difference, one thousand four hundred feet, corresponds to 7°, which 
subtracted from 52° .81, gives 45° .81 as the mean annual heat of those 
mountain tops. 

When we turn to Fort Leavenworth, in latitude 39° 22', at an elevation 
of nine hundred and twelve feet, we find the mean temperature 52° .34. 
An inclined plain stretches eastwardly from the Rocky Mountains. If the 
ascent on this plain for five thousand feet give a reduction of 1° of mean 
temperature for every four hundred feet of elevation, the result is 12° .50 ; 
if for the next five thousand feet of mountain elevation, two hundred feet 
give one degree, the result is 25°, equal to 37° .50, which, subtracted from 
52° .34, indicates 14° .84 as the mean annual heat of those summits. 

VI. Calculated Mean Temperatures. — From the foregoing data I 
have constructed the following theoretical table of mean temperatures. In 
making the calculation, three decrements of temperature, each the mean term 
of several ascertained ratios of diminution of heat from increase of latitude, 
have been employed. First: For the portion which lies between the equa- 
torial belt, N. Lat. 10°, and the tropic, Lat. 23° 30', the decrement is 0° .33 
(thirty-three hundredths of a degree) of mean temperature, for one degree of 
latitude, and 0° .0055 for a minute. Second : From the Tropic of Cancer to 
the thirtieth parallel, which cuts the northern margin of the Gulf of Mexico, 
and passes over the northern suburb of the city of New Orleans, the 
decrement for a degree of latitude is 1° .16 of mean temperature (one degree 
sixteen hundredths), and 0°. 0193 for every minute; the stations being, like 
the last, at the level of the sea. Third: From the thirtieth to the forty- 
eighth parallel, the decrement is 1° .655 mean temperature (one degree 
six hundred and fifty-five thousandths) for every degree of latitude, and 
0° .0276 for every minute; the assumed elevation being six hundred feet 
above the level of the sea — that which supports the densest stratum of our 
population. Fourth: For the few places which lie far in the north, a 
separate table has been found necessary. 



PART II. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



467 



Table op Calculated Mean Annual Temperatures. 



Ratios. 


N. 


L. 


M. 


T. 




Ratios. 


N. 


L. 


M. T. 






10° 


00' 


82° 


.12 






30° 


30 


69° .29 






11 


00 


81 


.79 








31 


00 


68 .46 






12 


00 


81 


.46 






to 

CM 


31 


30 


67 .63 






13 


00 


81 


.13 






O 


32 


00 


66 .80 






14 


00 


80 


.80 






O 

o 


32 


30 


65 .97 




1 ° 


15 


00 


80 


.47 






© 


33 


00 


65 .14 




2^ 


15 


30 


80 


.31 






S 


33 


30 


64 .31 


4 


perati 
— for 
)55. 


16 
16 


00 
30 


80 
79 


.14 

.97 






"3 


34 
34 


00 
30 


63 .48 
62 .65 


| 


g^« 


17 


00 


79 


.81 




EH 
S3 


O 


35 


00 


61 .82 


ft 

o 


„.« 


17 

18 


30 
00 


79 
79 


.64 

.48 




ft 


1 


35 

36 


30 
00 


60 .99 
60 .16 


^ 




18 


30 


79 


.31 




ft 
ft 

Pi 

P 


1 


36 


30 


59 .33 


P 

h3 


decre? 

Latiti 

Lati 


19 
19 


00 
30 


79 

78 


.15 

.98 




co 
o 


37 
37 


00 
30 


58 .50 
57 .67 


'S'S 


20 


00 


78 


.82 




H 


© 


38 


00 


56 .84 




•Jo 


20 


30 


78 


.65 




ts 


-2 


38 


30 


56 .01 




c3 rH 

Oh 


21 


00 


78 


.49 




Z/2 


KS 


39 


00 


55 .18 






21 


30 


78 


.32 




ft 

O 


ft? 


39 


30 


54 .35 






22 


00 


78 


.16 




ft 


O 
Q 


40 


00 


53 .52 






22 


30 


77 


.99 




ft 

p 

£4 




40 


30 


52 .69 






23 


00 


77 


.83 




H 


.2 
■ 


41 


00 


51 .86 






23 


30 


77 


.66 




ft 
<1 


1 


41 


30 


51 .03 




l 


24 


00 


77 


.08 




ft 




42 


00 


50 .20 




g^H 


24 


30 


76 


.50 






"s 


42 


30 


49 .37 


*j 


3 h 


25 


00 


75 


.92 




ft 


• 

Oh 


43 


00 


48 .54 


GO 


U« 


25 


30 


75 


.34 




<1 


s 

© 


43 


30 


47 .71 


H 


S^o 


26 


00 


74 


.76 








44 


00 


46 .88 


H 


o o 


26 


30 


74 


.18 






o 

© 


44 


30 


46 .05 


ft 


O © 


27 


00 


73 


.60 








45 


00 


45 .22 


O 




27 


30 


73 


.02 






© 


45 


30 


44 .39 




© 5 "-5 


28 


00 


72 


.44 






C4-1 


46 


00 


43 .56 


ft 


^ft} 


28 


30 


71 


.86 






O 
O 


46 


30 


42 .73 




O o 


29 


00 


71 


.28 








47 


00 


41 .90 




•2o 


29 


30 


70 


.70 






W 


47 


30 


41 .07 




03 ■"* 


30 


00 


70 


.12 








48 


00 


40 .24 



VII. Ratios op decrease op Temperature above the Forty-eighth 
Degree of Latitude. — The places, lying far in the north, at which 
observations have "been made, may be thrown into two groups, as they lie 
to the east or west of the one hundredth meridian. They are embraced in 
the following table, which shows for each station the rate of decrease of 
temperature from the forty-eighth parallel, according to observation : 



468 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



Ratios of decrease of Mean Temperature from the forty- eighth 
degree of n. lat. to the utmost limit of observation. 



Continental Stations west of the one hun- 
dredth meridian, in the direction of the 
Rocky Mountains. 



Littoral and Insular Stations, lying (with 

the exception of Melville Island) east of 

the one hundredth meridian. 



To Cumberland House, . . . 1° .37 

Fort Chipewyan, 1 .03 

Reliance, 1 .30 

Simpson, .90 

Enterprise, 1 .60 

Franklin, 1 .34 

Mean Ratio, 1 .25 



To Fort Churchill, 1° .00 

Winter Island, 1 .1 

Igloolik, 1 .77 

Felix Harbor, 1 .67 

Port Bowen, 1 .45 

Melville Island, 1 .54 



Mean Ratio, 



1 .55 



It appears from these results, that the increase of cold in going north, 
from the forty- eighth parallel, over Hudson Bay, to the Polar Sea, is at a 
greater ratio, by thirty hundredths, than in going north, from the same 
latitude, in a line nearly parallel, and much nearer, to the Rocky Mountains. 
The course of the latter series of stations, varies many degrees west from 
north, and comes out to the Polar Sea, not very far east of Behring's 
Straits; that of the former follows the magnetic meridians, and terminates in 
the pole, or maximum of cold, between the head of Baffin Bay and Melville 
Island, about 30° of longitude further east. Thus, with the exception of 
the summits of the northern extremity of the Rocky Mountains, the coldest 
part of the continent of North America is that which lies between Hudson 
Bay and Lancaster Sound. Within these limits is spread out that desolate 
region aptly called the " Barren Ground; " while the ices of the sounds and 
straits beyond, have baffled the skill and enterprise of every navigator. The 
northern limit of the temperate zone, in this region, has a mean annual heat 
of 5°; its southern limit, on the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, enjoys a heat 
of 77° ; thus, in traversing the zone, through 43° of latitude, the annual 
mean temperature sinks 72°, or 1° .67 reduction of annual heat for every 
degree of latitude. But if we traverse the zone, in a direction parallel to 
the Rocky Mountains, that is, on the great Missouri plain, and pass Fort 
Franklin, in the valley of Mackenzie River, the lowering of the annual heat 
is only 61°, giving a ratio of 1° .42 as the reduction of temperature for each 
degree of latitude. 

VIII. Further use of the foregoing Tables. — Although these tables 
present only approximations to the truth, they will not be found useless to 
those who live in places where no thermometrical observations have been 
made. Should the reader wish by their aid to determine (approximately) 
the mean temperature of any particular spot, he must know its latitude, and, 
if it be beyond the forty- eighth parallel, its longitude, and in all cases its 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 469 

probable elevation above the level of the sea; when, by a resort to the 
ratios of the table, he can readily make the calculation. In the first section 
(within the tropics) one minute of latitude diminishes the temperature 
0° .0055 (fifty-five ten thousandths of a degree), which being multiplied 
by the number of minutes which his station lies above any given latitude of 
the table, will show him what deduction to make from the temperature of 
that latitude. For example, the temperature of the twentieth parallel, is 
78° .82; if it be required. to know the temperature of N. Lat. 20° 45', the 
ratio for one minute, .0055, must be multiplied by 45', which gives .25, 
which being subtracted from 78° .82, leaves 78° .57 as the amount sought. 

In the second section of the table, the ratio of 1° .16 for a degree of 
latitude, gives 0° .0193 (one hundred and ninety-three ten thousandths of 
a degree) for every minute; which must be, as in the other case, multiplied 
by the number of minutes of any particular station above a given parallel, 
and the product subtracted from the temperature of that parallel. 

In the third section of the table, a degree of latitude reduces the mean 
heat 1° .655, which is, for each minute, 0° .0276 (two hundred and seventy- 
six ten thousandths), to be multiplied, as in the other cases, by the number 
of minutes from the nearest parallel below, and the amount subtracted from 
the heat of that parallel. 

But in all cases allowance must be made for the difference of altitude. 
In the first two sections of the table, the ratios refer to the level of the sea ; 
in the third, to an average elevation of six hundred feet. Let us take an 
example. Pompey, in N. Lat. 42° 56', has, from observation, a mean tem- 
perature of 42° .84, which is 6° .03 less than that from calculation ; but 
the altitude of Pompey, one thousand three hundred feet, or seven hundred 
feet above the average, reduces its temperature 3° .50, and this being 
added to the temperature from observation, raises it 46° .34. 

IX. Atmospheric and Terrestrial Mean Temperatures Compared. — 
Whatever may be the reality of internal, terrestrial fires, we cannot doubt, 
that the relative temperature of the crust of the earth, in different latitudes, 
not less than that of the atmosphere, is largely attributable to the sun. It 
is now well known, that the influence of that luminary, in the torrid and 
temperate zones, extends to the depth of eighty or one hundred feet. 
Through that depth, the summer and winter temperatures vary from each 
other. The maximum of this variation is found at the surface; its mini- 
mum at the depth just mentioned, where lies the plane of invariable 
heat. From this plane, the temperature increases, at the ratio of one degree 
of Fahrenheit for about every forty feet of descent. It is only, however, in 
the middle latitudes, that the mean temperatures of the air and earth coin- 
cide. In the south, that of the former is greater — in the north, that of the 
latter. Hence the curves of terrestrial and atmospheric mean tempera- 
ture decussate in the temperate zone, at an exceedingly acute angle. It 
follows from these facts, that to determine the atmospheric mean heat, by 
that of the crust of the earth, we must, in the southern latitudes, add to 
the latter — in the northern, subtract from it ; but a sufficient number of 



470 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



observations have not yet been made, through the Interior Valley, to indi- 
cate with precision the ratios of difference. I will proceed to state the 
few which have been made by myself, or published by others, beginning in 
the south. 

1. Near Mobile Bay, in north latitude 30° 42', I found the tempera- 
ture of the Thundering Spring*, and that of another almost as copious, to be 
respectively, 69° and 68° — giving the mean, 68° .5, to which half a degree 
must be added to make it equal to the year, 69°. Now from three years 
observations, Doctor North got 70°. 3, as the mean annual heat of Mobile. 
Thus, the temperature of the air at that place, near the thirty-first parallel, 
is 1°.3 higher than that of the earth. 

2. A most copious perennial spring, at Tuscumbia, Alabama,! had a 
temperature of 60°, in the latter part of the month of June. As at that 
period of the year, the mean heat of such a spring is the same as for the 
year, no correction is required. I do not know the mean temperature of 
the air at Tuscumbia; but that of Huntsville, a short distance to the east, 
in north latitude 34° 45', according to observations, through thirteen years, 
by the Eev. Mr. Allan, is 59°.73, or less than one-third of a degree below 
the heat of the spring — suggesting equality, at the thirty-fifth parallel of 
latitude. 

3. At Hudson, south of Lake Erie, in the State of Ohio, in north lati- 
tude 41° 15', Professor LoomisJ made three years' observations on the tem- 
perature of two wells, one a little below, and the other as far above, fifty 
feet in depth. For a part of the time, they were made nearly every other 
month — for the remainder, in the months which he found to present the 
extremes. I have condensed the means of the whole, into the following 
table. 



MONTHS. 


MEAN TEMP. 


ABOVE. 


BELOW. 


RESULTS AND COMPARISONS. 


January, ... 
February,.. 

March, 

June, 


O 

48.25 
48.47 
49.12 
49.30 

50.07 

50.07 

1 49.50 




0.05 

0.82, 
0.82 
0.25 


O 

1.00 

0.78 
0.13 


Range from Jan. ) -j «o 
to August, ) 

Mean heat of wells,49.25 
Mean heat of air, 47 40 

Excess of earth's ) -j or 
temperature, ) 


August, 

September,. 
November,.. 



It appears from this table, that in advancing north from 34° 45', to lati- 
tude 41° 15', the heat of the earth rises over that of the air 1° .85, or 
nearly (.3) three tenths of a degree for one of latitude. 

4. Cold Spring, at Castalia, near Sandusky City, within a few min- 
utes of the latitude of Hudson, but at a level five hundred feet lower, had, 



* P. 56. 



f P. 223. 



i Silliman's Journal, Vol. 41. 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



471 



in the month of August, a temperature of 52°. Correcting it, by subtract- 
ing .82, according to the above table, its annual heat is 51°. 18, from which 
according to the same table, 1°.85 must be. deducted for the excess of the 
heat of the earth, leaving, for the mean temperature of the air, 49°.33, or 
1°.90 more than that of Hudson; but when we deduct from it, 2°, for the 
difference of altitude, we have 47°.33, a number nearly identical with that 
of Hudson ; and well-fitted to show that a permanent spring, with a large 
volume of water, may, by the proper corrections, be made to indicate the 
mean temperature of the air. 

5. At Oneida Conference Academy, New York, in north latitude 42° 55', 
observations were made, in each month, through three successive years, on 
the temperature of a well. I have condensed the whole into the following 
table, where the annual temperature is compared with that of the air, from 
observations continued for seventeen years.* 



MEAN TEMP. 



January, .. 
February,. 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, .... 
September, 
October,.... 
November,. 
December,. 



46.33 
45.50 
46.50 
46.94 
46.11 
46,61 
47.40 
48.33 
50.10 
50.00 
48.25 
46.83 



ABOVE THEj BELOW THE 
YEAR. YEAR. 



o 


o 




1.12 




1.95 




.95 




.51 




1.34 




.84 




.05 


.88 




2.65 




2.55 




.80 






.62 



REMARKS AND COMPARISONS. 



Temperature of April obvi- 
ously too high — that of 
March, too low. 

Range from Feb. to Sep., 4°.60 
Mean temperature of well,47°.45 

Mean temperature of air, 43°.58 

i 
i 

Excess of well over air, 3°. 83 



At this place, we find the mean heat of the earth to be 3°. 83, or 2° more 
than at Hudson, while it lies only 1° 40" further north ; showing a ratio of 
increase of the difference between terrestrial and atmospheric mean heat, of 
2° .3 for a degree of latitude. When, however, we compare this station 
with Huntsville, where we have placed our zero, 8° of latitude further south, 
we find the ratio of increase of terrestrial over atmospheric mean heat, to 
be only .48, or less than half a degree, for every degree of latitude. 

6. At Rochester, north latitude 43° 07', the Reverend Mr. Deweyt 
ascertained the temperature of an artesian well, two hundred feet deep, to 
be 50°, the observations being made in July and December. From this, we 
must deduct 2°, for the increase of heat below the plane of invariable tem- 
perature, leaving 48° as the heat above that place. Now the mean atmos- 
pheric heat of Rochester, from two long series of observations, is 46°.42, 



* Regent's Reports University of New York. 



f Ibid. 



472 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which, deducted from 48°, gives only 1°.58 for the excess of the fountain 
over the atmosphere, which is even less than that of Oneida. If we di- 
vide this by the difference in latitude, nearly 8°, between Huntsville and 
Eochester, we have (.2) two-tenths of a degree for the ratio of increase of 
divergence, between the terrestrial and atmospheric curves. 

7. From six years' observations, the mean temperature of the Island 
of Mackinac, north latitude 45° 51', is 40°. In a recess of the eastern 
escarpment of the Island, two hundred feet below its summit, a permanent 
spring bursts out from the limestone strata, the temperature of which, I 
found, at the end of July, to be 44°, which may be received as its annual 
mean. This is 4° above the atmospheric mean, and 2°. 18 more than the 
difference at Hudson, 4° 36' further south. These numbers give a ratio 
of (.48) forty-eight hundredths, for a degree of latitude; but when we di- 
vide the 4° by the difference of latitude, 11°, between Huntsville and Mack- 
inac, we obtain the ratio (.36) thirty-six hundredths. 

The mean of all the ratios, counting from Huntsville, as zero, is .33, or 
one-third of a degree. Thus, in advancing north from the thirty-fifth to the 
forty- sixth parallel, every three degrees of latitude add one degree to the 
range of the mean heat of the earth over that of the air; and as three degrees of 
latitude sink the mean temperature five degrees, it follows, that a change to 
that amount will indicate a change of one degree in the relative temperatures 
of the earth and air. 

I am far from regarding this as a reliable conclusion ; but hope that what 
has been said, may incite those who are favorably situated., to more careful 
and accurate observations than have yet been made. All the stations which 
have been named, except one, lie within a few degrees of longitude of each 
other. I must now say something of one, lying six degrees west of the 
most western of those stations. 

8. Fort Snelling, situated in north latitude 44° 53', has a mean tem- 
perature, deduced from eighteen years' observations, of 45°. 15. The tem- 
perature of a spring, in Carver's Cave, a few miles from the Fort, was found 
by Mr. Schoolcraft, on the 2d of August, to be 47°. On the 16th of July, 
in a subsequent year, Major Long found it 46°.* The months were such, 
that no correction is necessary. If we take the mean of these observations, 
46°. 5, as the heat of the earth, and deduct from it that of the air, the dif- 
ference is only 1°.35, which divided by the number of degrees of latitude 
between the Cave and Huntsville, gives a ratio of (.135) one hundred and 
thirty-five thousandths. 

This low ratio suggests an inquiry into the influence of local causes. To 
the north of Carver's Cave, is the table land between the sources of the 
Mississippi and Lake Superior, the elevation of which is about seven hun- 
dred feet above the Cave. From this plateau the strata dip to the south, 
and it seems probable, that the spring consists of water conducted down from 
that higher level and more northern latitude, which must of necessity 

* Second Expedition. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 473 

reduce its temperature below that of the earth, where it bursts out. That a 
spring may have its source so distant from the place where it is inspected, 
as to give a different temperature from that of the spot, cannot be doubted ; 
and this must be taken into account. There are other circumstances, more- 
over, which must not be overlooked. 

If the spring or well be near the surface, and the quantity of water varia- 
ble or not very great, much more frequent observations are necessary, than 
under opposite circumstances. If the well should be broad and its depth 
small, the sudden changes of atmospheric heat will perpetually vary that of 
the surface of the water. Again, cold rains, and the melting in spring of 
great snows, may be the means of cooling superficial wells and springs. If 
these sources of error should be disregarded, inaccurate results will of course 
be obtained. 

X. Influence of the Northern Lakes on Mean Temperature. — - 
The Northern Lakes of the St. Lawrence Basin, do not appear to 
exert any influence on the mean temperature of the air. If we compare 
Bloomington, Prairie du Chien, Winnebago, and Fort Snelling, all in the in- 
terior, with Fredonia, Rochester, Fort Gratiot, Mackinac, and Fort Brady, 
lying among the Lakes, and make due allowance for differences of latitude 
and elevation, we find, that the higher mean temperatures sometimes belong 
to one class of stations, and sometimes, to the other, while the average dif- 
ference of the whole, is less than a quarter of a degree. 

XL Variation in the Mean Annual Heat of the same Places in 
different Years. — This, for a considerable number of places, has been 
presented in the General Table of Mean Temperatures, from which the follow- 
ing selections have been made. The numbers of the first column belong to 
that table, and will direct the attention of the reader to the position of the 
stations embraced in this. Here, as there, they are arranged from south to 
north. To fit these results for comparison with each other, the observations 
at every station should have been continued for the same number of years. 
As it is, most of them afford but a distant approximation to the truth. 



474 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[BOOK I. 



Greatest Variation in the Annual Mean Heat of the same places 
in a series oe years. 



6 


Place. 


Range. 


M 

< 
H 




6 
ft 


Place. 


Range. 


m 

< 

m 


7 


Ubajoy, 


o 

3.80 


4 


44 


Springville, 


o 

5.90 


8 


8 


Key West, 


1.62 


6 




45 


Prattsburg, 


11.14 


6 


9 


Tampa Bay, 


1.82 


5 




46 


Cayuga, 


3.00 


9 


14 


Thirtieth Deg. of Lat. 


3.43 


11 




47 


Middlebury, 


7.49 


15 


15 


Pensacola, 


4.34 


6 




48 


Canandaigua, 


5.18 


8 


19 


Fort Jesup, 


3.72 


7 




50 


Pompey, 


7.31 


13 


20 


Natchez, 


3.80 


10 




51 


Onondaga, 


6.88 


12 


23 


Huntsville, 


3.74 


13 




55 


Rochester, 


5.56 


15 


26 


Nashville, 


3.38 


5 




56 


Lewiston, 


6.20 


11 


27 


Louisville, 


5.00 


6 




57 


Mexico, N. Y., 


3.91 


8 


30 


St. Louis, 


5.81 


16 




59 


Lowville, 


7.23 


16 


31 


Portsmouth, 


5.97 


20 




61 


Pottsdam, 


5.44 


18 


32 


Cincinnati, 


5.47 


21 




62 


Fort Howard, 


4.32 


9 


34 


Marietta, 


5.59 


2(3 




64 


Fort Snelling, 


5.69 


8 


35 


Steubenville, 


6.33 


12 




65 


Montreal, 


7.37 


15 


37 


Bloomington, 


11.20 


9 




67 


Fort Brady, 


3.86 


6 


43 


Fredonia, 


6.68 


n 













1. A glance of the eye upon this table discloses that, as we advance from 
south to north, the difference between the coldest and hottest years in- 
creases ; that is, as the annual mean temperature lessens, the range of libra- 
tion in different years increases. I have sought to ascertain the law which 
governs these inversely-varying quantities. By averaging the mean tem- 
perature of twenty stations, varying from 70° to 40°. 5, a mean temperature 
of 52° is obtained. At these stations, observations had been made through 
periods varying from nine to twenty- six years, and the mean libration is 6°. 16. 
Now it is well known, that in the equatorial regions, the mean temperature 
of which is 82°, the difference between one year and another, at the same 
place, is so little that we have there the zero of libration. The amount, 
6°. 16, then, is the result of the difference between 82° and 52°=30°. But 
if we divide 6°. 16 by 30°, we obtain 0°.205 (two hundred and five thou- 
sandths) of a degree of temperature of libration, for every degree of mean 
annual temperature lost. Ptejecting the fraction (five thousandths), we have 
a ratio of (0°. 2) two-tenths of increasing heat, of libration, for one degree of 
decreasing mean annual heat ; and, conversely, five degrees of the latter 
originating one degree of the former. The application of this law is abun- 
dantly simple. The mean annual heat of the place must "be subtracted from 
82°, and the difference multiplied by (.2) two-tenths — the product is the 
range of libration, or difference between the coldest and hottest years at 
that place. For example : The difference between the mean temperature 
of Portsmouth, and the equatorial mean, 82°, is 26°.64, which being multi- 
plied by .2 (two-tenths) gives 5°.33, which is but .64 (less than two - 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 475 

thirds) of a degree, different from the range between the coldest and hottest 
year, as ascertained by observations continued for twenty years. Again: 
The mean annual temperature of Montreal, is 37°.43 below 82°, which mul- 
tiplied by .2, gives 7°.49 as the range of annual libration, which, observa- 
tions continued through fifteen years, have placed at 7°. 37, only an eighth 
part of a degree less. In all cases, the results of calculation do not so 
closely coincide with those of observation, but generally vary less than a de- 
gree ; although at many places, the observations have not been continued 
long enough, to complete the cycle of yearly variation. By the formula 
which has been obtained, if the annual heat of the year were settled by an 
observation made in June or December, on a well, eighty or one hundred feet 
deep, or a copious and permanent spring, issuing from beneath a hill, it 
would be possible, at once, to determine, with (approximative) certaint}^ the 
temperature of the hottest and coldest years that would ever occur there.* 

2. By the formula deduced from the table, we are enabled to investi- 
gate the influence of large bodies of water, as the Northern Lakes, on the 
librations of annual temperature. In calculating the range for all the sta- 
tions around those Lakes, it is found, I believe, with one exception, to be 
greater than that afforded by observation. Thus, the average of eight sta- 
tions, is, by observation, 4°. 81, for the range of libration, but from calcula- 
tion it should be 7°. 24, or more than 50 per cent, greater. The exception 
to which I have referred, is presented by Fredonia, where the range from 
calculation is equal to that from observation; but this only confirms the rule; 
as a shelf of the Appalachian Mountains, seven hundred feet higher than 
that place, terminates by a bold escarpment, within a few miles of Lake 
Erie, and it lies between them ; thus the influence of the Lake is neutralized 
by that of the mountains. No other station, around the Lakes, bears the 
same relation to mountains. Thus the restraining influence of the Lakes is 
clearly established. They do not modify the mean annual temperature, but 
limit its extreme range in different years. 

XII. Isothermal Curves. — The curves of equal mean temperature, 
which traverse the Interior Valley, cannot yet be delineated, from the want 
of a sufficient number of observations. In the West, from the cooling influ- 
ence of the Cordilleras of Mexico, and the Bocky Mountains, extending into 



* It will bo seen that Bloomington, Iowa, and Prattsburg, New York, present ranges 
between the hottest and coldest years, that are quite anomalous. I suspect that in both 
cases there is a mistake. The cold year, 1847, in the Bloomington observations, was 
4°.80 below the average mean heat of that place ; but at St. Louis, only 2° 49' further 
south, in the same longitude, that year fell only °.66 below the mean temperature of 
sixteen years ; and at Marietta, two degrees farther south, but ten degrees farther east, 
the mean heat of the same year fell only °.81 below that of its general mean tempera- 
ture. In the case of Prattsburg, the extraordinary year, 1839, fell 7° below the general 
mean of that place, but the mean heat of the same year at Springville, was 1°.39 above 
the average yearly heat of that place, although they lie nearly in the same latitude, and 
only 1° 30' of longitude apart. It seems quite impossible, that places so contiguous 
should, in the same year, have temperatures varying so widely from their respective 
mean temperatures. 



476 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the polar circle, and to the East, from a similar though smaller influence, of 
the same kind, exerted by the Appalachian chain, from the latitude of 33° 
to 48° or 50° north, we know that the curves of equal mean temperature, 
cannot lie parallel to the lines of latitude, except for a certain distance in 
the middle of the Valley. East of the Mississippi, as they approach the 
Appalachian Mountains, they must bend to the south ; west of that river, as 
they ascend the great inclined plane, they must curve in the same direction ; 
and on reaching the Rocky Mountains, must of necessity, extend along 
their slopes, rising gradually, as the latitude lessens ; but not attaining the 
summits of those mountains, until we come within the tropics. It results 
from these data, that the isothermal lines of the Yalley, are nearly parallel to 
those of one side of a compressed ellipsis or long oval, with their eastern 
curved extremities much shorter than their western. Where they intersect 
the trough of the Mississippi, they have their highest latitude. Thus, the 
curve of 67°, descending from the Cordilleras, near Xalapa, in north la ritude 
19° 30', passes near Natchez, on the Mississippi, 12° further north, that 
number being equivalent to four thousand feet of difference in their eleva- 
tion. From Natchez, it probably continues eastwardly on the same parallel 
of latitude. The curve of 62°, traversing the City of Mexico in latitude 
19° 26', enters the State of Arkansas, about the latitude of 33° 30', after 
passing near Fort Towson, cuts the Mississippi 14° north of Mexico, crosses 
the State of Alabama, a little south of Huntsville, and ascending the moun- 
tains of Georgia, turns again to the south. But this configuration is true of 
that portion of the Valley only, which is bounded on the east by the Appa- 
lachian Mountains. South of those mountains, below the latitude of 33° 
north, the eastern extremities of the curves of temperature, do not bend to 
the south, as the surface rises but little above that of the Gulf and the delta 
of the Mississippi; but the western ends of the curves still bend to the south 
as they ascend the mountains of Mexico. Above the latitude of 48° north, 
a different configuration occurs. As the curves descend from the Rocky 
Mountains, they rise rapidly to the north, until they approach the meridi- 
ans of the JPple of maximum Cold, when, independently of elevation, they 
are deflected to the south, again (it is probable) to ascend, on approaching 
the eastern edge of the Continent. Thus, the isothermal curve of 17°, which 
passes Fort Franklin in north latitude 65°, and west longitude 123°, after 
having advanced rapidly to the north on descending from the mountains, is 
bent to the south, and by the time it reaches the 80th degree of longitude, 
must, according to the temperature of Winter Island, have sunk as low as 
the 58th degree of latitude ; afterward to ascend, on advancing to Davis' 
Straits. In traversing the Valley, then, this curve is serpentine, presenting 
in the western part a vertex to the north — in its eastern, a vertex to the 
south ; in the latter of which we find the southern limit of the Pole of 
Cold. 

XIII. Alleged greater Heat of the Middle Latitudes of the Interior 
Valley, than of the Atlantic Plain. — In 1783, Mr. Jefferson pub- 
lished, that the Basin of the Ohio was warmer, by the amount of three 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 477 

degrees of latitude, than the maritime "belt east of the mountains* ; and 
about twenty years afterward, M. Volney,f on returning from his travels 
through this country, adopted the same conclusion. In 1815, I endeavored 
to show, J that the opinion to which those distinguished writers had given 
currency was erroneous. At that time, the number of reliable observa- 
tions was small, compared with the present ; yet the error into which Mr. 
Jefferson had fallen, by a premature generalization, was correctly pointed 
out ; as numerous observations on both sides of the mountains, have since 
shown. As it is not in the plan of this work to institute comparisons be- 
tween the climate and diseases of the Interior Valley, and the regions beyond 
the mountains, which bound it to the east and west, I shall limit myself to 
the assertion which has been made, leaving it with others, to compare the 
observations, which show that in the same latitudes the temperature of the 
climates on the opposite sides of the Appalachian range, is substantially 
the same. The physician, then, of Maryland or Pennsylvania, who would 
advise his patient to emigrate to a milder climate, must not point out the 
State of Ohio; nor must the invalid of Virginia, expect a warmer climate by 
removing to Kentucky. Much of the popular perpetuation of this error, has 
come from the direction of the great current of immigration into the middle 
latitudes of the Mexican, and the southern portion of the St. Lawrence 
Basin. It has been largely from higher to lower latitudes, and yet it was 
all, in the phraseology of the people and the profession, to the "West. They 
reached a warmer climate, by going south, and without investigation pro- 
nounced it the consequence of traveling westwardly. 

XIV. No Change op Mean Temperature resulting prom the Settle- 
ment op the Valley. — Whatever may be the influence of the settlement 
and cultivation of a new country, on its mean temperature, the Interior Val- 
ley has not undergone such a degree of transformation, as might produce an 
appreciable effect. An immense proportion of it, is in the same condition as 
when the French first ascended the estuary of the St. Lawrence, or en- 
camped among the swamps of the Mississippi. The greatest changes of 
surface, have been effected on the eastern side of the Mississippi, be- 
tween the Tennessee River and the Lakes ; and in that region, if any- 
where, a change of mean temperature has taken place. There are no facts, 
however, which indicate such a change. At the beginning of the present 
century, the population of the region mentioned was exceedingly sparse, and 
no thermometrical observations were recorded, to show the mean tempera- 
ture of any spot, while the country was still a wilderness. The earliest 
series of observations were made, in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, 
by Colonel Jared Mansfield, Surveyor General of the United States. 
They were begun in 1806, and continued for three years. The results, in 
connection with observations by myself, in Cincinnati, for the next five years, 

* Notes on Virginia. f View of the Soil and Climate of the U. S. 

t Picture of Cincinnati, by Daniel Drake. 1815. 



478 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

were published, in 1815.* The mean deduced from the whole, was 54°. 25. 
The mean resulting from observations by Professor Ray, from 1835 to 1847, 
is 53°.36, giving a difference of less than nine-tenths of a degree — alto- 
gether within the limits of inaccurate observation and incorrect instruments. 
From the middle term of one of these periods to that of the other, is about 
one-third of a century ; but that time has effected no change, although the 
increase of the population and the consequent destruction of the forest, have 
been at a high ratio. 



SECTION II. 

EXTREMES OF COLD AND HEAT. 

I. The Table. — An inquiry into the lowest and highest degrees of 
heat, at a place through the whole period of time in which observations are 
made, naturally follows on the study of the coldest and hottest years. The 
data for this inquiry are presented in the following table. The first column 
is for reference to the General Table of Mean Temperatures, where the posi- 
tion of each place can be found ; the second presents the mean temperature 
of each ; the third gives the amount of range ; the fourth, the percentage 
of range above or below mean temperature ; the fifth, the greatest cold ; the 
sixth, the greatest heat ; the seventh, the distance of the former below mean 
temperature ; the eighth, the distance above mean temperature ; the ninth, the 
percentage of the fall over the rise ; the tenth, the number of years of ob- 
servation. Those, it will be observed, vary widely from each other, for which 
great allowance must be made, in estimating the relative ranges of different 
places. Thus, if observations have been continued twenty years in one 
place, and only five in another, where the ranges in the long run are equal, 
the probability is four times as great, that both the extremes that can ever 
occur, will be included in the former period than in the latter. It is obvi- 
ously impossible to know the length of time between the lowest and 
highest degree of heat at any place. The greatest extremes which could 
possibly occur, might be within a few years of each other, or even happen 
in the same year ; and on the other hand, centuries might elapse, before each 
would be witnessed. It seems to me probable, that as the wood-land por- 
tions of the Valley become denuded of forest, the extremes will become 
greater. Both the hot and the cold winds will then have a more rapid 
sweep, and the sun, in summer, an increased power on the stratum of 
atmosphere which rests upon the earth. 

* Picture of Cincinnati. 



PART II. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



479 



Table op the Extremes of Annual Temperature 
Minima and Maxima. 



£5 *Z 






1 








Dist. 


Dist. 


Per ct. 






Mean 


• V 


? er cent. 






from 


from 


of 


t-i *" 




Tem- 


be 


Dn Mean 


Min- 


Max- 


Mean 


Mean 


down. 




PLACES. 


pera- 


B 


Temper- 


ima. 


ima. 


Temp. 


Temp. 


on up- 




ture. 


P3 


ature. 






to 


to 


ward 


ll 3 














Min. 


Maxi, 


range. 






o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


2 


Cumana, - - - 


81.5 








92 




12.8 




3 


Vera Cruz, - - - 


77.0 








90 




13.4 





6 


Havana,- - - - 


77.0 


36 




+59 


94 


18.0 


17.4 


5.8 


7 


Ubajoy, - - - - 


73.5 






+32 




41.5 






8 


Key West, - - - 


76.5 


40 




+50 


90 


26.5 


13.5 


96.3 


9 


Fort Brooke, - - 


72.4 


74 


3.0 


+20 


94 


52.4 


22.4 


142.6 


10 


Fort King, - - - 


71.6 


95 


32.8 


+11 


106 


60.6 


34.4 


95.9 


14 


30th Parallel, - - 


70.1 


86 


22.4 


+14 


100 


56.1 


29.9 


87.8 


15 


Pensacola, - - - 


68.4 


92 


34.5 


+ 6 


98 


62.4 


29.6 


108.0 


17 


Baton Rouge, - - 


67.5 


90 


33.3 


+10 


100 


57.5 


32.5 


77.4 


18 


Mobile, - - - - 


70.3 


70 


00.0 


+24 


94 


46.3 


23.7 


95.0 


20 


Natchez,- - - - 


66.8 


97 


45.2 





97 


66.8 


30.2 


121.8 


22 


Fort Towson, - - 


61.2 


103 


69.9 


— 3 


100 


64.2 


38.8 


65.2 


23 


Huntsville, - - - 


59.7 


105 


75.8 


— 9 


96 


68.7 


36.3 


89.5 


25 


Fort Gibson, - - 


61.1 


123 


101.3 


— 7 


116 


68.1 


54.9 


23.9 


26 


Nashville, - - - 


58.4 


118 


100.0 


—18 


99 


76.4 


40.6 


88.6 


27 


Louisville, - - - 


55.0 


110 


100.0 


—10 


100 


65.0 


45.0 


44.4 


29 


Jefferson Barracks, 


56.9 


119 


109.1 


—18 


101 


66.9 


43.1 


70.0 


30 


St. Louis, - - - 


55.3 


134 


142.3 


—25 


109 


80.3 


53.7 


49.8 


31 


Portsmouth, - - 


55.3 


106 


91.6 


— 6 


100 


61.3 


44.7 


37.4 


32 


Cincinnati, - - - 


53.8 


117 


119.3 


—18 


100 


70.8 


46.2 


53.2 


33 


Fort Leavenworth, 


52.3 


135 


158.1 


—30 


105 


82.3 


52.7 


56.4 


34 


Marietta, - - - 


52.8 


117 


121.5 


—18 


99 


70.8 


46.2 


53.3 


36 


Steubenville, - - 


50.8 


107 


90.9 


—12 


95 


62.8 


44.2 


42.2 


38 


Bloomington, - - 


50.0 


123 


146.0 


—25 


98 


75.0 


48.0 


56.2 


39 


Council Bluffs, - - 


51.1 


129 


157.0 


—21 


108 


71.1 


57.9 


26.6 


40 


Fort Armstrong, - 


50.6 


122 


141.1 


—24 


98 


74.6 


47.4 


57.6 


41 


Fort Dearborn,- - 


46.1 


114 


147.3 


— 22 


92 


68.1 


45.9 


48.1 


42 


Cuba, N. Y., - - 


41.4 


118 


185.0 


—26 


92 


67.4 


50.6 


37.3 


43 


Detroit Barracks, - 


46.9 


99 


111.0 


— 5 


94 


51.9 


47.1 


10.4 


44 


Fredonia, - - - 


48.8 


104 


113.1 


— 8 


96 


56.8 


47.2 


20.5 


45 


Springville, - - - 


44.8 


107 


138.8 


—14 


93 


58.8 


48.2 


22.2 


46 


Pratt sburg, - - - 


42.8 


119 


178.0 


—19 


100 


61.8 


57.2 


25.6 


47 1 Cayuga, - - - 


48.7 


106 


117.6 


—10 


, 96 


58.7 


47.3 


24.0 


48jMiddlebury,- - - 


46.6 


119 


155.3 


—17 


102 


63.6 


55.4 


14.7 


49iCanandaigua, - - 


46.0 


96 


108.7 


— 8 


88 


54.0 


42.0 


28.6 


50 Fort Gratiot, - - 


46.8 


127 


171.3 


—18 


109 


64.8 


62.2 


4.2 


51|Pompey, - - - 


42.8 


119 


178.0 


—26 


93 


68.8 


50.2 


36.0 


52 Onondaga, - - - 


47.1 


113 


140.0 


—14 


99 


61.1 


51.9 


45.8 


54 


; Fort Crawford, - - 


47.3 


132 


179.C 


—32 


100 


79.3 


52.7 


50.7 


5( 


) Rochester, - - - 


46.4 


:108 


132.7 


— 6 


102 


52.4 


55.6 




5, 


r Lewiston, - - - 


48.C 


102 


112.5 


— 6 


96 


54.0 


48.0 


12.5 


5£ 


I Mexico, N. Y., - - 


44.1 


120 


172.1 


—24 


. 96 


68.1 


51.9 


3.1 


51 


) Fort Winnebago, • 


J 44i 


>132 


194.C 


>~32 


99 


77.S 


54.1 


43.9 



480 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



Extremes oe Annual Temperature — Continued. 



IP'S 














Dist. Dist. iPerct. 


5 ra 

"SE-" 




Mean 




Per cent. 






from 


from of 


eg rt 




Tem- 


c3 
too 


on Mean 


Min- 


Maxi- 


Mean 


Mean] down. 


g s 

© o 


PLACES. 


pera- 


c3 


Temper- 


ima. 


ma. 


Temp. 


Temp, onup- 




ture. 


tf 


ature. 






to 


to 


ward 


^_— 














Min. 


Maxi. 


range. 






~ ~o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


o 


60 


Lowville, - - - 


43.7 


131 


200 


—35 


96 


78.7 


52.3 


50.5 


61 


Madison Barracks, - 


46.5 


106 


128 


—16 


90 


62.5 


43.5 


43.9 


62 


Potsdam, - - - 


43.5 


122 


180 


—28 


94 


71.5 


50.5 


41.4 


63 


Fort Howard, - - 


44.6 


132 


196 


-32 


100 


76.6 


55.4 


38.3 


64 


Penetanguishine, - 


45.1 


122 


170 


—32 


90 


77.1 


44.9 


36.1 


65 


Fort Snelling, - - 


45.1 


140 


210 


-40 


100 


85.1 


54.9 


52.2 


66 


Montreal, - - - 


44.6 


126 


180 


-28 


98 


72.6 


53.4 


35.8 


67 


Mackinac, - - - 


40.0 


113 


182 


—23 


90 


63.0 


50.0 


26.0 


68 


Fort Brady,- - - 


40.6 


131 


223 


—33 


98 


73.6 


57.4 


28.3 


70 


Cumberland House, 


32.0 


131 


309 


—44 


87 


76.0 


55.0 


38.2 


72 


Chipewyan, - 


29.2 


141 


329 


—44 


97 


73.2 


67.8 


26.6 


75 Fort Reliance, - - 


21.5 






—70 


— 








76 


Enterprise, - - - 


14.2 


135 


850 


—57 


78 


71.2 


63.8 


11.6 


77 


Fort Franklin, - - 


17.2 


133 


673 


—53 


80 


70.2 


62.8 


1.2 


78 


Winter Island, - - 


6.S 


96 


1311 


—42 


54 


48.8 


47.2 


3.6 


79 


Tgloolik, - - - - 


2.5 


100 


3900 


—50 


50 


52.5 


47.5 


10.5 


80 


Felix Harbor, - - 


3.6 


117 


3150 


—47 


70 


50.6 


66.4 




81 


Fort Bowen, - - 


3.6 


97 


2594 


—47 


50 


50.6 


46.4 


2.7 


82 


Melville Island. - 


—1.07 


115: 


11607 


—55 


60 


53.9 


61.1 





II. Relation of Range to Mean Temperature. — The intertropical 
observations, are too few, to disclose the relation between the extremes and 
the mean annual heat ; but they show that the latter is vastly greater than 
the former. This continues to be the case at Key West, in N. Lat. 
24° 34' ; but ceases at Tampa Bay, in Lat. 27° 57', where they are equal, 
and the mean heat is 72°. 40. If we may rely on a single observation, we 
may conclude, that in advancing to the north, from the equatorial regions, 
the range is less than the mean temperature, until the latter has sunk 10°. 
The Gulf of Mexico no doubt augments the influence of a low latitude, in 
restraining the extremes of cold and heat, for Ubajoy, an interior station, 
near Havana, evidently suffers a much wider range than that city; and Fort 
King, only fifty or sixty miles from the Gulf, with a mean temperature less 
than one degree lower, exhibited in three years a range 21° greater than 
Tampa suffered in nine. The range of Pensacola is 92°, which may be 
regarded as that of the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, in the mean 
temperature of 69°. From this base line we start into the interior of the 
continent, and up to the 48th parallel, that is, through 18° of latitude, 
which reduce the mean heat from 69° or 70° to 40° or 41°, we have a 
tolerable supply of reliable observations. In running the eye over this sec- 
tion of the table, we find that the range, with a few exceptions, is above 
100° — at one station up to 140°. But the ranges are in no regular 
relation to the mean annual temperatures. For example, the range at Fort 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 481 

Gibson and Cincinnati is the same, although the mean temperature of the 
former is 7° the greater ; the ranges for Nashville and Marietta are identi- 
cal, although their mean temperatures vary nearly 6° ; and the range at St. 
Louis is 11° greater than at Bloomington, while the mean annual heat of 
the latter is 6° less. When we advance beyond the forty-eighth parallel, in 
the line of stations which are found between Hudson Bay and the Rocky 
Mountains, we observe the same anomalies ; but at most of them the range 
is that which a single year presented. The highest among them, at Chip- 
ewyan, is 141°, but a degree above that of Fort Snelling, although their 
mean temperatures differ 14°; and two other stations, Fort Enterprise and 
Fort Franklin, with mean temperatures of 14° and 17°, have ranges of 
133° and 135°, identical with those of St. Louis and Fort Leavenworth, 
whose mean temperatures are, respectively, 38° less. For a further appre- 
hension of this matter, the reader may consult that column of the table, in 
which the relations of the range to the mean heat of each place is expressed 
per centum. The conclusion to which we are led is, that after advancing 
into the continent, beyond the influence of the Gulf, and keeping at a suffi- 
cient distance from the Lakes and Hudson Bay, the extremes of heat and 
cold have no fixed relation to the annual temperature, and are nearly or 
quite as great in the middle as in the northern latitudes of the Valley. But 
although they do not increase with the increase of latitude ? and the conse- 
quent decrease of mean temperature, they are not a fixed quantity; but 
vary among themselves, where the latitudes and conditions of the surface 
would lead us to expect uniformity. It thus appears, that intense degrees 
of cold and heat may be transiently produced within very limited spaces, by 
local atmospheric influences, which are not well understood. 

III. Influence of the Mountains on the Range of Temperature. — 
Eight of the western stations of the Valley, those nearest to the Rocky 
Mountains, present an average of 122° for the range; an equal number of 
stations, all lying considerably east of the Mississippi, and running through 
the same latitudes, give an average of 114°, showing the western ranges to 
be seven per centum greater than the eastern. This result is less than I 
expected; and the general impression is, that as we advance toward the 
Rocky Mountains, from the Basin of the Ohio River, the extremes become 
greater, at a ratio much higher than is indicated by the difference here pre- 
sented. I can only reconcile popular opinion with the results of scientific 
observation, by referring to the impetuous winds which sweep over the great 
grassy plain, and reduce the temperature of the living body, and all moist 
surfaces, by promoting evaporation, while their own temperature, only, is 
indicated by the dry thermometer. In this way, the tributaries of the 
Missouri may be covered with thicker ice than those of the Ohio, by the 
same thermometrical depression of temperature. A prevailing opinion is, 
that the immediate contiguity of mountains generates violent extremes of 
temperature ; but when we compare Huntsville, Nashville, and Steubenville, 
all lying near to spurs of the Appalachian Chain, which rise from one thou- 
sand two hundred to one thousand five hundred feet above them, with 
31 



482 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i 

Louisville and Cincinnati, which are much more remote, we find the average 
range at the two latter places 3° greater than at the three former. But this 
result does not, perhaps, overthrow the general opinion, for those stations lie 
on the windward side of the mountain chain, which, therefore, but seldom 
rolls back its currents of air upon them. 

IV. Influence of the Northern Lakes on the Extreme Range. — 
Ten stations, on or near the shores, bays, and connecting straits of the 
Lakes, give an average range 14° degrees less than an equal number of inland 
stations, lying east and west of them. This difference of about thirteen per 
centum, shows a restraining influence on the extreme range ; but it is not 
exerted at all stations, for the five highest of the lake series are, in the 
aggregate, equal to the five lowest of the inland series. These lake- stations 
are Howard, Brady, Gratiot, Penetanguishine, and Mexico, the relation of 
which to the lakes may be seen on the general hydrographical map 
(P/. I); the remaining five stations are Mackinac, Fredonia, Lewiston, 
Rochester, and Sackett's Harbor, the average of which is 22°, or twenty 
per centum below the average of the inland posts. Mackinac is an island, 
and the four other stations lie on the southern coast of Erie and Ontario. 
It is, then, on those coasts that the restraining lacustrine influence is 
chiefly felt. It is, moreover, not limited to the lake margins, but extends 
for many miles from them. Thus, the average of Springville, Canandaigua, 
Middlebury, Cayuga, and Onondaga, is 21°, or sixteen per centum below the 
average of the more inland stations, employed in this comparison. The 
whole of these places lie east of Lake Erie, and south of Lake Ontario, and 
are, therefore, to the winter leeward of those lakes, as well as Michigan, 
Huron, and Superior. As the summer winds do not blow over the other 
towns on the south sides of Erie and Huron, those lakes cannot, of course, 
restrain the range of temperature by lowering the maximum, but by keeping 
up the minimum. 

V. Influence of Hudson Bay and the Polar Sea on the Range of 
Temperature. — Meteorological observations have been made at one place 
only, on the shores of Hudson Bay, and I have not even seen a statement of 
the lowest and highest degree of heat at that station. In the maritime 
region to its north, observations have been made on three islands and two 
cape-coasts. The highest of the whole is but 117° — the average, 105°. 
Compared with the average of Fort Enterprise and Fort Franklin, the most 
northern inland stations to the west, the marine influence is decided ; the 
difference between the two groups of stations, being 29°, or twenty-eight 
per centum. The group we are now investigating lies within the limits of 
the Pole of Cold. 

VI. Relation of the Minima and Maxima, or Opposite Extremes 
of Temperature, to the Mean Annual Heat. — If we add the difference 
between mean temperature and the lowest degree of heat, to the difference 
between mean temperature and the highest, at each place, as set down in 
the foregoing table, and divide their sum by two, we find the quotient, 
with a few slight exceptions, to be less than the annual mean heat. Thus 



tart ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 483 

it is a law of our climate, that the range of temperature depends more on 
depression below, than elevation above mean heat. The reverse of this, I 
suppose, is the popular opinion. The proportion in which the minima and 
maxima of heat vary from the mean temperatures, is set down per centum, 
in the last column of the table, the numbers of which express the per 
centage of the greater or downward departure, from the less or upward. 
The most cursory inspection of this column of the table, shows that the 
variation among different places is considerable. A full development of the 
causes of these variations, is not perhaps attainable ; but an extended 
examination discloses that there are three regions where the differences 
between the upward and downward ranges are much reduced, in a few 
cases to equality, and in three or four, beyond that point ; so that the rise 
exceeds a little the fall from mean temperature. The regions in which this 
comparative reduction of the downward arm of the range is found, are the 
shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the Northern Lakes, and the Polar Sea. It 
does not, then, depend on variations — the annual temperature of different 
places has, in fact, no connection with it ; but results from the influence of 
adjacent bodies of water, which, in winter, whether in the north or south, 
enjoy a higher temperature than the continent. On the other hand, the 
vicinity of the Rocky or Appalachian Mountains, may, in places lying to 
their leeward, exert, in winter, a cooling influence, and thus augment the 
downward range. Hence we find that the causes which diminish the length 
of that part of the range, are precisely those which diminish the length of 
the whole range, as pointed out in the preceding number — Y. It may be 
assumed, however, that deep waters and high mountains reduce the upward 
range, as well as the downward, and this is probably the case ; but to a less 
extent. In examining the maxima of places on the shores of the Gulf, we 
find them less than in the interior, further north, and may therefore con- 
clude that they are kept in check, by the extensive oceanic surface to their 
windward ; and that if it were converted into a continental plain, the 
extreme heat of Yera Cruz, Key West, and other places around the Gulf, 
would be augmented. When we advance, northwardly, to the Lakes, we 
find that all their southern and western shores, are swept over by winds 
from the south-west, which keep up a high maximum ; while their breadth 
is so limited, that the hot currents of air reach their northern coasts, with- 
out suffering much reduction of temperature; hence the maxima of heat, on 
those coasts, is actually greater than on those of the Gulf. Thus the 
Lakes and the Gulf, restrain the range of temperature in different ways ; 
the former by diminishing the downward range, the latter by diminishing 
the upward : one acts as a warmer in winter, the other as a cooler in sum- 
mer. We are now prepared to understand how it is, that Rochester presents 
the anomaly, the only one from Key West to Winter Island through 42° 
of latitude, of having the lower portion of its range nearly six per centum 
less than the upward, while at every other station, within the latitud e 
mentioned, it is greater. The winds which reach it in summer, have tra- 
versed the vast plain to its south-west, and become greatly heated ; those 



484 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which pass over it in winter have swept across the lakes from the western 
extremity of Lake Superior, and have had their temperature increased; if 
they were replaced by land, the descent of the thermometer would not be 
arrested at — 6°, as it now is. The southern shore of Lake Ontario presents 
another anomaly, which requires to be noticed. Mexico, but 20' north of 
Rochester, and still nearer to the lake, presents a maximum only 6° below 
that town, but a minimum four times as great ; that is, — 24°. This again 
can be explained. Mexico lies at the narrow, eastern extremity of Lake 
Ontario, the axis of which is from south-west to north-east, and therefore 
the north winds reach it without traversing the Lakes. Thus, in estimating 
the influence of large bodies of water, on the places which surround them, 
reference must be had to the course of the cold and hot winds. 

Advancing to the Polar Sea, we find five insular or littoral stations, on 
three of which the descending range is a few degrees greater than the 
ascending ; and two other stations, in which the reverse occurs, the range 
above mean temperature being greater than below. Thus, within the Polar 
Circle, over the Pole of Cold, at the margin of a sea, whose ices never melt, 
the same approach to equality is found, between the downward and upward 
variations from mean temperature, as exist at Key West and Havana, 
where the tropic cuts the G-ulf of Mexico. In the former region, two 
causes seem operative in restraining the descent of the thermometer, and 
consequently reducing the minimum to nearly the same degree with the 
maximum. The first is the temperature of the sea, which cannot be sunk 
below the freezing point, though the ice which covers it may ; the second is, 
that no colder region exists, to pour over it a wind of lower temperature, 
than belongs to its own fitful and chopping gales. In evidence of this, we 
may refer to Fort Reliance, in the direction of the Rocky Mountains, which, 
with a mean temperature of 21°, has a depression of — 70°, or 15° more 
than that of Melville Island, whose mean heat is — 1°.07. In winter, the air 
from the summits of the Rocky Mountains, within the Polar Circle, descends 
upon Reliance, which, at the same time, is surrounded by land instead of 

water. 

VII. Continental Extremes. — It may not be uninteresting to bring 
together some of the most striking examples of high and low temperature, 
which have been observed in the Continental Valley. Of the former, I will 
take those only which are above 100° ; of the latter, such as stand below 
the freezing point of mercury. The numbers in each column are placed in 
the order of increasing amount. They are artificially paired off, so as to 
form a column of ranges, which is placed between the other two : 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 
Extremes op Temperature. 



485 



Places. 


High. 


Range. 


Low. 


Places. 


Jefferson Barracks, 




101 


o 

143 




—42 


Winter Island. 


Middlebury, 


102 


149 


—47 


Felix Harbor. 


Fort Leavenworth, 


105 


152 


—47 


Port Bowen. 


Fort King, 


106 


156 


—50 


Igloolik. 


Council Bluffs, 


108 


158 


—53 


Fort Franklin. 


Fort Gratiot, 


109 


164 


—55 


Melville Island. 


St. Louis, 


109 


166 


—57 


Fort Enterprise. 


Fort Gibson, 


116 


186 


—70 


Fort Keliance. 



It will be observed that the extraordinary degrees of heat do not belono- 
to the extreme south, nor those of cold to the extreme north. The highest 
heat occurred a little below the thirty- sixth parallel, and the greatest cold 
as far below the sixty-third, only 27° of latitude apart ; both stations lie 
west of the hydrographical axis of the Valley, in comparative proximity to 
the Rocky Mountains. 

VIII. Lesser Variations. — This is not the place to discuss those 
vicissitudes of temperature which occur within a single year, or its subor- 
dinate divisions ; but I may remark that, as the greater includes the less, 
so the more limited changes of temperature are, as it were, comprehended in 
the greater, which have been set forth. The causes of the whole are sub- 
stantially the same, and in those regions where extreme librations occur, the 
monthly and daily vicissitudes are, of course, more frequent and violent. 
In the same latitudes, moreover, the range of mean temperature in different 
years is widest. The zone which presents this inconstancy in the highest 
degree, is that comprised between the thirty-fourth and the forty-fourth 
parallels, having mean temperatures varying from 60° to 45°. This, how- 
ever, is the zone of densest population and greatest activity; demonstrating 
that vicissitudes of temperature are not unfavorable to human development. 



SECTION III. 

DISTRIBUTION OF THE MEAN ANNUAL TEMPERATURE THROUGH 

THE SEASONS. 

I. Table of the Seasons. — The following table, designed to show the 
mean temperature of the seasons, in various parts of the Interior Valley, 
does not embrace all the localities included in the general table of mean 
temperatures, which would be unnecessary, even if the observations which 
I have been able to collect were sufficient. As in the preceding table, so 
in this, we begin with southern and end with northern stations ; but they 



486 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

are not presented in the same order, as it seems preferable to throw them 
into groups, or sections. The first includes maritime stations around the 
Gulf of Mexico; the second, interior or continental stations, east of the 
Gulf and the Mississippi River, up to latitude 42°, or the southern line of 
the great Lakes ; the third, interior stations on the banks of that river, to 
the same parallel ; the fourth, interior stations west of the Gulf and of that 
river, to the forty-second parallel; the fifth, interior stations above that 
parallel, and west of the northern Lakes ; the sixth, interior stations above 
that latitude, and east of the Lakes ; the seventh, lacustrine stations, from 
Ontario to Superior ; the eighth, continental stations in the Hudson and 
Polar Basins, west of Hudson Bay ; the ninth, marine stations in the same 
basins. 

By this grouping, the influence of local conditions, as of seas and lakes, 
forests, savannas, and mountains, can, I suppose, be made more apparent, 
than if the stations had been placed in the order of the general table. The 
annual mean temperatures in this table, result from the seasons, and gene- 
rally differ a little from those of the general table, as they represent a 
smaller number of years. The object is, to show the precise relation of the 
heat of the seasons to that of the year — not the absolute mean tempera- 
ture. After giving the temperature of each season, the difference between 
winter and summer is stated in a separate column, followed by another, in 
which that difference is compared with the mean annual temperature, and 
expressed per centum. The numbers in this column, which do not rise 
to one hundred, indicate the per centum, or decimal proportion, which the 
differences between the temperatures of summer and winter bear to the 
annual heat ; one hundred shows that they are equal ; all above that num- 
ber show by how much per centum the differences are greater than the 
mean heat. Another column presents the ratio at which the decrease of 
mean temperature, from advancing north, occasions an increase of divergence 
between winter and summer. In determining this ratio, 82° is taken as the 
maximum, or equatorial heat, and 3° as the minimum, or zero of equatorial 
divergence, of the winter and summer curves. The temperature of each 
station is then subtracted from 82°, and the remainder made a divisor ; the 
range between summer and winter at the same station is of course the effect 
or resultant of that diminution, and after deducting from it 3°, for the 
equatorial divergence, the remainder is made a dividend. The quotient 
shows the ratio at which the reduction of annual mean temperature augments 
the range between winter and summer. The remaining columns of the 
table indicate the relations between the mean annual temperature and that 
of spring and autumn, taken separately, and, also, in conjunction ; the 
excess or deficiency of the season, compared with the year, bein indicated 
by the sign -|- (plus), or — (minus). 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



487 



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488 



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INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



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part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 491 

II. Deductions. — The physician who is desirous of knowing the distri- 
bution of temperature throughout the seasons, in the different parts of the 
Interior Valley, will find much to satisfy his curiosity in this table. It 
presents a careful assemblage of nearly all the observations I have been 
able to collect ; and, comprehending stations from the tropical to the polar 
seas, affords data for deductions of a comprehensive kind. 

In the equatorial regions, the seasons present but little variation ; and the 
difference between winter and summer, is not as great, as that between one 
hour and the next, in the temperate zone. In advancing to the north, the 
curves which indicate the temperatures of those seasons, immediately begin 
to diverge, and continue to separate wider and wider from each other, until 
we reach the fifty-third parallel of latitude. This divergence — another 
expression for the difference between winter and summer — proceeds pari 
passu with the decrease of mean annual heat; so that the individual who 
travels from south to north, is constantly subjected to a climate of less mean 
heat, and greater extremes of summer and winter temperature, than that he 
left behind. He cannot anywhere in the Valley enjoy a temperate summer, 
without encountering a rigorous winter and a low annual heat ; nor a mild 
winter, without a hot summer, and high annual heat. 

The ratio at which the range between winter and summer increases, with 
the decrease of the mean heat of the year, is not uniform; for varying condi- 
tions of the surface more or less modify it. The actual range at the 
different stations included in the seasonal table, may be seen in connection 
with their mean annual temperatures ; and to compare one place with 
another, recourse may be had to the column in which the divergence is 
expressed per centum on the mean heat of the year at each place. The 
higher the per centum, the greater is the divergence, compared with the 
mean temperature. But there is another mode of contemplating this rela- 
tion. In the column of ratios, we see the amount of increase of divergence, 
which results from one degree of diminished temperature; and, conse- 
quently, the higher the ratio, the greater is the divergence, compared with 
the mean annual heat. For example, Fort Crawford and Lewiston have 
each a mean annual temperature (rejecting fractions) of 47°, and this, sub- 
tracted from 82°, leaves 35°, which, it might be supposed, would give the 
same divergence for both ; but Fort Crawford belongs to a group of inland 
stations (Sect. V), which have a mean ratio of 1°.30, while Lewiston is a 
member of the lake group (Sect. VII), the mean ratio for which is 1°.04. 
When we multiply 35° by these numbers, and subtract from each product 
3°, for the divergence at the equator, we have as the results, a difference 
between winter and summer, at Fort Crawford, of 42° — at Lewiston, of 33°. 
Again : Suppose a copious and permanent spring, in the State of Arkansas, 
where no meteorological observations had been made, to indicate the mean 
annual atmospheric temperature to be 62°; let that number be subtracted 
from the equatorial maximum, 82°, and we have as the remainder 20°, 
which, being multiplied by 1°.63, the ratio for that region (Sect. IV), gives 
32°.6, from which 3° must taken for equatorial divergence, leaving 29°.6, 



492 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

as the range of winter and summer divergence. But if a spring indicated 
the same temperature for a place east of the Mississippi, in the State of 
Alabama, where the mean ratio (Sect. II) is 1°.29, the resulting range 
would be only 22°. 8, showing that the difference between winter and sum- 
mer would be 7° less at the latter than at the former place, while their 
mean temperatures were the same. 

From the equatorial belt up to the thirtieth parallel, which cuts the 
northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico, the ratio of divergence is greater than 
we find it further north. The number which indicates it, is 1°.71 for 1° of 
diminished annual heat. After that, when we look at the eastern, middle, 
and western lines of stations, up to the Lakes, or forty-second parallel of 
latitude, we find for the first* (Sect. II), a ratio of 1°.29 ; for the second 
(Sect. Ill), a ratio of 1°.46; for the third (Sect. IV), a ratio of 1°.63. 
Now, the first of these three lines of stations, extends from North Alabama 
to the northern part of Ohio, lying to the winter and summer windward of 
the Appalachian Mountains, at a great distance from the Rocky Mountains ; 
the second, along the Mississippi River, between the States of Mississippi, 
Tennessee, and Illinois, on the one hand, and of Arkansas, Missouri, and 
Iowa, on the other ; and the third, parallel to that river, on the great 
inclined plain which descends from those mountains, in Arkansas, Missouri, 
and Towa. It follows, then, as a law of our climate, that between the Gulf 
of Mexico and the Northern Lakes, the difference between winter and sum- 
mer, as we advance under the same parallel, from east to west, gradually 
widens. Existing observations clearly indicate this law; but are not suffi- 
ciently exact, to enable us to assign to each degree of longitude its precise 
influence. 

Let us advance to the groups of stations north of those we have just con- 
sidered. They lie nearly in the same longitudes with each other. The 
first, or eastern (Sect. YI), extends from Cuba to Quebec, and has a mean 
longitude of 75° IT; the second (Sect. VIII) includes the northern Lakes, 
with a mean longitude of 81° 40' ; the third (Sect. V) comprehends sta- 
tions west of the Lakes, in mean longitude 90° 11'. For the first, the 
mean ratio is 1°.12; for the second, 1°.04; for the third, 1°.30. We see 
from these ratios that, as those of the three stations further south, are less 
than those of the more southern, or Gulf stations, so these are lower still, 
showing that, as we continue to advance north, a degree of diminished 
annual temperature produces less and less divergence of winter and summer. 
We also see, when we compare the region east of the Lakes, in New York 
and Canada, with that to their west, in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minesota, 
that the mean rate of divergence augments from 1°.12 to 1°.38, which is an 
increase of twenty-three per centum of the latter over the former. But 
when we look at the lake-stations, the mean ratio of which is 1°.04, we see 
most distinctly the influence of large bodies of water, in limiting the range 
between winter and summer. To the east, the ratio is 1°.12, and from the 

* Xalapa and the City of Mexico not included. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 493 

longitude of the lake- stations, it ought there to be 1°.17, instead of 1°.04, 
as observation makes it. From this depression, the ratio rises rapidly to 
1°.30. Thus, in advancing westwardly, the ratio sinks and rises, while to 
their south, it constantly rises. Thus, the effects of the Northern Lakes, 
and the Rocky Mountains, on the divergence of winter and summer, are in 
opposite directions; and it follows that the more completely a place is 
inclosed in the former, the less will be the range between winter and sum- 
mer ; the further it is taken to the west, on the great plain which ascends 
to the latter, the greater will be the divergence — the latitude meanwhile 
continuing the same. 

In the Hudson and Polar Basins, we have two groups of stations (Sects. 
VIII and IX), a comparison of which will complete this investigation. The 
former of these groups (Sect. VIII), lying far west and north-west of 
Hudson Bay, in the direction of the Rocky Mountains, has a ratio 1°.16, 
which is .14 less than the group south of it and west of the Northern 
Lakes, still showing that as we cross the continent, from south to north, the 
ratio diminishes. The latter group (Sect. IX) is maritime, and composed 
of stations in and around the Polar Sea. It lies immediately north of the 
lake-stations, and has a mean ratio .31 lower than theirs, making it the 
lowest of the whole Valley; which affords further evidence that, as we 
move from the tropical to the polar regions, the ratio of seasonal divergence 
for a degree of diminished temperature, gets less and less. But let us com- 
pare the two hyperborean groups with each other. Their difference of mean 
longitude is 9° 40' — of mean ratio .43 ; that of the maritime group being 
.73 — of the continental, 1°.16. This gives a rise of ratio equal to .043 for 
each degree of longitude. This is a greater by .0105 than from the Lakes 
to the stations west of them; and shows that the polar seas have a still 
greater influence in restraining the divergence of winter and summer, than 
the Lakes. Nain, as lying remote from the other places of this group, is 
not included in forming the ratio. 

Having investigated the relation between the mean temperature of the 
year and that of the solstitial seasons, or winter and summer, let us now 
turn to the equinoctial. Throughout the whole table, the difference 
between spring and autumn, taken separately and conjointly, is indicated by 
the signs plus and minus. It will be instructive to collect into one table 
the means of the different groups of stations. 



494 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I- 









Spring 


DlFF, BET. 


Sections. 


Spring. 


Autumn. 


and 


Spring and 








Autumn. 


Autumn. 


I. 


+0.13 


+0.34 


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.21 


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+0.44 


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+0.07 


.74 


III. 


+0.91 


+0.44 


+0.62 


.47 


IY. 


+0.51 


+1.34 


+0.92 


.83 


V. 


+0.23 


+0.94 


+0.58 


.71 


Mean, 


+0.45 


+0.35 


+0.48 


.59 


YI. 


—2.06 


+2.32 


+0.13 


4.38 


YIL 


—2.66 


+2.23 


—0.21 


489 


YIII. 


—2.65 


+3.33 


+0.34 


5.98 


IX. 


—5.79 


+3.54 


—1.12 


9.33 


Mean, 


—3.29 


+2.85 


—0.34 


6.14 


Mean of the whole, 


—1.22 


+1.58 


+0.17 


3.06 



When we take the means of the nine groups of stations, we find that, 
through the entire Yalley, from the tropical to the polar regions, the tempe- 
rature of spring is 1°.22 below the mean temperature of the year; that of 
autumn, 1°.58 above; and that of spring and autumn united, 0°.17 above. 
This small excess does not oppose the conclusion that, taking the Yalley as 
a whole, the mean temperature of spring and autumn combined, is identical 
with the mean heat of the year. It is interesting to observe that, until we 
come to the last group of stations (Sect. IX), in the extreme north, the 
average heat of spring and autumn, in none of the groups, varies a degree 
from the annual temperature. But the table gives us information of a 
different kind. 

In looking at the column for spring, we see that in the first five sections, 
the heat of that season is less than half a degree above the mean yearly heat 
of the same sections. These sections include all the stations in the Yalley, 
from Yera Cruz and Havana to the southern shores of Lake Erie, on the 
east side of the Mississippi, and also the country up to Fort Snelling, on the 
western side of that river. Their high mean temperature indicates an early 
opening of spring, and a rapid advance of summer. When we pass on to 
the remaining groups (Sects. YI, VII, VIII, and IX), we find an entire 
change in the temperature of that season, in its relation to the annual heat, 
below which it ranges from 2 P .06 to 5°.79. 

Let us now institute some comparisons of a different kind. The most 
eastern section (VI) embraces stations north-east of Cuba, in N. Lat. 
42° 15', to Quebec, in N. Lat. 46° 47'. Its spring temperature falls 2°.06 
below its mean annual heat; while the corresponding region (Sect. V), to 
the west of the great Lakes, has a spring, which rises .23 above the mean 
temperature of the year, making a difference between the two of 2°.29. To 
what should this be ascribed ? Physical geography furnishes the answer, 
and shows, at the same time, the necessity of connecting its study with that 
of climatology. First, the western stations lie to the windward of the great 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 495 

lakes; and, second, they are in the midst of a boundless plain, which 
inclines to the south. On the other hand, the stations to the east lie to the 
leeward of the Lakes, which remaining cooled much longer than a terrestrial 
surface, retard the opening and advance of spring, wherever the winds blow- 
ing over them are felt ; second, they are in the immediate vicinity of the 
high Adirondack mountains of New York, or other portions of the Appa- 
lachian Chain, to the south and north of that alpine group, and the currents 
of air which roll down, counteract the influence of the sun upon the plain; 
and, third, the general declination of the plain is to the north. 

The next group (Sect. VII) includes the lake- stations, the average mean 
temperature of which is 2°.66 below that of the year. This difference may 
be ascribed almost entirely to the influence of the lakes, which is of course 
greater in places situated on their coasts than those more remote, although 
to their leeward. The ice formed in their shallow bays and coves is slow 
in melting ; the whole body of water is cooled, in many parts almost to the 
freezing point ; the rivers pour into them melted snows ; Lake Superior 
sends down from a high latitude a copious supply of ice- water ; and the 
exhalations which they send up form mists, and fogs, and clouds, which 
intercept the rays of the sun* — causes quite sufficient to account for the 
low temperature of spring. 

In the distant north-west, the group (Sect. VIII) presents an average 
for spring 3°.33 below that of the year. In the (comparative) contiguity 
of these stations to the northern portions of the Rocky Mountains, and 
also to the polar seas, we find at once an explanation of the low temperature 
of spring. 

The last group (Sect. IX) consists of sea-side and insular stations, 
chiefly within the Arctic Circle and the area of the Pole of Cold. Their 
average vernal temperature is no less than 5°. 79 below the annual. Spring 
is indeed almost annihilated. The snows and ices of winter are but par- 
tially melted at midsummer, and it is not until the approach of the solstice 
that the earth is sufficiently thawed and warmed at the surface (still remain- 
ing frozen beneath) to permit vegetation to come forth. 

We must now turn to autumn. With one exception, we find the heat of 
autumn greater than that of the year, in all the groups of stations; and in 
in that instance (Sect. II) it is only three-tenths of a degree below the 
annual heat. Nevertheless autumn is not uniform in this relation to mean 
annual temperature; for in the same group of stations, some present it 
above, others below, mean yearly heat. The group in which the greatest 
proportional number of stations present it below, is the second, extending 
from Huntsville, in North Alabama, to Lake Erie. But few stations on 
the opposite, or western, side of the Mississippi, have an autumnal tempera- 
ture below that °of the year ; and all the groups present an average above 
yearly heat ; from which it appears that between the latitudes of 30° and 
42°, the western portions of the Valley have warmer autumns compared with 

* Professor Dewey : New York Reports. 



496 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the year, than the eastern. This may probably he ascribed to a deeper heat- 
ing of the earth, by the rays of the summer sun having acted on a dry and 
treeless surface ; but perhaps some portion of it may be attributed to the 
extensive conflagrations which, in that season of the year, run over the 
boundless prairies which stretch off to the Rocky Mountains. As in the 
case of spring, we find the autumnal heat of the first five groups to vary but 
little from the annual temperature ; while in the remainder it is great ; but 
in every group in the opposite direction, that is above, while that of spring 
is below, and their divergence from mean temperature is nearly to the same 
extent. The cause of a warm autumn in the stations around and to the 
leeward of the Northern Lakes (Sect. VII and VI), must be found in the 
Lakes themselves, which retain their summer temperature for a longer time 
than the earthy surface, and thus retard the approach of winter. The same 
explanation is perhaps applicable to the stations in Section IX, which are on 
the shores of the Polar Sea ; but why the stations in Section VIII, which lie 
between Hudson Bay and the Rocky Mountains, should have an autumn of 
high temperature compared to their annual heat, does not so clearly appear. 
The last column of the small table, which has supplied data for the 
deductions which have been made, presents the differences between spring 
and autumn without any reference to the mean temperature of the year. 
This difference, it will be seen, is less than a degree in the first five groups, 
and least of all in the first, or gulf-section, where it amounts only to about 
two-tenths of a degree. But when we advance into the other sections, the 
difference suddenly becomes much greater, and continues to increase up to 
the Pole of Cold. In the region east of the Lakes, to Quebec, it is 4°.38 ; 
among the Lakes, 4°. 89; in the high north-west, 5°.98; in the polar mari- 
time region, 9°. 30. This divergence of spring and autumn is, of course, the 
effect of those causes which retard the coming on of the former, and the 
passing away of the latter season. In proportion to their difference, the 
points of time in spring and autumn, which have a mean temperature cor- 
responding with that of the year, lie at a greater distance from the equi- 
noxes, and consequently approach nearer to the solstices, than where the 
difference between the two seasons is less. 



SECTION IV. 

DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPERATURE THROUGH THE MONTHS. 

I. Tabular View. — The table of months does not embrace as many 
places as that of the seasons, from the want of the necessary materials. 
Like that table, this does not present the mean annual heat given in the 
general table of temperatures, but that which results from the months them- 
selves. After the columns presenting the mean heat of each month, there is 
another, in which the difference between the coldest and hottest months, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 497 

with their names, is set down; and another, in which the ratio of that 
difference to mean temperature has been calculated by the method adopted 
for the seasons, which it is unnecessary to repeat or explain. To these 
columns three others are added, in which the excess or defect of mean tem- 
perature of the months following the equinoxes (April and October), 
separately and conjointly, are compared with that of the year. In con- 
structing this table, I have not given the latitudes, longitudes, and eleva- 
vations of the places ; but by the aid of the numbers in the first column, 
they may be readily found in the general table of mean temperatures, or in 
that of the seasons. 



32 



498 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



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PART II.] 



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g^asrga 



500 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Much of what has been said on the seasons, is applicable to the months; 
for while January and July are representatives of winter and summer, April 
and October are representatives of spring and autumn, with this difference, 
however, that the two former months represent the extremes, the two 
latter, the mean of annual heat. Let us consider them in succession. 

II. Summer Months. — The month of July is, at almost every station 
embraced in the table, as that of highest mean temperature. The curve of 
80°, or upward, for this month, reaches as high as Natchez, on the Mis- 
sissippi River, and Fort Gibson, west of it; the latter being in N. Lat, 
35° 47'. To what parallel it attains east of the Mississippi is not known, 
from the want of observations. It does not reach Huntsville (nearly in the 
same latitude with Fort Gibson), the July temperature of which town is 
76°.39, or 6°.89 below that of the hot month, at the western military post. 
The curve of 75°— 80° reaches Fort Snelling, in the west, N. Lat. 44° 53', 
and Montreal, to the east, in Lat. 45° 31', which even has a higher tempe- 
rature by 3°.42, although two-thirds of a degree further north; but this 
may result from a difference of seven hundred feet in their altitudes above 
the sea. There is no place between them, which has an equal temperature. 
The curve of 70° — 75° passes above every place south and west of the 
Northern Lakes. On the western side of the Yalley, it even extends to 
Cumberland House, N. Lat. 53°, where from one year's observations, it is 
73°.73. To the east of the Lakes, while it passes south of Cuba and 
Prattsburg, in consequence of their great elevation, it comes nearer to 
Pottsdam, at a lower level, though further north, and strikes beyond 
Quebec, the July temperature of which is 71°.29, while its latitude is 46° 
47'. By the Lakes it is kept to the south, as none of the stations men- 
tioned in the table present a heat of 70°, although they are not so far north 
as many stations included in it. When we compare the stations east of the 
Mississippi River, extending from Alabama to Ohio, inclusive, with those 
along that river, and to its west, "we find an average heat of 6° or 7° greater, 
in the latter ranges than the former; and doubtless when observations shall 
be made still further west, on the great prairies, the difference will be aug- 
mented. The causes of this difference have been already assigned, when 
treating of the seasons. 

It is known, that, as we advance north from the Gulf of Mexico, the 
summers shorten at a greater ratio than the intense heat abates. This 
implies a decrease in June or August, or both, at a higher ratio than in 
July; and such, on the whole, is the fact. In the hot climates, the three 
months approach nearer to the same standard, than in the temperate and 
colder regions. This will appear from the following table, which includes 
stations from Havana to Quebec, arranged nearly in the order of their 
latitudes : 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



501 





M. T. 


M. T. 


M. T. 


June 


August 


Places. 


OF 


OF 


OF 


below 


below or 




June. 


July. 


August. 


July. 


above July. 
o 
+1.54 


Havana, 


o 

84.12 


o 
84.30 


o 

85.84 


o 

—0.18 


Ubajoy, 


82.25 


83.62 


83.25 


1.37 


—0.37 


Key West, 


81.03 


82.55 


81.98 


1.52 


—0.57 


Pensacola, 


80.33 


81.02 


81.06 


0.69 


+0.04 


Fort Jesup, 


80.95 


83.54 


82.96 


2.59 


—0.58 


Fort G-ibson, 


78.65 


81.49 


83.28 


2.84 


+1.79 


Huntsville, 


74.23 


76.39 


76.24 


2.16 


—0.15 


St. Louis, 


73.79 


78.43 


76.34 


4.64 


2.09 


Cincinnati, 


70.86 


75.47 


73.25 


4.61 


2.22 


Marietta, 


69.60 


73.72 


70.84 


4.12 


2.88 


Hudson, 


66.00 


72.00 


68.90 


6.00 


3.10 


Council Bluffs, 


73.98 


77.38 


76.11 


3.40 


1.27 


Bloomington, 


67.30 


70.40 


69.30 


3.10 


1.10 


Fort Crawford, 


68.57 


72.40 


71.41 


3.83 


0.99 


Fort Snelling, 


70.83 


75.47 


71.98 


4.64 


3.49 


Rochester, 


64.32 


69.31 


66.10 


4.99 


3.21 


Pottsdam, 


64.04 


68.22 


67.26 


4.18 


0.96 


Montreal, 


68.12 


78.89 


69.67 


10.77 


9.22 


Quebec, 


65.27 


71.29 


70.77 


6.02 


0.52 


Fort Brady, 


59.13 


65.90 


64.52 


6.77 


1.38 



From this table it will be seen, that the heat of August approaches 
nearer than that of June, to the hottest month. At three southern stations 
it is even greater, as indicated by the sign plus. Taking the mean of all 
the stations, it is but 1°.45 below that month ; but June is 3°.77 below. 
It also appears that, as we advance north, with the single exception of 
Montreal, the heat of August keeps up its near approach to that of July. 
But there is a manifest decline in that of June. The shortening of sum- 
mer, then, in the higher latitudes, results chiefly from the diminishing tem- 
perature of that month, and not of that month and August combined. 

III. Winter Months. — The relation of these months to each other, will 
appear from the following table, embracing the same places with the last : 



502 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



BOOK I. 





M. T. 


M. T, 


M. T. 


December, 


February, 


Places. 


OF 


OF 


OF 


BELOW OR 


BELOW OR 




Decem. 


January. 


Feb'ary. 


above Jan. 


above Jan. 


Havana, 


o 

71.78 




69.98 


o 

71.96 


o 
+1.80 


o 
+1.98 


Ubajoy, 


62.37 


64.50 


67.50 


—2.13 


+3.00 


Key West, 


70.52 


69.46 


70.26 


+1.06 


0.80 


Pensacola, 


54.83 


52.91 


55.83 


1.92 


2.92 


Fort Jesup, 


53.17 


52.30 


54.09 


0.87 


1.79 


Fort Gibson, 


46.20 


45.47 


41.25 


0.73 


—4.22 


Huntsville, 


41.81 


42.06 


42.59 


—0.25 


+0.53 


St. Louis, 


33.82 


33.19 


34.93 


+0.63 


1.74 


Cincinnati, 


33.09 


33.50 


33.15 


—0.41 


—0.35 


Marietta, 


34.62 


32.53 


34.01 


+2.13 


+1.48 


Hudson, 


24.70 


23.70 


28.60 


1.00 


4.90 


Rochester, 


28.05 


26.43 


25.43 


1.62 


—1.00 


Council Bluffs, 


24.21 


24.61 


26.59 


—0.40 


1.98 


Bloomington, 


25.90 


24.30 


27.30 


+1.60 


3.00 


Fort Crawford, 


18.04 


19.72 


21.93 


—1.68 


2.21 


Fort Snelling, 


15.60 


13.58 


18.66 


+2.02 


5.08 


Pottsdam, 


22.23 


16.80 


19.54 


5.43 


2.74 


Montreal, 


18.96 


14.66 


18.13 


4.30 


3.47 


Quebec, 


12.64 


10.98 


14.83 


1.66 


3.85 


Fort Brady, 


22.28 | 18.68 


19.80 


3.60 


1.12 



It appears from this table tliat, taking the mean of all the stations, the 
month of December rises 1°.27 above January — that of February 1°.85. 
Thus, the distribution of heat among the winter months is more equable 
than among the summer; for while August bears a relation to July similar 
to that of December and February to January, June falls below July, more 
than two and a half times further than August does. Hence we learn, that 
the heat increases more after the summer solstice, than it diminishes after 
the winter solstice, in the proportion of 3°.77 to 1°.27. Another point in 
which the winter months, compared with each other, differ from the summer, 
when compared in the same manner, is that neither December nor February 
recedes from January with the same regularity, or to the same extent, as 
June from July. Still we see that below Cincinnati, in the thirty-ninth 
parallel, the difference between December and January is less than above ; 
but to February the remark is scarcely applicable. 

The curve for the month of January, = 32°, passes a little north of 
Marietta, in Lat. 39° 25' ; all the stations north of that latitude have a 
mean heat below 32° ; all south of it, above 32°. 

When we bring together the coldest months at different places, nearly 
agreeing in latitude, but differing in longitude, we have the following exhibit : 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



503 



Eastern. 


Western. 


o 

Huntsville, 41.81 

Portsmouth, 34.50 

Hudson, . . , 23.70 

Rochester, 25.43 

Pottsdam, 16.80 

Montreal, 14.66 


o 
Fort Gibson, 41.25 


St. Louis, 33.19 


Council Bluffs, 24.21 


Fort Crawford, 18.04 

Fort Howard, 18 14 


Fort Snelling, 13.58 

Fort Brady, 18.68 


Quebec 10.98 







The similarity of these amounts, does not well accord with the popular 
opinion, which ascribes a more intense degree of cold to the western, than 
the eastern side of the Mississippi. The observations here given are too 
few to settle the question ; but we must remember the greater velocity of 
the wind on the prairies of the Missouri plain, and its consequent effect on 
the feelings of individuals, not less than the streams from which it promotes 
a rapid evaporation. The remarkable difference between Rochester and 
Fort Crawford, and Quebec and Fort Brady, shows the warming influence 
of the Lakes in winter. 

IV. Spring Months. — Of the vernal months, April approaches nearest 
to the mean temperature of the year, being sometimes above, and sometimes 
below it, at the same place. On the whole, it rises above something oftener 
in the south than the north. In the neighborhood of the Lakes, it is gene- 
rally at or below mean temperature ; at the northern margin of the continent, 
near or within the Arctic Circle, constantly below ; in both cases showing 
the influence of large bodies of water in retarding the opening of spring. 
Varying so little from the mean annual temperature, April is seldom called 
a hot month. An inspection of the table shows that the transition from 
March to April is much greater than from February to March. March, 
indeed, belongs to winter rather than summer; but its temperature never 
falls as low as that of February. As we advance from south to north up 
the Valley, the change from March to April becomes more and more violent, 
and has its maximum at the Polar Sea. The transition from April to May, 
is nearly as great as from March to April, and likewise increases from 
south to north. It is by this rapid movement, that the air, and waters, 
and earth, are redeemed from the ices of winter, in time for a thousand pur- 
poses that could not be accomplished if the increase of heat were more 
gradual. A slower increase of daily heat would, it is true, prolong the 
delicious pleasures of spring ; but at the same time lengthen the prevalence 
of vernal intermittents, and abridge the productiveness of summer and 
autumn. A rigorous winter demands a rapid development of spring. As 
March participates in the character of winter, so May is allied to summer. 
The transition from that month to June, as indicated by the mean tempera- 
tures of the two, throughout the Valley, is nearly fifty per centum less than 
from March to April, or from April to May; and the increase of the 
difference between the last month and June, as we advance from south to 



504 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

north, is in the same proportion. In the middle latitudes of the Valley, the 
temperature of the last third of this month generally varies widely from the 
first third. Frost almost always occurs in the latter ; the former is fre- 
quently as hot as June. The middle sometimes leans to one, sometimes to 
the other extreme. 

In the distant north, the transition from winter to summer, is at a rate 
altogether unknown in the other portions of the Valley. At Cumberland 
House, Lat. 53°, the difference between February and March is 12°; 
between March and April, 14° ; between April and May, 28°. At three 
places, near or within the Arctic Circle, the average of the transition from 
March to April was 21° ; from April to May, 20° ; from May to June, 12°. 
By such an increase it is, that spots which in March had a mean heat 23° 
below zero, were in June embossed with flowers. 

V. Fall Months. — October is, among the months of autumn, what April 
is among those of spring. In all parts of the Valley, its heat approaches 
nearer to that of the year, than any other fall month; and its temperature 
is the most acceptable to the feelings. At nearly all the stations, it ranges 
above mean annual heat. In the southern and middle latitudes, this excess 
is nearly the same ; but in the Polar Basin it is greater. The transition 
from August to September is less rapid, than from September to October ; 
from the latter to November it continues the same, that is, the rate of cool- 
ing from September to November, inclusive, continues constant ; but the 
transition from November to December is at a lower ratio, and does not 
differ materially from that between August and September. In comparing 
the autumnal with the vernal ratios, they are found to be substantially the 
same. They further agree in this, that they are greater in the middle than 
the southern latitudes, a necessary requirement of the greater difference 
between winter and summer in the former than the latter. As March, 
throughout most of the Valley, belongs rather to winter than summer, so 
September has greater affinities to summer than winter ; and as May has 
sometimes a rival temperature to that of June, so November is occasionally 
nearly as cold as December. The true spring and fall seasons, are the 
sixty days immediately succeeding the equinoxes. In deliciousness of 
climate they constitute the finest portions of the year; but the latter is pro- 
ductive of autumnal fever. 

These conclusions relate to the Mexican and St. Lawrence Basins ; in the 
Polar, while the transition from August to September is about the same as 
further south, the transition from one to the other of each of the succeeding 
months is much more rapid. 

VI. Divergence of the hottest from the coldest Month, compared 
with Summer and Winter. — In the preceding section we saw, that as we 
advance north, and the mean temperature of the year diminishes, the range 
between winter and summer increases. I propose now to inquire into the 
divergence, under the same circumstances, of the hottest from the coldest 
month, compared with the seasons of which they are the maximum and 
minimum. To do this, I have collected into a table the ratios of divergence 



PART il.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



505 



of summer from winter, and of July from January, for one degree of lessened 
annual heat, making an average of each, for the different sections in the 
seasonal and monthly tables. 

Ratios of the Divergence of the mean Heat of Winter and Summer, 
and of the coldest and hottest month, from the loss of 1° of mean 
yearly Temperature. 



Groups of Places. 


Seasons. 


Months. 


Differ- 
ence. 


Sect. I. Around the Gulf of Mexico, 


o 

1.71 


o 
1.93 


o 

0.22 


II. East of Mississippi, to N. L. 42°, 


1.29 


1.38 


0.11 


III. Along 


1.46 


1.56 


0.10 


IV. West of 


1.63 


1.77 


0.14 


V. West of the Northern Lakes, 


1.30 


1.46 


0.16 


VI. East of the 


1.12 


1.23 


0.11 


VII. Among the " 


1.04 


1.08 


0.04 


VIII. Bet. Hudson B.and Rocky Mts., 


1.16 


1.33 


0.17 


IX. Polar Seas, 


0.75 


0.85 


0.10 



To use this table, the mean temperature of the place must be subtracted 
from 82°, the equatorial heat, and the difference multiplied by the two 
ratios of the group or section, to which, according to the general table of 
mean temperatures, the place belongs. The difference of the products is 
the extent to which the monthly divergence exceeds the seasonal. It may be 
well to illustrate by a few examples. A place lying east of the Northern 
Lakes (Sect. VI), may have a temperature of 44°. If this be sub- 
tracted from 82°, it leaves 38°, which, multiplied by the seasonal ratio of 
that section, 1°.12, gives 42°.56 — by the monthly, 1°.23, gives 46°.74; 
showing that the months of January and July diverge 4°. 18 beyond the 
winter and summer seasons. If the same process be employed for a place 
having the same mean heat, but lying among the Lakes (Sect. VIII), 
where the ratios are for the seasons 1°.04, and for the months 1°.08, we 
obtain as the results 39°.52 and 41°. 04; finally, if we proceed with the 
same mean temperature into the region west of the Lakes, where the ratios 
are 1°.30 and 1°.46, we get, as products, 49°.40 for the seasons, and 
55°.48 for the months. It will be instructive to throw these results into a 
tabular form : 

Range from Winter to Summer, and from January to July, the mean 
annual Temperature being 44°. 



Localities. 


Seasons. 


Months. 


Differ- 
ence. 


Sect. VI. East of the Northern Lakes, 
VII. Among the " 
V. West of the 


o 

42.56 
39.52 
49.40 


o 

46.74 
41.04 

55.48 


O 

4.18 
1.52 
6.08 



506 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



BOOK I. 



We observe by this table, that the Lakes exert a decidedly restraining 
influence on the range between winter and summer, and a still greater on 
the divergence of July from January ; we also perceive that both the sea- 
sonal and monthly ranges are greater in the plains west of the Lakes, 
among the tributaries of the Mississippi, than in the valley of the St. Law- 
rence to their east. By a similar comparison, between the places east of the 
Mississippi (Sect. II), and those west (Sect. IV), we ascertain that the 
ranges of winter and summer, and the coldest and hottest month, are 
greater in the latter than the former region. 

VII. Comparative Range of the coldest and hottest Months, from 
mean Temperature. — Having considered the coldest and hottest months, 
in connection with the other months of winter and spring, we continue their 
study, by inquiring into their relative distance from mean annual tempera- 
ture. This may be understood by the following table. Its first column 
presents an average of the mean temperature of the different stations of each 
group, or section of the Table of Months ; the second, average range be- 
tween the coldest and hottest months of the same ; the third, shows the dis- 
tance to which the average of the coldest months falls below the mean an- 
nual temperature; the fourth, the distance to which the average of the 
hottest months rises above; the fifth, the greater divergence from mean 
yearly heat, of the average of the coldest, than of the hottest months; the 
sixth, the greater divergence, from the same temperature, of the average of 
the hottest than of the coldest months. 



Sections 

of the 

Table of 

Months. 



I. 

II. 

III. 

IV. 

V. 

VI. 

VII. 

VIII. 

IX. 



Annual 

average 

Mean 

Temp. 



Range 
between 

coldest 
and hot- 
test 
months. 



72.81 
54.54 
55.40 
60.02 
45.83 
43.37 
44.67 
22.82 
3.00 



20.86 
41.31 
43.64 
40.16 
56.22 
50.15 
44.02 
79.68 
67.00 



Coldest 
month 
below 
M. T. 



10.70 

20.45 

22.02 
19.38 

28.68 
24.77 
20.30 
38.66 
27.00 



Hottest 
month 
above 
M. T. 



10.16 

20.86 
21.62 
20.78 
27.54 
25.38 
23.72 
41.02 
34.00 



Excess I Excess 
of cold- of hot- 
est over test mo. 

hottest over col- 



in dist- 
ance fm 
M. T. 



dest, in 

dis. from 

M. T. 



o 


o 


.54 






.41 


.40' 






1.40 


1.14 






.61 




3.42 




2.36 




7.00 



This table shows that the range between the hottest and coldest months, 
is less on the eastern than on the western side of the Mississippi and the 
Lakes. Look at Sections II, III, and IV. Their ranges are nearly the 
same, but they differ in mean temperature. That of Section II is 54°. 54 — 
that of Section IV, 60°.02; yet their ranges are nearly identical, whereas 
the lower ought to have much the wider range. Now the former lies east, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 507 

and the latter west of the Mississippi; which shows that, in going west, the 
range enlarges. Section III, on the hanks of the Mississippi, lies between 
them, and, with a higher mean temperature than II, has a higher range, the 
reverse of what would be the case, if the divergence continued uniform in 
advancing from east to west. The same conclusion results still more obvi- 
ously, from a comparison of Sections VI and V. The former lies east of 
the Lakes, the latter west. Its mean temperature is 2°.46 less, which 
should give it a wider range between the coldest and hottest months ; yet 
the range of the latter is 6° greater. The annual mean temperature of 
Section VII, including the Lake stations, is intermediate, as to the others ; 
but its range is 6° less than the eastern, and 12° less than the western, 
showing, in a striking manner, the influence of the Lakes on the tempera- 
ture of January and July. 



SECTION V. 

PAIRS OF MONTHS. 
The following table presents the average of the mean temperatures of the 
six pairs of months, beginning with January and July, and traveling 
through the calendar year. The data are, of course, supplied by the prece- 
ding table. The mean annual heat of each station, as resulting from that 
of the months, is given in the first column; with which the average of each 
pair of months may be readily compared. To facilitate this comparison, 
the difference is set down in a separate column, after that for each pair of 
months, and the excess or defect, compared with mean annual temperature, 
indicated by the algebraical sign -)- (plus) or — (minus). At the foot of 
the table, the mean average is presented. 



508 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



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part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 509 

The results presented in the footing of this table, are not destitute of 
interest. They show that, of the six pairs of months, but one varies from 
the mean annual temperature to the extent of a degree; they show also, 
that the mean temperature of February and August, approaches nearest to 
the mean temperature of the year; and that the average of June and 
December departs widest from it. The former are the last winter, and last 
summer months ; the latter are the first summer and first winter months. 
"We likewise see that four of the pairs rise above mean annual heat, two 
fall below it. Those which present an excess are the four pairs which suc- 
ceed to the solstices; those which offer a deficiency, are the pairs which 
precede, and the pair which include, the solstices; the latter showing the 
greater deficiency of the two — 1°.18. It would be interesting to know 
whether this is the consequence of inaccurate observations, or in accordance 
with a law of our climate. 

As the mean heat of each pair of months, presents so close an approxi- 
mation to that of the year, it follows that the mean temperature of the lat- 
ter may be ascertained, by observing that of the former ; but we must bear 
in mind, that this close approach is made, by the observations of the whole 
table, which embraces stations in various parts of the Valley, from south to 
north. In particular portions of it, the coincidence may not be so near. 
The reader, as he feels an interest in any particular region, may examine it 
for himself. 

It might be supposed that, when we know the mean annual temperature 
of any particular place, as Nashville, for example, and observe the tempera- 
ture of a month, as of February, we might predict the heat of August. If, 
for instance, February were very cold, that August would be very hot ; or, 
if May were unusually hot, November would be correspondingly cool; or, 
taking seasons, it might be expected, that a rigorous winter would be fol- 
lowed by an ardent summer; a warm spring by a cold autumn, et vice versa. 
But there are two sources of uncertainty in these predictions. First, it may 
be, that the winter and spring should have been compared with the summer 
and autumn which preceded, instead of following them; and, second, we 
know that the mean heat of different years, at the same place, is not the 
same, but varies several degrees. It might be, then, that a cold February 
or April would not be followed by a hot August or October ; for the whole 
year might be one of low temperature. Nevertheless, if any month depart 
widely from its proper mean heat, there is, prima facie, much reason to 
expect, that its counterpart will vary as much in the opposite direction. 
This mode of prognosticating may, perhaps, be turned to some account, in 
deciding beforehand on the probable duration of the prevalence of bilious 
fever in autumn. Thus, if April and May should be unusually intense, it 
might be expected that October and November would be so cool, as to give 
an early termination to autumnal fever ; and if June should be violent in its 
heat throughout, a cold December, and an early setting in of winter, might 
be expected. 



510 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

SECTION VI. 

DIURNAL AND SUDDEN VARIATIONS. 

So far, we have studied the mean temperatures, and annual, seasonal, and 
monthly extremes of our climates; it remains to indicate the daily regular 
and irregular variations. This I shall not be able to do by the construction 
of general tables ; for the greater number of published observations do not 
supply the facts. The mean temperatures of the days, but not of their 
minima and maxima, are given. The changes we are now contemplating are 
either regular or irregular, and first, of the former. 

I. Regular diurnal Changes.— From the equator to the Arctic Circle, 
we find, as the law of our climate, a rise of temperature from morning until 
afternoon. As the lower temperature of the morning, depends on the 
absence of the sun, leaving the radiation of caloric from the surface of the 
earth uncompensated by solar influence, we may assume that, in the absence 
of all disturbing causes, the minimum temperature is immediately before the 
reappearance of that luminary. Of the disturbing influences it will be pro- 
per to mention two or three. Should a wind spring up in the course of the 
night, or, existing before, change its course, the effects of radiation may be 
augmented or diminished, so as to give a different morning temperature, 
from what would have occurred, if the early morning had been calm. Thus, 
if, in the latter part of the night, a wind from the Grulf of Mexico should 
reach the central parts of the Valley, the minimum of the morning will be 
high ; or if currents should arrive from the Rocky Mountains, in the west, 
or what is more common, a south wind should be superseded by a north- 
east, the minimum may be lower than it would otherwise have been. 
Again, if clouds should form in the latter part of the night, to throw back 
upon the surface of the earth a portion of the heat it is radiating, the tem- 
perature of the air resting upon it will be kept up. In this manner, fogs 
which spread abroad from our rivers, ponds, and lakes, give a higher 
morning temperature, than would otherwise take place. I have' said, that 
the minimum, if no disturbing influences exist, may be assumed to be imme- 
diately before the reappearance of the sun ; but popular opinion places it at 
an earlier period. The time can be determined only by observations made 
every hour, on the state of the thermometer. The places in the Valley 
where such observations have yet been made, are in the high latitudes of 
Montreal and Toronto. I have not been able to obtain the latter; but the 
former have been published by that accurate meteorologist, Mr. McCord, 
under whose direction they were made for two successive years, at the 
British military post on the island of St. Helen, opposite Montreal* 
Unfortunately, however, they were made at the odd hours in one year, and 
the even hours in the other, and the two years differed nearly two degrees 

* Report on Meteor. Observ. : Montreal, 1842. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 511 

in mean temperature; thus, the relative mean heat of each hour in the 
latter part of the night, cannot, by these tables, be made out. I may state, 
however, that in the year in which the even hours were observed, the mini- 
mum of those hours was six A. M. for January, February, and March, and 
four for the other months of the year, except June, when two was lower 
than four A. M. In the following year, when the odd hours were observed, 
the coldest was seven A. M. for January, February, and March, and five A. 
M. for all the other months. When we connect these hours with the times 
of returning twilight, in the latitude of 45°, we see that they place the 
minimum of temperature nearly where, by theory, it ought to stand. 

Let us turn to the regular maxima. These are never at noon. The heat 
continues to increase, after the sun has passed the meridian, until by the 
diminution of its power, from increasing obliquity of its rays, the cooling 
effects of evaporation and radiation, are equal to the warming solar 
influence. For a greater or less length of time, these forces may continue 
in equilibrio, giving to the whole period the same temperature ; but as the 
solar force is a diminishing quantity, the heat at length begins to abate. 
The hour of maximum heat arrives sooner after midday, than that of minimum 
heat after midnight. It rarely begins before two, or continues after three 
o'clock. The observations of Mr. McCord, at the even hours, place two 
o'clock higher than four, in January, February, March, April, May, June, 
August, and October; in July, September, and November, from one to two 
tenths of a degree below; in December, 1°.32 below. The observations at 
the odd hours show three o'clock to be higher than one or five, in all the 
months of the year. Thus we find two and three to be the hours of maxi- 
mum heat, in the two successive years, and when we equalize them, by 
subtracting the difference of the mean temperature of the two years, we 
have a variation of less than three hundredths of a degree, and are led to 
the conclusion, that in the latitude of 45°, the temperature of the day is at 
its maximum from two to three o'clock P. M. Whether this holds good 
throughout the various latitudes of the Valley, I have not the means of 
deciding. During several years that I made two daily observations on the 
thermometer, in Cincinnati, Lat. 39°, I satisfied myself, by repeated inspec- 
tion of the instrument in the afternoon, that, as a general fact, the maxi- 
mum of heat is from two to three o'clock. Assuming this as correct, the 
time from the minimum to the maximum is about nine hours ; that from the 
maximum to the minimum about thirteen, the other two hours of the 
twenty-four being the duration of the extremes. This seems to indicate a 
ratio of rise in the thermometer greater than of fall, in the proportion of 
thirteen to nine ; in other words, that the warming is much more rapid than 
the cooling. But an examination of the McCord tables shows, that after 
midnight the rate of cooling is greatly diminished, each hour adding but 
little to the reduction of temperature. Thus the sum of the reduction from 
eleven to five, 6 hours, was only 3°.03, while the sum of the reduction for 
the preceding six hours, that is, from five to eleven P. M., was 6°.45. 
Still, the ascending has, through a part of its course, a considerably greater 



512 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ratio than the descending scale. At first the rise is slow, and at first the 
fall is slow; but the latter period is brief compared to the former. It 
ranges from three to five P. M., while the slow rise is from four or five to 
eight or nine. From five to eight P. M. the fall is most rapid; this 
includes sunset and twilight. But the period of most rapid rise does not 
include the dawn and sunrise, which, throughout the whole year, are about 
the culminating points ; and this discloses to us one reason of the greater 
salubrity of the morning than the evening twilight. About noon, before the 
maximum is attained, the ratio of increase abates ; but the duration of this 
period is far shorter than the period of abatement in the ratio of decrease, 
from eleven or twelve at night, to the maximum of cold before day. Thus 
the first part of the fall of the thermometer, in the afternoon, is short, com- 
pared with the last part of its fall after midnight; but the first part of its 
rise in the forenoon is long, compared with the last part of its rise, after 
midday. 

Of all the ratios of change in the twenty-four hours, this is greatest, and 
next to it, is the decrease from five to nine P. M. These, then, are the 
periods of accelerated change — in the morning, from cold to hot, in the 
evening, from hot to cold. In one, there is a rapid augmentation of caloric, 
to act upon the body soon after it has been subjected to the minimum; in 
the other, a rapid abstraction of caloric, soon after it has been acted on by 
the maximum. The etiologist cannot fail to appreciate the propriety of 
investigating the influence of these two periods in the production of disease ; 
but this is not the place to pursue the subject. 

On the extent of the daily regular range, from the lowest to the highest 
heat, in the various parts of the Valley, I cannot speak with certainty. 
That it has its minimum where the mean temperature has its maximum, in 
the equatorial belt, is well known. It probably increases with the increas- 
ing inequality of day and night, as we go north, but at what ratio has not 
been determined. Even within the polar circle, it does not cease, for when 
the day presents twilight only, it has a maximum of heat over the night. 
In a practical point of view, the interest of the inquiry is limited to the 
Mexican and St. Lawrence Basins ; but although observations have been 
made at so many places within their limits, but few of them, as published, 
are applicable to this particular investigation. 

From the Huntsville tables, in MS., I have made out, for each month of 
thirteen years, the average morning and afternoon temperatures, with their 
differences ; from the Picture of Cincinnati, the same for that place, through 
five years ; and from the McCord hourly observations, the same for Mon- 
treal, through two years. These are arranged into the following table : 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



513 



Months. 



January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, 

September, 

October, 

November, 

December, 



Means, 



HUNTSVILLE : 

Mean Tempera 
ture 59°.69._ 

Mean" 
Mini- 
ma. 



Mean 
Maxi- 
ma. 



Differ- 
ence. 



o 

35.6148 

36.25|50 
43.8760 
56 2670 

59.28:75 
67.0381 

69.73,84 
68.76;83 
62.1277 
52.40,68 
41.4956 
35.82'47 



.0(3 
.31 
.61 

.35 
.10 
.90 
.47 

.72 
.64 
.36 
.14 
.39 



52.38 67.0014.62 



12.45 

14.06 
16.74 
14.09 
15.82 
14.87 
14.74 
14.96 
15.52 
15.96 
14.65 
11.57 



Cincinnati : 

Mean Tempera 

ture 53°.81. 

Mean Mean 
Maxi- 
ma. 



Mini- 
ma. 



24.20 

28.20 
37.03 
48.30 
52.95 
60.12 
65.71 
64.52 
58.92 
47.44 
35.56 
29.72 



.56 
.64 
.91 
.86 

.69 
.20 
.31 

.02 
.66 
.72 
.94 

.36 



46.05 61.5715.52 



Differ- 
ence. 



o 

11.36 

12.45 
13.89 
18.57 
16.74 
22.08 
17.60 
17.50 
18.75 
15.29 
12.39 
9.64 



Montreal : 
Mean Tempera- 
ture 41°.71. 



Mean 
Mini- 
ma. 



10.77 

13.12 

18.76 
31.55 
47.21 
57.87 
61.24 
61.65 
52.10 
41.86 
29.63 
17.83 



Mean 
Maxi- 
ma. 



16.74 
23.43 
32.40 
44.53 
61.66 
72.05 
76.66 
75.68 
64.29 
52.88 
34.58 
22.66 



35.30 48.1311.15 



Differ- 
ence. 



o 

5.97 
10.31 
13.64 
12. 
14.45 
14.18 
15.42 
14.03 
12.19 
11.02 
4.95 
4.83 



In examining this table, we find, at all the stations, that December is the 
month in which the difference between the minima and maxima is least ; 
that, at Huntsville, the range is greatest in March, though May comes 
within less than a degree of being equal; that, at Cincinnati, the greatest 
range is in the month of June ; and at Montreal, in July. These observa- 
tions, however, are too few to justify any general conclusion. In reference 
to Cincinnati, it is well known, that June is the month for cholera infantum, 
often intermingled with croup. The enormous range of 22° between the 
diurnal extremes, may perhaps explain the prevalence of those maladies, 
especially the latter. It is worthy of remark, that the difference between 
the ranges of the lowest and highest months, at Huntsville, is less than at 
either of the other places. The months of the year come much nearer to a 
common standard. At Cincinnati, they are more unequal, and at Mon- 
treal, more unequal still. The seasonal means are set forth in the following 
table : 



Places. 


M. T. 

of the 
Year. 


Difference between mean Minima and 
mean Maxima. 


Year. 


Winter. Spring. 


Summer. 


Autumn. 


Huntsville, 
Cincinnati, 
Montreal, 


o 

59.69 
53.81 
41.71 


o 

14.62 
15.52 
11.15 


o 

12.69 

11.15 

7.04 


o 

15.55 
16.40 
13.69 


o 

14.86 
19.06 
14.54 


o 

15.38 

15.47 
9.39 



At all the places, the winter range is least ; at all, the spring rises over 
the autumnal range. At Huntsville, the spring exceeds the summer range ; 
but at the other places that of summer is highest. 
33 



514 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

I have spoken of causes which may depress or exalt the regular minima 
of diurnal heat ; it may he well to devote a paragraph to those which may 
modify the maxima. A change in the direction of the wind in the course of 
the forenoon, may have that effect ; which change may he the consequence of 
atmospheric perturbations, at a distant place. A sudden wafting of clouds 
over a place will, especially in the southern and middle latitudes, keep down 
the maximum, hy intercepting the sun's rays; though in the north, particu- 
larly in cold weather, such a canopy, by arresting and throwing hack the 
caloric radiated from the earth, might keep up a higher afternoon tempera- 
ture. The transition state of vapor may influence the maximum, when it 
coincides with the proper hour. Thus, in winter, if there should, in the after- 
noon, he a tendency to snow, the heat may he kept high hy the caloric given 
out in the condensation ; and in summer, the formation of a thunder-shower 
is accompanied by a high temperature, from the same cause. The shower 
is said to be the consequence of the great heat. Without controverting 
this, it may be safely affirmed, that until the canopy of condensing vapor 
intercepts the rays of the sun, the caloric which is liberated augments the 
intensity of the heat ; and hence, while the power of the sun is in itself pre- 
cisely the same, and the movements of the atmosphere the same on two 
successive days, the one which has a thunder-storm in the afternoon, will 
invariably have the higher two-o'clock temperature. If, however, a shower 
should occur in the forenoon, it may lower the maximum. 

II. Occasional sudden Changes. — The causes which originate irregular 
changes of atmospheric temperature, may sometimes coincide in time with 
the regular, so as to increase the minimum or maximum ; but much oftener 
they break in upon the daily range, and give great extremes of temperature, 
at other than the ordinary hours. These vicissitudes are, moreover, not 
confined to a day, but may begin at any time of one day, and continue 
increasing for twenty-four or forty-eight hours, rarely longer. In reference 
to health, they are of far deeper interest than the regular diurnal vicissi- 
tudes. Like them, they seem to be greater, and they are certainly more 
frequent, in the middle latitudes, than the lower or higher. The periods of 
the year in which irregular and violent changes are most frequent, are the 
latter part of winter and the first half of spring, the beginning of autumn 
and the beginning of winter. In the south, they occur also in winter ; in 
the north, in summer; in the middle latitudes, in both winter and summer. 
In those latitudes, the months of October and November are, perhaps, the 
steadiest in temperature of the whole. 

The vicissitudes we are now considering, depend upon, or are connected 
either with the state of the weather, or the course of the winds, the 
influence of which, on the regular diurnal minima and maxima, have been 
already pointed out. In regard to the weather, it may be stated in general 
terms, that (when it is calm) a rise of temperature precedes both snow and 
rain; and that a fall of temperature as constantly follows those events. 
This fall is generally proportionate to the amount of water precipitated. 
But all rains, especially all thunder-showers, are not followed by diminution 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 515 

of temperature ; for they sometimes occur in a series, two, three, or more on 
the same day, with but little intervening reduction of temperature ; when, 
however, the series is ended, a reduction follows. This is truer of the 
southern, than the middle and northern portions of the Valley. The geo- 
graphical extent of the changes following on these showers, is often exceed- 
ingly limited. Everywhere hail-storms are followed by a lower temperature 
than rain- showers. The difference is doubtless owing to the absorption of 
caloric by the hail-stones (often, perhaps, cooled far below the freezing 
point), as they descend through the atmosphere, and afterward lie dissolv- 
ing on the earth's surface. 

Two winds play a signal part in the production of sudden changes of 
temperature — the south-west and north-west. Whenever, at any season of 
the year, except the summer, the south-west wind blows at night, there is 
an increase of temperature. In the winter it occasions thaws, up to the 
forty-eighth parallel. In the middle latitudes, a night may be clear and 
cold ; but the next day this wind may spring up, and the following night 
prove uncomfortably warm. These sudden rises of temperature attract less 
attention, because they are less uncomfortable, than the opposite extremes. 
The last depend essentially on what I have called our north-west wind ; 
meaning, however, a wind from any point between north and west. This is 
the wind which almost invariably follows thunder- showers ; and precedes or 
attends, all sudden reductions of temperature. The coldness of this wind, 
even in summer, attracted the attention of M. Volney,* who conjectured 
that it consisted of air, which had descended from a great hight in the 
atmosphere. On and around the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, the 
" northers," as the north-west wind is called, often exerts a sudden and most 
chilling influence, as far south as Havana and Vera Cruz. Even at Key 
West, its temperature is sometimes very low, and the late Commander 
Johnston, of our Navy, once saw it, as he informed me, destroy a great 
many fish in the shoal waters of the Florida reefs, near that island. This 
will seem the less remarkable, when we recollect the high temperature of 
the water in which they lived, and think of the reduction it might undergo, 
when driven in thin sheets upon the strands, by such a wind, continuing for 
several days and nights. Why it is, that a north-west wind so constantly 
follows rain and snow, in all parts of the Valley, this is not the place to 
inquire ; but the cause of its low temperature cannot be mistaken. It 
descends from the Rocky Mountains throughout their whole extent, which 
may be regarded as the remote source of all sudden depressions of tempera- 
ture, through the nine milder months of the year ; as the Gulf of Mexico is 
the remote cause of the sudden elevations of temperature, in the other three. 
The south-west wind generally commences after a calm, and brings with it 
a humid condition, ending in clouds. On the other hand, the north-west 
commonly succeeds to the south-west, and brings fair weather. Hence the 
effects of the opposite changes of temperature on health are not the same, 

* View of the Soil and Climate of the United States. 



516 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

either in kind or in degree. These sudden vicissitudes, which probably 
abound no where to a greater extent than in the Interior Valley, are, to use 
a popular phrase, " trying to the constitution," especially in the latter part 
of autumn, when summer clothing has not yet been laid aside, and in early 
spring, when it has been prematurely put on. Through both periods, they 
produce relapses into ague and fever, in regions which generate that disease; 
accelerate the development of tubercular inflammation of the lungs; and 
give rise to rheumatism, catarrh, croup, and all other varieties of pulmonary 
inflammation ; concerning which more will be said hereafter. Nevertheless, 
it cannot be doubted, that the stimulus of change is preferable, in its 
influences on the constitution, to long- continued and intense heat or cold. 



SECTION VII. 

MEAN TEMPERATURES DETERMINED BY INDUCTION. 

Under this head I propose to give a few examples, which, like the 
experimentum cruris, may determine the accuracy and value of the investi- 
gations through which we have passed. In several places, certain deductions 
have been pronounced to be laws of our climate, and in many tables, ratios 
have been given, which it was intimated might be employed in determining 
not merely the annual heat, but its distribution throughout the year. We 
are now to test the truth of these statements. This I shall do by present- 
ing a calculated thermometrical or thermal year, for a few places where 
observations have not yet been made, or if made, have not been published. 
The mean heat is that in the table of calculated mean temperatures, or that 
resulting from the data by which that table was constructed; and the deter- 
mination of the months and seasons, was made from the data furnished by the 
footing of each section of the table of monthly mean heat. In doing this, 
it was assumed that the difference between the mean annual temperature of 
the section, and that of the months included in it, might be taken as the 
difference between the mean annual heat of the place selected for the trial, 
and the months of that place ; then, on ascertaining the difference between 
the mean temperature of each month, and the annual temperature of the 
section, that difference was applied to the mean annual heat of the place 
which had been chosen, and gave that of the months for the calculated year. 
The extreme ranges were determined by a similar method, from data fur- 
nished by the table of annual ranges. 

In selecting stations for this purpose, I have fixed on Memphis, in the 
Mexican Basin, Cleveland in the St. Lawrence Basin, and Pembina, where 
the forty-ninth parallel cuts Red Biver of Lake Winnipeg, in the Hudson 
Basin. The two former are important and flourishing cities, a knowledge of 
the climates of which cannot be without interest ; the latter is at the colony 
of Lord Selkirk, which seems likely to be much augmented within a few 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



517 



years ; for the broad stream of Norwegian, German, and Irish immigration, 
will probably soon reach the banks of Red River, from its sources with those 
of the St. Peters, to its mouth in Lake Winnipeg. An a priori estimate 
of its climate will, therefore, not be without interest, to those who would 
desire to know either its agricultural capabilities or its diseases, as far as 
they depend on climate. 





MEMPHIS 










Position. 








N. L. 


W. L. 


Elevation. 






35° 80' 


90° 06' 


400 






Mean Annual Temperature. 






61°.85 






Extreme Libration. 






Lowest. 


Highest. 


Range. 








—10° 


108° 


118° 








Seasons. 






Winter. 


Spring. 


Summer. 


Autumn. 






41°.16 


62°.79 


81°.97 


62°.33 




Months. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. } 


V.PRIL 


. May. 


JUJVE. 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept 


. Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


o 

39.83 




42.20 


o < 

50.87 6 


4.9£ 


o 

) 72.54 


o 

80.30 


o 

83.47 


o 
82.14 > 


o 

f4.2 


o 

7 63.93 


o 

49.79 


o 

41.45 



518 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book 



CLEVELAND. 







1 


Position. 


i 








N. L. 


( W. L. 


Elevation. 






41° 31' 


81° 46' 


640 






Mean Annual Temperature. 






51°.02 






Extreme Libration. 






Lowest. 


Highest. 


Range. 








—15° 


93° 


108° 








Seasons. 






Winter. | Spring. 


Summer. 


Autumn. 






31°.94 1 49°.60 


70°.82 


54°.61 




Months. 


Jan. 

o 
31.19 


Feb. 


Mar. 

o 

37.72 


April. 


May. 


June. 

o 
64.56 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


o 

30.70 


o 
52.20 


o 

58.89 


o 

74.72 


o 
73.19 


o 

66.13 


o 

54.04 


o 
43.65 


o 
33.93 



















| Position. 








N. L. 


W. L. 

98° 00' 


Elevation. 






49° 00' 


800 






Mean Annual Temperature. 






38°.60 






Extreme Libration. 






Lowest. 


Range. 


Highest. 








—42° 


136° 


94° 








Seasons. 






Winter. 


Spring. 


Summer. 




Autumn. 






11°.30 


38°.06 


64°.22 


39°.59 




Months. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April. 


May. 

o 
52.33 


June. 

o 
63.02 


July. 

o 

66.13 


Aug, 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 

o 

10.97 


o 

9.91 


o 
13.01 


o 

24.69 


o 


M6 


o 

63.51 


o 

52.2'i 


o 

40.17 


o 
26.33 



PLXVII1. 




PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



519 



SECTION VIII. 

TEMPERATURES OF ST. LOUIS AND CINCINNATI, WITH DIAGRAMS. 

I. St. Louis. — G-eorge Engelmann, M. D., a highly scientific, natural- 
ized G-erman, of St. Louis, has favored me with the unpublished results of a 
long series of meteorological observations, made at that place, and illustra- 
ted with diagrams. The character of the observer, and the central position 
of St. Louis, in reference to seas, lakes, mountains, and prospective, if not 
present population, give to these observations a value, which has deter- 
mined me to print them. Those which relate to temperature, will form a 
proper conclusion to the present chapter. The notes which follow the tables, 
and also the diagram, are from Doctor Engelmann ; but the latter has been 
reduced and prepared for the engraver, by Captain Fuller. 



TABLE I. 

Mean Temperatures op the Months at St. Louis, through Sixteen 

Years. 



Year. 

1833. 
1834. 

1835. 
1836. 
1837. 
1838. 
1839. 
1840. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846. 
1847. 
1848, 

Mean, 



Jan. 



34.00 



Feby. 



38.00 



Mar. 



20.52 40.55 
34.47 21.42 
30.87j32.45 
29.3038.52 
34.70,20.78 
37.1738.50 
26.34 39.75 
28.60132.90 
39.7237.44 
36.72 25.35 
32.90:41.20 
40.55 44.10 
38.7031.45 
27.1536.15 
39.3940.39 



Q 

44.60 
44.82 
42.12 
38.30 
41.67 
50.51 
45.01 
47.20 
46.14 
56.67 
27.50 
46.50 
45.35 
47.25 
41.38 
44.53 



April. 
~o 

58.55 
5 8.77 1 
58.00 
58.55 ! 
49.55' 
58.46 
63.10 
61.13 
54.91 
63.05 
55.30 
66.75 
64.30 
58.95 
59.34 
55.21 



May. 



June. 



69.35 
65.30; 
65.00 
68.90 
63.50 
60.49 
66.78 
67.28 
66.71 
66.77 
66.84 
67.70 
64.68 
69.30 
63.54 
68.98 



72.95 
75.42 
72.50 
74.75 
72.05 
75.71 
70.35 
77.28 
77.43 
72.73 
73.81 
75.56 
74.70 
70.85 
72.02 
72.53 



33.1934.93 44.34 58.99 66.32 73.79 78.43,76.34 68.14 54.92 40.0 



July, 
d 

78.57 
81.27 
72.50 
78.57 
78.12 
81.64 
76.36 
76.93 
80.93 
75.85 
79.09 
81.64 
79.75 
81.40 
78.59 
73.73 



Aug. 



79.47 
80.60' 
71.00 
73.62 
75.42 
80.45 
74.32 
76.04 
77.12 
73.34 
76.80 
77.43 
77.55 
78.60 
74.69 
74.95 



Septr. Octr. Nov 



68.00 58 
64.40 53 
65.00:51 
67.7748 
66.87 58. 
68.63 50 
64.39 62 
65.72 54 
68.06 54 
71.87 59 
73.26 51 
67.95 51 
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§24 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Explanatory Notes, by Dr. Engelmann. 

1. The observations were made, in St. Louis, with the exception of 
those of the first three years, 1833 to 1835, which were made within twenty 
miles of the city. In those years, the temperature certainly reached its ex- 
tremes ; and we have not experienced, since that time, such cold winters as 
those of 1833-4 and 1834-5, nor so hot a summer as in 1834, nor so cool 
an one as in 1835, of which it has been said, though with some exaggera- 
tion, that it froze in every month of the year ! But the extremes, espe- 
cially of cold, appear to be greater in the country than in the city, and it 
may be well to bear that in mind, in examining these tables. 

2. Table I gives the mean temperatures. Up to 1844, the mean of each 
month has been calculated from the mean between the lowest and highest 
temperature of each day, and from 1845 to 1848 from the mean of the ob- 
servations made at sunrise and at three o'clock, P. M., which is believed to 
lead pretty much to the same result. 

3. Table II gives the minima. It will be observed that in twelve of the 
sixteen years, the thermometer fell to, or below, zero, and the monthly 
tables evince that it stood at or below zero in 

1833, on 1 day in March, 

1834, " 7 days in January and 1 in February, 

1835, " 7 days in February, .... 

1836, " 1 day in February and 2 in December, 

1837, it never came down to zero. 

1838, " 5 days in February, 

1839, " 1 day in November, .... 

1840, " 1 day in January, .... 

1841, " 2 days in January, .... 

1842, not below zero. 

1843, " 1 day in February, 

1844, not below zero. 

1845, " 1 day in November and 1 in December, 

1846, " not below zero. 

1847, " 1 day in January, .... 

1848, " 1 day in January, .... 
In 16 years, the mercury stood at or below zero, on 33 days. 

4. Table III gives the maxima. It appears that in April, the thermo- 
meter rose above 90°, in five of the sixteen years ; in May, in eight years > 
in June, in all except two ; in July, in every one ; in August, in all except 
one ; in September, in all except three ; but never in the other six months. 
Only in July or August did it reach to 100° or above it; and that but in 
four of the sixteen years — 1833, 1834, 1838, and 1841. In three years, 
1840, 1847, and 1848, the highest temperature never surpassed 95°. 

The temperature rose to 100° or above it, in 

1833, 3 days in July, 3 days. 

1834, 8 " in " " and 6 in August, . . . 14 " 

1838, 3 « in " 3 « 

1841, 2 " in « 2_ " 

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fart ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 525 

5. Table IY gives the range of the monthly and annual temperature. 
It will be seen that, contrary to common opinion, the changes are by far the 
greatest in the winter months, especially from January to March, and more 
in February, and next to that, in March, than in any other month. The 
lowest range is observed in July, where it never has exceeded 48°.4, but is 
on an average only 39°.5. 

Though the mean temperature of February is a little higher than that of 
January, the lowest temperatures are considerably lower in February, and 
so far, the popular opinion is not without foundation, which makes February 
the coldest month in the year. 

6. Table Y records the greatest changes of temperature which have oc- 
curred in every month in sixteen years. 

The greatest changes take place from noon or afternoon of one day to 
sunrise next morning — the temperature falling. Great rises occur from sun- 
rise to noon or afternoon of the same day ; but they are generally not so 
excessive, though perhaps equally deleterious to the human system. The 
rises take place in eight to ten hours ; they are indicated in the table by a 
*; the falls occur mostly within thirteen to fifteen hours, and are not thus 
indicated. 

The greatest changes occur in the winter months, in spring and fall ; in 
one instance, only, in those sixteen years, has the temperature changed 40° 
or more in May and in June ; in September, December, January, February, 
and March, the change reached, once or oftener, 45° or more. In Decem- 
ber, January, and March, it reached to 50° or more. But on the average, 
greater changes have occurred in March and April, than in any other month, 
and smaller changes in November and December, than in either October, 
January, or February. 

The temperature of the years 1833, 1834, and 1835, has not been so 
regularly observed, and that, too, in the country, near St. Louis, where the 
changes are generally more violent than in the city. 

II. Cincinnati. — Having submitted the tables of Doctor Engelmann, 
to Joseph Ray, M. D., Professor of Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 
Woodward College, a meteorologist of most reliable scientific accuracy, he has 
at my request, obligingly furnished me with corresponding tables for Cincin- 
nati; and, also, a diagram, which maybe compared with that of Doctor 
Engelmann. St. Louis is half a degree south of Cincinnati, and five de- 
grees, forty-seven minutes, further west. Its elevation above the sea, is 
about one hundred feet less than that of the latter city. The Mississippi, 
at St. Louis, flows nearly from north to south — the Ohio, at Cincinnati, 
from east to west. No hills surround St. Louis — those around Cincinnati 
are about two hundred and fifty feet above the upper plain — that on 
which the observations of Professor Ray were made. An attentive exami- 
nation of the results, obtained by two enlightened observers, so nearly in the 
same latitude and elevation, but separated by nearly six degrees of longi- 
tude, cannot fail to prove instructive. 



526 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 





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PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



527 





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528 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE III. 

Maximum Temperature of each month in fourteen tears, at Cincinnati. 



Years. 


Jan. 


Feb. 

O 


Mar. 

O 


Apr. 


May. 

"o 


June, 
o 


July. 
O 


Aug. 

o 


Sep. 

o 


Oct. 

o 


Nov. 

~o 


Dec. 

o 


Whole Year. 




o 


O 


1835. 


66 


56 


70 


83 


91 


95 


93 


89 


86 


82 


76 


63 


95 June 13. 


1836. 


61 


62 


71 


91 


89 


95 


99 


95 


93 


80 


68 


55 


99 July 23. 


1837. 


53 


66 


73 


89 


95 


95 


95 


94 


90 


80 


75 


73 


95 July 15. 


1838. 


69 


51 


85 


85 


87 


93 


97 


100 


91 


84 


65 


54 


100 August 9. 


1839. 


66 


70 


79 


83 


94 


94 


96 


95 


88 


88 


61 


48 


96 July 25. 


1840. 


55 


75 


75 


91 


89 


93 


96 


93 


85 


82 


71 


58 


96 July 16. 


1841. 


54 


58 


83 


82 


93 


99 


98 


96 


93 


76 


72 


64 


99 June 12. 


1842. 


65 


69 


85 


90 


88 


95 


92 


88 


94 


84 


77 


69 


95 June 22. 


1843. 


67 


58 


59 


88 


93 


97 


98 


92 


92 


77 


68 


60 


97 July 1. 


1844. 


56 


70 


72 


89 


89 


90 


94 


93 


89 


76 


75 


64 


94 July 6 & 14. 


1845. 


62 


70 


77 


93 


91 


94 


95 


95 


86 


76 


68 


51 


95 July 21. 


1846. 


67 


55 


69 


88 


91 


91 


96 


95 


92 


81 


73 


66 


96 July 10. 


1847. 


67 


60 


72 


86 


88 


92 


92 


90 


89 


83 


75 


60 


92 July 18. 


1848. 


60 


60 


86 


84 


90 


91 
99 


90 
99 


92 
100 


86 
94 


75 

88" 


59 

~11 


73 
73 


92 Aug. 14. 


Hst. Max. 


69 


75 


86 j 93 


95 





TABLE IY. 

Monthly Range of Temperature at Cincinnati, in fourteen years. 



Years. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Whole 
Year. 


o 


O 


o 


O 


O 


O 


O 


O 


o 


o 


o 


O 


O 


1835. 


63 


73 


69 


62 


51 


50 


45 


43 


53 


53 


73 


54 


112 


1836. 


60 


69 


75 


66 


51 


43 


44 


47 


53 


53 


53 


52 


106 


1837. 


48 


58 


53 


63 


56 


43 


38 


42 


48 


54 


53 


66 


90 


1838. 


61 


61 


74 


57 


51 


40 


38 


38 


52 


54 


51 


58 


110 


1839. 


53 


65 


77 


51 


58 


48 


42 


48 


57 


56 


59 


40 


94 


1840. 


56 


75 


54 


64 


47 


46 


46 


36 


44 


63 


53 


51 


97 


1841. 


61 


54 


65 


52 


56 


46 


39 


37 


51 


51 


47 


46 


106 


1842. 


56 


74 • 


60 


63 


52 


50 


36 


35 


54 


57 


69 


69 


100 


1843. 


65 


60 


58 


62 


52 


59 


48 


39 


44 


58 


46 


45 


99 


1844. 


57 


55 


52 


61 


44 


36 


29 


37 


51 


50 


60 


56 


91 


1845. 


43 


62 


59 


73 


57 


43 


46 


42 


46 


51 


57 


57 


101 


1846. 


57 


55 


49 


61 


48 


45 


39 


28 


48 


53 


58 


47 


96 


1847. 


70 


55 


58 


60 


52 


45 


38 


38 


51 


56 


56 


58 


95 


1848. 


64 


43 
75 


81 

77 


53 
73 


50 
58 


41 
59 


32 

~T8" 


31 


46 


59 


34 


49 

~~69 


96 


Ex.Ra. 


70 


48 


57 


63 


73 





TABLE Y. 

Greatest change of Temperature within 24 hours, in each month, for 14 years. 



Year. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 

O 


Aug. 
o 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Whole 
Year. 




O 


O 


o 


O 


o 


O 


O 


O 


O 


o 


O 


1835. 


33 


37 


37 


37 


35 


31 


32 


30 


33 


31 


30 


28 


37 


1836. 


27 


35 


32 


43 


46 


33 


38 


28 


30 


32 


36 


30 


46 


1837. 


27 


25 


32 


40 


42 


31 


30 


35 


22 


31 


32 


31 


42 


1838. 


29 


31 


30 


37 


38 


31 


28 


28 


37 


35 


34 


36 


38 


1839. 


25 


35 


31 


38 


35 


35 


39 


33 


35 


40 


29 


19 


40 


1840. 


31 


38 


41 


38 


33 


30 


25 


27 


32 


35 


40 


33 


41 


1841. 


21 


30 


30 


37 


36 


33 


30 


28 


30 


35 


31 


21 


37 


1842. 


35 


30 


43 


43 


43 


34 


28 


29 


34 


41 


44 


34 


44 


1843. 


31 


31 


32 


34 


36 


38 


34 


32 


29 


38 


28 


26 


38 


1844. 


28 


31 


33 


37 


33 


28 


25 


26 


32 


31 


35 


27 


37 


1845. 


32 


38 


39 


43 


42 


32 


30 


33 


31 


39 


35 


32 


43 


1846. 


29 


29 


35 


40 


32 


30 


24 


23 


27 


33 


32 


25 


40 


1847. 


22 


27 


33 


42 


38 


30 


25 


25 


29 


36 


29 


30 


42 


1848. 


28 


27 


40 


40 
43 


38 


30 

38 


23 


20 


27 


29 


22 


29 


40 


Gr.ch. 


35 


38 


43 


46 


39 


35 


37 


41 


44 


36 





part n.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 529 

III. In comparing these two sets of observations, we must add to the 
mean temperature of Cincinnati, for its higher latitude, 0°.85, and for its 
greater elevation 0°.25, thus raising it from 53°.40 to 5 4°. 50, which sub- 
tracted from 55°.57, the temperature of St. Louis, gives a difference of 
1°.07. To infer from this that the mean annual heat of the meridian of 
Cincinnati, is less than that of St. Louis, 5° 47' of longitude, further west 
(the latitudes and elevations being equalized), would, I suppose, be inad- 
missible ; as slight variations in the instruments, their adjustment, or the 
times of observing them, might produce the result. The probability of this 
is increased, by comparing St. Louis with Portsmouth, which lies 7° 20' of 
longitude east of St. Louis, and yet differs from it in mean temperature, 
but two-thirds of a degree, the proper corrections for latitude and elevation 
being made. 

In comparing the months, subjected to the same corrections, we find that 
November, December, and January are colder, while February and March 
are nearly the same, at St. Louis as at Cincinnati, which shows a more 
rigorous and protracted winter. This, however, is compensated by the heat 
of April, which rises above that of the same month in Cincinnati 2°. 69 ; an 
excess corresponding to the greater cold of St. Louis in November, which is 
2°.63. Hence the transition from winter to summer, and from summer to 
winter, through the months of April and November, is more violent in the 
meridian of St. Louis than of Cincinnati. When January and July are 
compared, we find the former month, at St. Louis, 1°.61 below that of Cin- 
cinnati, while the latter month is 1°.73 above, making the range of mean 
heat, between the coldest and hottest month, 3°. 34 greater at St. Louis than 
Cincinnati. 

When we examine the tables of minima, we find the thermometer below 
zero, in the months of November, December, January, February, and March, 
at St. Louis, but never below in the first of these months at Cincinnati. 
The lowest minimum at the former was 9° below that of the latter. 

The tables of maxima give us a rise above 90°, from April to September 
inclusive, at St. Louis, and the same at Cincinnati; but the average rise 
above 90° for that period, in the former city, is 10° ; in the latter, 6°. 
The greatest heat observed at the two places, was for St. Louis, 108°.5; 
for Cincinnati, the correction being made, 101°.5. In comparing their 
extreme annual ranges, that of St. Louis rises 15° above that of Cincinnati. 

Compared by their greatest changes of temperature in twenty-four 
hours, we find those of St. Louis to predominate in January, February, 
March, April, June, September, October, and December; to be nearly 
equal in April, October, and November ; and in May only, to be con- 
siderably greater in Cincinnati. The average of the excess of St. Louis 
over Cincinnati, for eight months, is 9°; of the former over the latter, 
for four months, not quite 4°. The greatest change observed at St. Louis, 
in twenty-four hours, was 56°, at Cincinnati, 46°. 

Thus, it appears, that while the two cities, which have been compared, 
vary but little more than one degree in mean temperature (allowance being 



530 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF book i. 

made for their difference in latitude and elevation), the extremes of every 
kind are decidedly more violent at St. Louis than Cincinnati. Coinciding 
with this result, we have in the table, page 47, the annual range at Ports- 
mouth 106°, Cincinnati 117°, St. Louis 134°, Fort Leavenworth 135°; 
which stations lie nearly in the same latitude, and vary in mean temperature 
hut a few degrees; while the first is in longitude 82° 56", and the last 94° 
94', more than 12° further west, through which the annual range increases. 
It seems, then, to be a law of our climate, already more than once hinted at, 
that about the thirty-ninth parallel, the oscillations of the thermometer 
become more sudden and extreme as we advance from east to west, and this 
is probably true of the whole plain, or level country, between the Lakes and 
the Gulf of Mexico. 



SECTION IX. 

CURVE OF MEAN TEMPERATURE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 

The mean of all the means of the general table of annual temperatures, is 
within a fraction of 50°, which may, therefore, be taken in the present 
stage of observation, as the curve of mean temperature for the entire Val- 
ley. In referring to the places, whose observed mean temperatures vary 
not more than a degree from 50°, we find them included between the forty- 
first and forty- second parallels of latitude. Of the whole, Fort Armstrong, 
at Rock Island, Illinois, and Bloomington, Iowa, both on the Mississippi 
Eiver, in N. Lat. 41° 31' and 41° 26', approach nearest to the isothermal 
curve of 50°. The other places, lying between the forty-first and forty- 
second degrees, at which observations have been made, are Council Bluffs, 
on the Missouri River, Fort Dearborn, at Chicago, and Hudson, south of 
the middle of Lake Erie. The first would carry it a little above the forty- 
second degree, the last two below the forty-first. The Steubenville obser- 
vations, N. Lat. 40° 25', place it a few minutes below that parallel ; those 
of Marietta seven minutes above. The mean between that place and 
Hudson, which lie in the same longitude, would fix it at 41° 22'. On the 
whole, we may, in the present state of our knowledge, say, that the isother- 
mal curve of mean temperature for the whole Valley meanders, from the 
Alleghany River to the Missouri River (the elevation being from six hun- 
dred to one thousand two hundred feet), between the forty -first and forty- 
second parallels ; but seems, from the observations at Council Bluffs, to rise 
highest in the west. The western extremity of Lake Erie, and the southern 
end of Lake Michigan, dip into this zone; which, likewise, includes the 
northern part of Ohio and Indiana, cuts through the northern portion of 
West Pennsylvania, and of Illinois, and traverses the southern half of Iowa. 
To the north of this zone lies the colder, to the south, the warmer climatic 
half of the Valley. It is worthy of remark, that this zone ranges nearly 
equidistant between the Gulf of Mexico and Hudson Bay, and also between 
the band of Equatorial Heat and the Pole of Cold. 



pi-yux- 




part II.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 531 

CHAPTER III. 

ATMOSPHERIC PRESSURE OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 



SECTION I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

I. As the variations in the weight or pressure of the atmosphere, at the 
same place, depend, directly or indirectly, on the temperature of the air, 
their study naturally follows that in which we have been engaged ; and, in 
turn, prepares us for the study of our winds and weather, which are inti- 
mately connected with barometric oscillations. 

II. The difficulties and deficiencies which we meet, in this department of 
our meteorology, are great ; for, although a large proportion of the meteor- 
ologists, whose thermometrical observations were quoted in the last chapter, 
have kept barometrical registers, but few have made allowance for the effect 
of variations of temperature, on the mercurial column, or for the influence on 
its hight, of the capillary attraction of the tube ; whereby their records are 
not a true expression of the weight of the atmosphere. From the former 
cause especially, the errors must necessarily be very great in a country like 
ours, where the mean heat of winter and summer differs so widely ; and that 
of the same month or season in the south, as at New Orleans, varies so 
greatly from that in the north, as at Quebec ; while both are at the level of 
the sea. Thus the mean temperature of the month of October, is 28° 
higher in the former, than the latter city; and if the true atmospheric pres- 
sure at the two stations were the same, it would seem to be greater in the 
south, to the extent that the barometric column would be elongated by 28° 
of additional temperature. In most of the meteorological tables which are 
before me, there is no record of the state of the thermometer attached to the 
barometer ; and, even where such a register is given, the data for calculating 
the effect of capillarity are wanting; I have determined, therefore, to 
depend chiefly on the observations made at St. Louis, Cincinnati, Hudson. 
Toronto, and Montreal. 



SECTION II. 

BAROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS AT ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI. 

The thermometrical tables of Dr. Englemann were given in the eighth 
section of the last chapter. The same gentleman has kindly furnished me 
with the unpublished results of his observations on the barometer, through 
twelve years of the same period, carefully arranged by himself, and has 
added to the tables an instructive diagram. With these we shall begin. 



532 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[BOOK I. 



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PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



535 



TABLE IV. 

Monthly Kange of Barometrical Pressure, at St. Louis, for 12 years. 



Years. 


Jan. 


Feb. 


Mar. 


April. 


May. 


June. 


July. 


Aug. 


Sept. 


Oct. 


Nov. 


Dec. 


Whole 
Year. 


1837. 

1838. 
1839. 
1840. 
1841. 
1842. 
1843. 
1844. 
1845. 
1846- 
1847. 
1848. 


in. 

0.900 

1.190 

1.010 

1.000 

1.170 

1.040 

1.010 

1.130 

0.915 

1.255 

1.330 

1.095 


in. 

1.050 

0.810 

1.280 

1.240 

0.970 

1.170 

1.000 

0.770 

1.075 

1.385 

0.925 

1.125 

1.490 


in. 

1.000 
0.860 
1.160 
0.970 
1.010 
0.970 
1.020 
0.960 
1.010 
1.945 
0.845 
1.275 

1.315 


in. 

0.910 
0.830 
0.670 
0.750 
1.060 
0.630 
0.730 
0.710 
0.945 
1.425 
0.870 
0.730 
1.425 


in. 

0.680 
0.550 
0.770 
0.940 
0.490 
0.950 
0.760 
0.740 
0.670 
0.595 
0.740 
0.750 


in. 

0.490 

0.360 

0.500 

0.610 

0.410 

0.820 

0.490 

0.440 

0.530 

0.660 

0.390 

0.595 


in. 

0.380 

0.490 

0.390 

0.480 

0.380 

0.530 

0.440 

0.320 

0.430 

0.545 

0.285 

0.490 

0.660 


in. 

0.580 
0.330 
0.480 
0.400 
0.470 
0.640 
0.360 
0.410 
0.440 
0.395 
0.500 
0.490 


in. 

0.570 
0.590 
0.910 
0.480 
0.630 
0.530 
0.820 
0.520 
0.660 
0.540 
0.565 
0.760 
0.960 


in. 

0.680 
0.810 
0.560 
0.770 
0.850 
0.590 
0.800 
0.670 
0.925 
0.625 
0.905 
1.025 


in. 

0.860 
1.120 
1.320 
0.970 
1.030 
1.110 
1.020 
0.820 
0.875 
0.805 
1.095 
0.880 


ill. 

0.910 

1.080 

0.990 

0.800 

1.010 

1.000 

0.970 

1.090 

0.725 

1.065 

0.855 

1.030 

1.180 


in. 

1.060 

1.350 

1.480 

1.300 

1.500 

1.210 

1.170 

1.130 

1.240 

1.705 

1.330 

1.435 

1.760 


Ex.Ra. 


1.445 


1.050 


lo.880 


0.720 


1.290 


1.430 



Illustrative Annotations, by Br. Engelmann. 

Table I, records the mean elevation of the barometer in every single month 
for twelve years ; the average elevation of the same through the whole 
period; and the mean elevation of every year. The mean of the twelve 
years is found to be 29.578 inches. All the figures given in the table are, 
of course, the result of calculation from a large number of single observa- 
tions. The mean* of every month has been found by taking the mean of the 
observations of every day at noon, and subtracting therefrom 0.005 ; as a 
number of direct observations have shown me, that this gives the true mean 
of the month, as near as it can be ascertained from one daily observation. 

Table II, gives the minima, and table III the maxima of every month and 
every year of the twelve. 

Table IY, is the result of both these tables, presenting the difference be- 
tween the minima and maxima in every month and year. The lowest line, 
giving the " extreme range," shows the difference between the highest and 
lowest state of the barometer, that occurred at any time in January, Feb- 
ruary, etc. The last column gives the difference between the highest and 
lowest in each year. 

The Biagram, as far as possible, embodies all these results, and shows, by 
one glance, First, the mean barometrical elevation, during the twelve years, 
indicated by a straight, heavy line (a), and the range of the mean elevations 
of that period, by two lighter, straight lines (V) below, and (a") above the 
first. The mean of any one year was never below the line a', nor above the 
line a". Second. The diagram shows the mean barometrical elevation of 
each month during that period, by a thick, curved line (b), and by lines {b' 
and b"), the extremes of these monthly means. Third. It displays the 
mean of the lowest depressions of every month, by the curved line (c), 
while (V and c") are the lines indicating the lowest and highest minima of 
every month. In other words, during the twelve years, the lowest stage of 
the barometer was never below c', nor above c" . Fourth. Finally, it shows 



536 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the mean, and the lowest and highest maxima of every month, by the lines 
d, d' and d". 

The following interesting facts are deduced from the tables, and exhibited 
to the eye on the diagram. 

The mean elevation of the barometer, calculated at the freezing point, is 
29.578 inches ; the lowest and highest means 29.550 and 29.613, within the 
twelve years, differ only 0.063, and the mean of one year does not differ 
from the true mean more, at most, than 0.034. 

The mean elevation of each month, during the year, gives a curve (3), 
which, in January, commences above the mean of the year, gradually descends 
from January and February, until it gets below the average mean (a) in 
April, and reaches its lowest point in May ; it gets at or a little above the 
mean in September, and reaches its highest elevation in November, whence 
it slightly falls until January. 

The means of each single month (b', b"), vary less in January, consid- 
erably from February to May, very little from June to September, but least 
in August, more again in October, still more in November, and less, again, 
in December. The range of the barometer is smallest in summer, and 
especially in July, and greatest in winter, from October to March (and even 
April), but less so in December than in the other five months. 

The highest barometrical elevation in the twelve years took place, Jan- 
uary, 1846=30.400 in.; and the lowest depression (during a violent storm), 
April 28, 1846=28.640 in.: but usually the barometer does not rise above 
30.241 in., nor sink below 28. 915 in. — the mean range amounting to 1.326 
in.; in one year. 

Other tables, not published here, show that the mean daily variation, in 
St. Louis, amounts to about 0.056. It is well known that, unless local 
influences intervene, the barometer rises and falls twice in twenty-four hours. 
The highest point is attained at nine A. M., and is on an average about 
0.034 above the mean of the day ; the lowest occurs at three P. M., and is 
about 0.022 below the daily mean; at ten P. M., the barometer is not so 
high as at nine, nor at four A. M. so low as at ten o'clock. These regular 
daily variations are much more considerable here than in more northern 
latitudes, and approach those of the tropical regions, where all these 
phenomena are more constant. 



SECTION III. 

BAROMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS AT CINCINNATI, OHIO. 

From Professor Ray I have received the results of barometric observa- 
tions for fourteen years. They are made out on the same plan with those of 
Dr. Engelmann, and will, therefore, admit of a full and instructive 
comparison. 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



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PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



541 



The hight of the barometer at St. Louis, for the mean year, is greater 
than at Cincinnati ; but as the latter is elevated one hundred feet above the 
former, an amount, equal to the atmospheric pressure of that number of 
feet, must be made to the one, or subtracted from the other. Wishing to 
make St. Louis a standard of comparison for all the barometric stations, I 
have applied the correction to Cincinnati, by adding .111, a ratio sufficiently 
accurate for our purposes. The months thus corrected are presented in the 
following table : 

TABLE V. 

Comparative Monthly, Quarterly, and Yearly mean Pressure at St. 

Louis and Cincinnati, corrected eor Difference of Elevation. 

The difference marked -f- or — , as Cincinnati rises or falls from St. Louis. 



Months, 



December. 
January. 
February. 
Winter. 



in.. 

29.636 
29.616 
29.618 



March. 

April. 

May. 



Spring. 



St. L. Cin'ti. 



in. 

29.467 
29.446 
29.419 



29.623 29.444 



Differ. 



-.169 
.170 

.199 



.179 



Months. 



June. 
July. 
August. 



St. L. 



m. 

29.495 

29.544 
29.567 



Summer. 29.535 



Cin'ti. 



m. 

29.382 
29.442 
29.467 



29.430 



Differ. 



in. 

—.113 
.102 

.150 



.105 



29.59829.426 
29.540|29.406 
29.49329.356 



29.54429.396 



.172 
.134 
137 



September. 

October. 

November. 



.148 Autumn. 



29.584 

29.619 
29.623 

2^609 



29.457 
29.485 
29.460 



29.467 



-.127 
.134 
.163 



.142 



Mean Year, | St. Louis, 29.578 1 Cincinnati, 29.434|Difference, 00.144 



SECTION IV. 

BAROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS AT HUDSON, OHIO. 

A profoundly scientific meteorologist, Professor Loomis, has published, in 
the American Journal of Science, Vol. XLI, page 310, the results of his 
observations for three years, 1838 — 40. Those on temperature were before 
us in the last chapter. Those which show the monthly mean hight of the 
barometer, I have arranged into a table, fitted for comparison with the tables 
of St. Louis and Cincinnati. Other subordinate tables have been extracted 
entire. 

These observations are of the greater value, from being made at a place only 
twenty-five miles south of Lake Erie ; and at an elevation nearly six hundred 
feet higher than any of the other stations. They present, moreover, the 
mean morning and afternoon elevations of the barometer, which those made 
at St. Louis and Cincinnati do not. These will be found in the first table, as 
follows : 



542 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



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PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



543 



By this table we learn that the mean annual pressure of the atmosphere at 
Hudson, allowance being made for difference of topographical elevation, is 
.022 less than at St. Louis; while, as we have seen, that over Cincinnati, 
subjected to the same correction, is .144. Thus the absolute weight of the 
atmosphere is less at the last station than either of the others. 

These diversities in the amount of mean pressure, at different places, in 
our Valley, do not constitute an anomaly ; for, in the language of Professor 
Loomis. "It is now clearly proved that the mean pressure of the atmosphere, 
at the level of the sea, is not everywhere the same," and such being the 
fact, we should expect the mean pressure over a continent, at equal 
altitudes, to be unequal. 

Professor Loomis has not given the monthly minima, maxima, and range, 
as they are presented in the tables of Dr. Engelmann and Professor Ray, but 
substituted for them the following occasional extremes : 

TABLE II. 

Elevation of the Barometer above 29.25, in Three Years. 





in. 




in. 


1838. March 25, 9 A. M. 


29.252 


1839. February 18, 3 P. M. 


29.265 


" October 17, 9 A. M. 


.305 


" March 31, 9 A. M. 


.397 


" November 10, 11 A.M. 


.466 


" October 21, 9 A. M. 


.301 


u November 26, 9 A.M. 


.251 


" November 22, 9 A. M. 


.560 


« November 29, 9 A. M. 


.295 


1840. January 26, 9 A.M. 


.358 


c * December 31, midn't. 


.515 


" December 4, 9 A. M. 


.272 


1839. February 6, 3 P. M. 


.298 


1841. January 19, 9 A. M. 


.479 



TABLE III. 

Depression op the Barometer below 28.25, in Three Years. 





in. 




in. 


1838. February 16, 1 P. M. 


28.122 


1840. March 24, Hi A. M. 


27.953 


" December 22, 4 A. M. 


.079' 


" May 3, 6i P. M. 


.964 


1839. February 28, 3 P. M. 


.164 


" November 22, 3 P. M. 


28.234 


" May 27, 3 P. M. 


.240 


" December 15, 3 P. M. 


.207 


« November 2, 3 P. M. 


.161 


" December 26, 8 A. M. 


.035 


1840. January 30, 7 A. M. 


.009 







On these tables of extreme variation, Professor Loomis remarks, that 
being less than those observed at Montreal, New York, and Boston, places 
near the level of the sea, we may conclude, that for considerable elevations, 
the range of the barometer diminishes more rapidly than its absolute 
hight. But they present 1.551 as the extreme range in three years. The 
extreme range, for twelve years, at St. Louis, was 1.760, and for fourteen years, 
at Cincinnati, 1.620, numbers which confirm Professor Loomis's conclusion. 

The following table of extreme oscillations, within the twenty-four hours, is 
extracted from the same paper with the last, and will be found the more 
interesting, because St. Louis and Cincinnati observations do not present 
tables showing the occasional diurnal fluctuations : 



544 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE IV. 

Fluctuations op the Barometer, not Corrected for Temperature, 
Exceeding six-tenths of an inch, in twenty-four hours. 



Date. 



Feb. 



1838. 

16, 1 P. M 
« 17, 10A.M 

March 4, 10 A. M 
5, 6A.M 
5, 



Nov. 



Dec. 



Jan. 



11. 

12, 

28, 
29, 



3 P. M. 
6, 9 A. M. 

6, 3 P. M. 
3 P. M. 
3 P.M. 
9 A.M. 
6 A.M. 

1839. 

7, 8 P. M. 

8, 9 A.M. 
« 21, 3 P. M. 
" 22, 3 P. M. 
ff Midnight. 
« 23, 7 A. M. 
« 23, 3 P. M. 

Feb. 28, 3 P. M. 
March 1, 9 A.M. 

« 29, 9 A. M. 

» 30, 9 A. M. 



Barom. 



ill. 

28.086 
.766 

29.064 

28.378 
.327 
.921 
.935 
.449 

29.050 
,008 

28.314 

28.437 

29.046 

28.808 

.305 

.288 

.800 

.931 

.188 

.802 

.535 

29.243 



Oscillation. 



680 in 21 hours 
686 in 20 hours 

594 in 18 hours 

608 in 24 hours 

601 in 24 hours 
694 in 21 hours 

609 in 13 hours 

503 in 24 hours 

,512 in 7 hours 
,643 in 15 hours 

,614 in 18 hours 

,708 in 24 hours 



Date. 



Jan. 
Jan. 



1840. 
23, 2 A 



Feb. 



24, 
29, 
30, 
30, 
31, 
12, 
" 13, 
" 13, 
« 14, 
- 15, 
Mar. 23, 
" 23, 



•M 
9 A.M. 
9 A.M. 

7 A.M. 
9 A.M. 



Ap'l. 12, 
» 13, 

Dec. 25, 
« 26, 

« 27, 



Jan. 



9 A, 

3 P. 

9 A, 

3 P. 

3 P. 

9 A 

9 A 

3 P. 

24, 9 A. M. 

24.111^ AM. 

24, 3 P. M 

25, 9 A. M, 
9 A. M 
9 A. M 
9 A. M 

8 A. M. 

9 A. M 
1841. 

17, 9 A. M. 

18, 9 A. M 



Barom. 



28.594 
29.306 



Oscillation. 



.638 in 31 hours 

.596 in 22 hours 

.874 in 24 hours 

.527 in 18 hours 

.711 in 24 hours 
.783 in 18 hours 

.813 in 24 hours 
.699 in 18 hours 

.614 in 21 hours 

.665 in 24 hours 

.781 in 23 hours 
.681 in 25 hours 

.712 in 24 hours 



"The greatest range, in twenty-four hours, was .8T4, January 30, 1840; 
but the most remarkable motion of all was that on the 23d of January, 
1839, .512 in seven hours. It was accompanied by a most violent wind 
from the north, and a heavy snow. It will be observed that these extraor- 
dinary fluctuations occur chiefly in winter; not one occurred in the summer 
months. The same remark applies to the table of maxima and minima, 
given before." Page 314. 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



545 



SECTION IV. 

BAROMETRIC OBSERVATIONS AT TORONTO, CANADA WEST. 

The British government has established, at Toronto (formerly Little 
York), a Magnetic and Meteorological Observatory, which, at this time, 
is under the superintendence of Captain Lefroy, of the Royal Artillery.* 
To that highly- cultivated and obliging gentleman, I am indebted for a 
number of MS. meteorological observations; and, also, for two volumes 
published by the British government, under the direction of Colonel 
Sabine.f The MS. observations will be presented first. 

TABLE I. 

Mean Barometric Elevation, with the Maxima, Minima, and Range, 
at Toronto, for Nine Years. 

Altitude — above the ocean, 339 feet; above Lake Ontario, 108 feet. 





Year. 


Mean. 


Max. 


Min. 


Range. 








m. 


in. 


in. 


in. 






1840. 


29.654 


30.385 


28.694 


1.691 






1841. 


.604 


.417 


.672 


1.745 






1842. 


.612 


.258 


.781 


1.477 






1843. 


.612 


.263 


.579 


1.684 






1844. 


.618 


.265 


.614 


1.651 






1845. 


.610 


.242 


.939 


1.303 






1846. 


.628 


.335 


.829 


1.506 






1847. 


.625 


.396 


.721 


1.675 






1848. 


.619 

29.609 


.298 


.863 


1.435 






Mean. 


30.318 


28.744 


1.574 





The barometric observations, the results of which are given in the tables 
compiled by Colonel Sabine, extend through two years only, and they are 
included in the preceding table ; but as they were made at every alternate 
(even) hour for the whole period, they are of great value, as showing the 
bihorary oscillations of the instrument, at a spot remote from the sea, and 
nearly equidistant between the southern and northern borders of the 
Valley. 

*The gentleman whose observations, finally, determined the position of the Pole of 
Magnetic Intensity for this continent. See p. 441, 

f As, unfortunately, the communication of Captain Lefroy did not reach me until 
after the article temperature was printed, I will here state, that from observations for 
nine years, the mean heat of Toronto is 44°.39. 



35 



546 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE II. 

Monthly Means op the Barometer, at every even Hour, prom December, 
1840, to November, 1842, inclusive. 

In reading the decimal numbers of the table, 29 English inches must be prefixed to 

each set. 



Months. 


6 
A.M. 


A.M. 


10 
A. M. 


Noon. 

.636 

.656 
.508 
.664 
.619 
.543 
.556 
.627 
.716 
.622 
.640 
.568 
.613 


P. M. 

.619 
.636 
.468 
.635 
.604 
.526 
.531 
.608 
.694 
.600 
.622 
.559 
.592 

"T569 
.474 
.545 
.635 
.538 
.579 
.579 
.651 
.714 
.663 
.614 
.596 

"396 


4 
P. M. 

.635 
.643 
.471 
.627 
.595 
.517 
.516 
.595 
.682 
.587 
.622 
.570 
.588 

.574 
.482 
.554 
.628 
.525 
.576 
.568 
.634 
.697 
.648 
.602 
.599 

.591 


6 

P. M. 

.657 
.646 
.483 
.633 
.604 
,526 
.513 
.592 
.672 
.587 
.634 
.587 
.595 

T581 
.491 
.569 
.631 
.526 
.582 
.560 
.632 
.692 
.651 
,620 
.605 
.595 


8 
P. M. 

.668 
.656 
.486 
.645 
.624 
.550 
.526 
.602 
.681 
.597 
.643 
.597 

.606 

"385 
.485 
.571 
.640 
.545 
.597 
.565 
.637 
.701 
.659 
.630 
.606 

1J02 


10 
P. M. 


Mid- 
night. 


2 

A.M. 


4 

A.M. 


Mo.& 

ann. 

means 

.652 

.664 
.489 
.658 
.620 
.545 
.543 
.620 
.698 
.605 
.643 
.569 


1840, Dec. 

1841, Jan. 
Feb. 
.Mar. 
April 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 


.647 
.684 
.493 
.671 
.638 
.557 
.566 
.641 
.722 
.616 
.651 
.554 

.620 


.664 
.691 
.519 
.683 
.647 
.565 
.577 
.651 
.731 
.628 
.667 
.580 
.634 

~62l 
.534 
.562 
.663 
.584 
.601 
.617 
.678 
.739 
.690 
.659 
.642 
.632 


.673 
.694 
.526 
.682 
.642 
.561 
.570 
.649 
.730 
.631 
.663 
.585 

.634 


.669 
.653 
.478 
.646 
.629 
.564 
.541 
.615 
.687 
.602 
.645 
.596 

.61C 

.581 
.483 
.559 
.636 
.547 
.607 
.573 
.648 
.703 
.657 
.632 
.606 

.603 


.646 
.663 

.483 
.672 
.621 
.549 
.536 
.616 
.687 
.597 
.650 
.548 
.606 

.607 
.533 
.524 
.607 
.537 
.579 
.575 
.660 
.702 
.638 
.648 
.618 
.602 


.649 
.674 
.475 
.669 
.613 
.539 
.537 
.616 
.684 
.596 
.644 
.542 
.603 


.657 
.669 
.476 
.664 
.607 
.543 
.549 
.625 
.690 
.603 
.640 
.544 


H. Means, 


.606 


.609 


1841, Dec. 

1842, Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
April 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct, 
Nov. 


.610 
.528 
.529 
.633 
.578 
.590 
.607 
.667 
.728 
.677 
.640 
.635 


.629 
.531 
.574 
.671 
.580 
.603 
.613 
.679 
.741 
.696 
.657 
.640 

.635 


.590 
.490 
.562 
.662 
.559 
.595 
.596 
.671 
.732 
.683 
.632 
.612 
.615 


.613 
.535 
.511 
.620 
.528 
.575 
.575 
.650 
.695 
.635 
.642 
.614 
.599 


.602 
.532 
.512 
.627 
.531 
.580 
.584 
.654 
.698 
.642 
.646 
.610 


.597 
.508 
.548 
.638 
.548 
.589 
.584 
.655 
.712 
.662 
.635 
.615 


H. Means, 


.619 


.602 


.608 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



547 



TABLE III. 

The Hight op the Barometer, shown in Quarterly and Annual 
Means, from the preceding Table. 

Twenty-nine English inches must be added to each Decimal Number in the Table. 





6 1 8 


10 


2 


4 | 6 


8 


10 


Mid- 


2 


4 




Hours. 


A. M.lA. M. 


A.M.] 


SToon 


P. M. 


P. M. P. M. 

1 


P. M. 


P. M. 


night. 


A. M. 


A.M. 


M'ns. 


Dec. 1840,) 




























Jan. 1841 ,} 


.608 


.625 


.631 


.600 


.574 


.583 


.595 


.603 


.600 


.597 


.599 


.601 


.601 


Feb. 1841.) 




























Dec. 1841,) 




























Jan. 1842A 


.556 


.572 


.578 


.547 


.529 


.537 


.547 


.547 


.541 


.555 


.553 


.549 


.551 


Feb. 1842.) 




























Mean of ) 




























Winter > 


.582 


.559 


.605 


.574 


.552 


.560 


.571 


.575 


.571 


.576 


.576 


.575 


.576 


Quarters. ) 




























Mar.l84lT 


| 
























Ap. 1841 A 


.622 


.632 


.628 


.608 


.588 


.580 


.588 


.606 


.613 


.614 


.607 


.605 


.608 


M'y.1841.) 




























Mar.1842,) 




























Ap. 1842A 


.600 


.616 


.618 


.605 


.584 


.576 


.580 


.594 


.597 


.574 


.574 


.579 


.591 


M'y.1842.) 




























Mean of J 




























Spring V 


.611 


.624 


.623 


.607 


.586 


.578 


.584 


.600 


.605 


.594 


.591 


.592 


.600 


Quarters. ) 




























Jun.l841J 




























Jul. 1841,V 


.643 


.653 


.650 


.633 


.611 


.598 


.592 


.603 


.614 


.613 


.612 


.621 


.620 


Aug.1841,) 




























Jun.l842J 




























Jul. 1842 A 


.667 


.678 


.678 


.666 


.648 


.633 


.628 


.634 


.641 


.646 


.640 


.645 


.650 


Aug.1842,) 




























Mean of ) 
Summer > 




























.655 


.666 


.664 


.650 


.630 


.616 


.610 


.619 


.628 


.630 


.626 


.633 


.635 


Quarters. \ 




























Sep. 1841,) 




























Oct. 1841,V 


.607 


.625 


.626 


.610 


.594 


.593 


.603 


.613 


.614 


.598 


.594 


.596 


.606 


Nov 1841.^ 




























Sep. 1842,) 




























Oct. 1842,V 


.651 


.664 


.664 


.642 


.624 


.616 


.625 


.632 


.632 


.635 


.630 


.633 


.637 


Nov. 1842.) 




























Mean of ) 




























Autumn > 


.629 


.643 


.645 


.626 


.609 


.605 


.614 


.623 


.623 


.617 


.612 


.615 


.622 


Quarters.) 




























M'n from ) 




























Dec. 1840V 


.620 


.634 


.634 


.613 


.592 


.588 


.595 


.606 


.610 


.606 


.603 


.606 


.609 


to N. 1841) 




























M'n from) 




























Dec. 1841V 


.619 


.632 


.635 


.61E 


.596 


.591 


.595 


.602 


.603 


.602 


.599 


.602 


.608 


to N. 1842) 
Mean ) 






















































of two > 


.62C 


.63c 


.635 


.614 


I .594 


.590 


.595 


.604 


.607 


.604 


.601 


.604 


.608 


years. ) 



























548 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE IV. 

The Average Daily Difference in the Hight of the Barometer, in 
the Several Quarters. 



Quarters. 



J 1841, 

( 1842, 
J 1841, 
I 1842, 
( 1841, 
\ 1842, 

a * S 1841, 

Autumn, - j lg42 

J 184l', 

' \ 1842, 



Winter, 

Spring, 

Summer, 



In the Year 



Maximum 


Minimum. 


in. 


in. 


29.631 


29.574 


.578 


.529 


.632 


.580 


.618 


.574 


.653 


.592 


.678 


.628 


.626 


.593 


.664 


.616 


.634 


.588 


.635 


.591 



Difference. 



.057 
.049 
.052 
.044 
.061 
.050 
.033 
.048 
.046 
.044 



.053 



.048 
.0555 
.0405 
.045 



"We derive," says Colonel Sabine, "from these tables the following 
particulars relative to the (regular) diurnal variation of the barometric 
pressure, viz. : — 

" I. The morning maximum takes place at eight o'clock in the summer 
quarter, and at ten o'clock in the winter quarter; in the spring and autumn 
quarters it is almost equally divided between those hours. 

"II. The afternoon minimum takes place at two o'clock in the winter 
quarter, at six o'clock in the summer quarter, and at four o'clock in the 
spring and autumn quarters, and in the annual means. 

" III. The second maximum occurs at eight o'clock, P. M., in the winter 
quarter, is equally divided between eight and ten o'clock in the autumn 
quarter, is at ten o'clock in the spring quarter, and at twelve (midnight) in 
the summer quarter. On the average of the whole year it is at ten o'clock. 

"IV. The second minimum is at two o'clock, A. M., in the spring, 
summer, and autumn quarters, and on the average of the year ; but in the 
winter quarter it occurs two hours, and occasionally four hours earlier." 

In the first table of this section, the annual hight of the barometer at 
Toronto is given for nine years, including the two which make a part of the 
three preceding tables. For the annual mean, the first table may be 
consulted ; but it differs from the mean of the two years of the other tables, 
only .007. Those tables, however, present the mean pressure of the 
different months and seasons, to exhibit which, I have constructed from 
them the following table, that the distribution of the pressure through the 
year, at Toronto, may be compared with that of St. Louis, Cincinnati, and 
Hudson : 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



549 











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550 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



BOOK I. 



SECTION V. 

BAROMETRICAL OBSERVATIONS AT MONTREAL, CANADA EAST. 

Montreal lies nearly north-east of St. Louis, being 6° 54' north, and 16° 42' 
east. The other stations, Cincinnati, Hudson, and Toronto, lie between 
these extremes. Montreal, moreover, is near the level of the sea. Mr. 
McCord, of that city, has published* the annual mean of five years' observa- 
tions, his barometer being placed ninety-one feet above the mean tide in the 
St. Lawrence. The monthly means are not given. As this is the last of 
our stations, I have added, as far as practicable, the annual results for the 
same years at the other stations, all brought to the elevation of St. Louis ; 
but, in the footing out of the table, the means of all the observations at the 
several stations are put down. 

Table of Mean Annual Barometric Pressure and Range, at Mon- 
treal, for Five Years, from 1836 to 1840 inclusive, with corres- 
ponding Years at the other stations. 

Altitude, 91 feet above the Sea. 1 





Mean 


Montreal 




Mean of 








Year. 


Pressure 


cor. for 


Mean of 


Cincin- 


Mean of 


Mean of 


Annual Range 




at Mont'l 


St. Louis 


St. Louis 


nati. 


Hudson. 


Toronto. 


at Montreal. 




in. 


in. 


in. 


in. 


in. 


in. 


in. 


1836, 


29.920 


29.522 


— 


29.456 


— 


— 


1.550 


1837, 


.823 


.425 


29.555 


.402 


— 


— 


1.758 


1838, 


.884 


.486 


.613 


.458 


— 


— 


1.498 


1839, 


.909 


.512 


.578 


.468 


— 


— 


2.128 


1840, 


.895 


.497 


.578 


.459 


29.528 


29.532 

29.487 


1.569 


Mean, 


29.886 


29.488 


29.578 


29.434 


29.556 


1.700 



SECTION VI. 

GENERALIZATIONS. 

I. Comparative Mean Annual Pressure at the Different Stations. 
— When we compare the mean pressure of the five stations, as presented at 
the foot of the Montreal table, the whole being brought to the altitude of 
St. Louis, four hundred and fifty feet, we find the average 29.509. St. 
Louis, the highest, stands over Cincinnati .144, Hudson .022, Toronto .091, 
and Montreal .090. Of the whole, Cincinnati differs most from St. Louis, 
and Hudson least. When we bring the mean of each station into 
comparison with that of the whole, 29.509, St. Louis and Hudson are found 
above it, Cincinnati, Toronto, and Montreal below. Such is the mean 
pressure within a parallelogram, extending north-east, from the banks of the 



* Amer. Jour, of Sci., Vol.XLI. 



part ii.j INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 5 51 

middle section of the Mississippi River, nearly to the head of tidewater in 
the St. Lawrence ; and he who resides within it, and knows his elevation, 
can, without much probability of error, calculate the pressure of the atmos- 
phere in which he lives. How far this is applicable to other parts of the 
Valley, can be known only by observation. 

II. Relative Mean Pressure oe the Months and Seasons at the 
Different Stations. — In these comparisons Montreal cannot be introduced, 
because its monthly pressure is not given in the table. Of the other 
stations, St. Louis is taken as the standard, to which the rest are brought 
by correction for difference of altitude. 

1. St. Louis. — The highest month is -December, being .058 above the mean 
of the year at that place; the lowest May, .085 below: the range between 
them .143. The month nearest to the mean year is September, being .006 
above it. Of the whole, September, October, November, December, 
January, February, March, rise above it; while April, May, June, July, 
and August sink below. Of the seasons, autumn and winter are above, 
spring and summer below. Winter is the highest and summer the lowest 
of the four. The difference between them is .088 Autumn is higher than 
spring by .055. The season which comes nearest to the mean year is 
autumn, .031 above. 

2. Cincinnati. — The monthly table for this place gives the following 
results: October the highest, being .051 above its mean year; May the 
lowest, .072 below the year — the range between them, .123. July, 
August, September, October, November, December, and January exceed the 
yearly mean; February, March, April, May, and June fall below it. The 
month nearest to its mean year is July, being .008 above. Of the quarters, 
autumn and winter are above, spring and summer below. Autumn is the 
highest of the whole; spring the lowest — the difference between them is 
.071. Winter is higher than summer by .014. The season nearest to 
mean annual pressure is summer, being only .004 above. 

3. Hudson. — The month of highest mean pressure is September, being 
.064 above its mean year.; of lowest, May, being .096 below — range 
between them, .160. January, February, July, A.ugust, September, 
October, and November are above; March, April, May, June, and Decem- 
ber below. The month nearest to the annual mean is February, being only 
.010 above. Of the seasons, summer, autumn, and winter are above, 
spring alone below. Autumn is the highest season; spring the lowest — 
difference between them .103. Summer is higher than winter by .001 only. 
The season which approaches nearest to the mean yearly pressure is winter, 
being .003 above. 

4. Toronto. — At this station, the month of greatest mean pressure for 
two years is August, .097 above its annual mean; the lowest February, 
.089 below — the range between them .186. The months which rise above 
the yearly mean are March, July, August, September, October, and Decem- 
ber ; those below are January, February. April, May, June, and November. 
The one which comes nearest to the year is December, being .017 above. 



552 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



Of the seasons, summer and autumn are above ; winter and spring below 
the mean year. Summer has the highest mean ; winter the lowest — ■ dif- 
ference .058. Autumn rises over spring .021. Of the seasons, spring 
approaches nearest, being .008 less. 

It will be profitable to throw these analyses into a tabular form : 

Table op Barometric Diversities in Mean Pressure. 



Places, 


St. Louis, 12 yrs. 


Cin'ti, 14 yrs. 


Hudson, 3 yrs. 


Toronto, 2 ys. 


Highest month, 


December 


October 


September 


August 


Lowest month, 


May 


May 


May 


February 


Months which 
rise above mean 
year, 

Months which 
sink below mean 
year, 


Dec. Nov. 
Oct. Feb. 
Jan. March 
September 


Oct. Aug. 
Dec. Nov. 
Sept. Jan. 
July 


Sept. Oct. 
Aug, Nov. 
Jan. July 
February. 
April Dec. 
March June 
May 


Aug. Mar. 
Oct. July 
Sept. Dec. 


Aug. July 
June May 
April 


March Feb. 
April June 

May 


Nov. Jan. 
April May 
June Feb. 


Month nearest 
mean year, 

Seasons above 
mean year, 


September 


July 


July 


December 


Autumn 
Winter 


Autumn 
Winter 


Autumn 
Summer 
Winter 


Summer 
Autumn 


Seasons below 
mean year, 


Spring 
Summer 


Summer 
Spring 


Spring 


Spring 
Winter 


Season nearest 
mean year, 


Autumn 


Summer 


Winter 


Spring 



An inspection of this table shows that, in the region of country from St. 
Louis to Toronto inclusive, while the mean pressure of no station differs 
more than .080, from the average of the four stations, there is great diver- 
sity in the distribution of the pressure throughout the year. Thus the 
months of highest pressure are not the same at any two stations, and they 
belong to three different seasons ; nearly the same being true of the lowest 
months. Nor are the months which rise above or fall below the mean 
annual pressure, the same at any two places ; and the month which, 
approaches nearest to that pressure is a different one at each place, and 
belongs to three of the seasons. The seasons, however, display a tendency 
to order. At every station autumn is above mean pressure ; winter is above 
at three, and summer at two — on the other hand, spring is below at all the 
stations, thus antagonizing autumn; summer is below at two, being 
equally divided; and winter is below at one only. These facts indicate, as a 
general law, that in autumn the pressure is greatest, next to which comes 
winter; then summer, and then spring. Yet, in connection with this 
approach to uniformity, it is curious to observe, that a different season for 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



553 



each station, is tliat winch comes nearest to, or best represents its mean 
yearly pressure. It is also worthy of remark, that at three stations out of 
four, the mean pressure of seven months, is above mean annual pressure — at 
the other the months are equally divided. Hence it follows, that the fall of 
the barometer below the annual mean, is greater than its rise above, in the 
proportion of seven to five : that is, the sum of the five minus months, is 
equal to the sum of the. seven plus months. 

III. Extreme Annual Ranges. — For determining the relative extreme 
ranges of the barometer at different places, it is not so important to have 
the observations corrected for temperature and capillarity, as when the 
relative mean pressure is the object ; I shall, therefore, under the present 
head, refer to two sets of observations not hitherto noticed; those of Mr. 
Lillie, for two years, at New Orleans, on the Gulf Coast, in N. Lat. 30°; 
and those of Sir E. Parry, for two years, north of Hudson Bay, below and 
above the arctic circle.* These distant and opposite stations, when com- 
pared with St. Louis, Cincinnati, Hudson, Toronto, and Montreal, will afford 
a satisfactory expression of the annual and monthly extreme ranges for the 
whole Interior Valley. The extreme annual ranges, at those stations, are as 
follows: New Orleans 0.790 ; St. Louis 1.760; Cincinnati 1.620; Hudson 
1.607; Toronto 1.675; Montreal 1.700; Arctic Circle 2.160. These 
numbers show that as the mean temperature of the year decreases, the 
barometric range increases. I shall not attempt, on so small a number of 
data, to develop these inverse ratios ; but it may be stated, that the mean 
range for the five stations, from St. Louis to Montreal inclusive, is 1.672, 
and their mean N. Lat. 41° 38', giving .076 of increased barometric range 
for a degree of latitude at New Orleans. The mean temperature of the same 
stations is 49°, that of the city 70° ; showing an increase of barometric 
range to the amount of 0.882, for a loss of 21° of mean temperature which 
is .042 for a degree of temperature. There is, also, a relation between the 
extreme annual ranges of the barometer, and those of the thermometer, as 
appears from the following table : 





Places. 


Yearly- 
Bar. Range. 


Yearly 
Thr. Range. 






New Orleans, 


in. 

0.790 


o 

86 






St. Louis, 


1.760 


134 






Cincinnati, 


1.620 


117 






Hudson, 


1.607 


102 






Toronto, 


1.675 


119 






Montreal. 


1.700 


126 





These numbers show, without a single exception, that the barometric and 
thermometric ranges are in harmony, or direct proportion to each other. In 
this comparison, St. Louis requires a special notice 



Although the most 



* Second Voyage 



554 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

southern of the fiye interior stations, it exceeds them all in the extent of 
both its ranges. This, I presume, arises from its being the most western 
that nearest to the great plains and the Rocky Mountains, and suggests, 
that as we travel westwardly, on the same parallel of latitude, these ranges 
of temperature and pressure become more extended. The observations 
made in the Arctic regions are, as yet, too few to admit of a satisfactory 
comparison on these points ; but they seem to indicate a change of the law 
of relation, for while the extreme barometric range observed, in two years, 
was 2.160, or nearly a third more than the mean of the middle stations, the 
range of the thermometer wos only 100°, or four-fifths of the mean range 
of those stations. It is probable, then, that there is a point, high up in 
the temperate zone, where both ranges acquire their maxima, and from 
which they decrease to the south and to the north. 

IV. Extreme Monthly and Quarterly Ranges. — As, by the annual 
range, is meant the distance between the highest and lowest states of the 
barometer, through the whole period in which observations are made, so, by 
the monthly and quarterly, is meant the range between the highest and 
lowest, in the same month or the same \quarter, though making integral 
parts of different years. They show the highest and lowest points of oscil- 
lation to which that month or season is liable. As these maxima and 
minima are, also, the data from which the yearly extremes are calculated, it 
follows that the latter must indicate the former ; but they do not tell us of 
the month or seasons in which the extreme librations have their termini ; 
and, therefore, we are left to inquire into the relative monthly and seasonal 
oscillations. 

If we ascertain the mean of the extreme monthly ranges, at each station, 
and compare that of each month with it, some will, of course, rise above, 
and others fall below the average ; and, thus, without embarrassing 
ourselves with numbers, we may perceive, in a general way, which are the 
months of higher, and which of lower range; as in the following table, 
where, moreover, the months of both columns are placed in the order of 
their distance from the mean of the whole, and the amount of the highest 
and lowest is annexed. Thus, the first-named month of the first column 
has the highest range of any in the year, and the last of the second column 
the lowest ; while the last month of the first column, and the first month of 
second column, are those whose range approaches nearest to the mean of the 
whole; in other words, are the months of temperate range. 



PART II. J 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



555 



Extreme Monthly Barometric Ranges at Five Stations. 



Places and Years. 


Highest 
Range. 


Months above mean 

range, in the order 

of their extent. 


Mean 
Range. 


Months below mean 

range, in the order 

of their extent. 


Lowest 
Range. 


New. Orleans: 3 
years, 


0.687 


Nov. Feb. Dec. 
Jan. Mar. Oct. 

May 


0.441 


Apr. June Aug. 
Sept. July 


0.207 


St. Louis: 12 
years, 


1.490 


Feb. Jan. Nov. 
Apr. Mar. Oct. 
December 


1.154 


May Sept. June 
August July 


0.660 


Cincinnati: 14 

years, 


1.470 


Feb. Nov. Dec. 
Mar. Jan. April 
October 


1.149 


May Sept. June 
August July 


0.700 


Toronto: 3 
years, 


1.534 


Feb. Jan. Nov. 
Oct. Dec. Mar. 


1.167 


Sept. June April 
July May August 


0.725 


Arctic Regions: 
2 years, 


2.040 


Mar. Oct. Feb. 
June January 


1.388 


Apr. Nov. May 
July Aug. Dec. 
September 


1.010 



In this table we perceive that from south to north, quite across the conti- 
nent, the great oscillations of the barometer occur chiefly in the colder 
months. At New Orleans they are found highest in all the winter months, 
with two months of spring and two of autumn: At St. Louis and Cincin- 
nati, the same: At Toronto, in all the winter months, together with two 
autumn and one spring month. But in the Arctic Regions, this order is, in 
some degree, broken up, two of the winter months, and one month of spring, 
summer, and autumn, being above mean range ; still giving, however, a 
preponderance to the colder months. At New Orleans the highest month is 
November; in the distant north, March; at the three middle stations, 
February. The lowest month at New Orleans, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, is 
July; at Toronto, August; in the north, September. In New Orleans and 
and Toronto, the number of months above and below mean range, is equal ; 
at St. Louis and Cincinnati, as seven to five ; in the north, as five to seven. 
In the southern city, the month of lowest range is less than a third of the 
highest; at St. Louis, about half way between a third and a half; at Cin- 
cinnati and Toronto, nearly a half; at the Arctic Circle, within .020 of 
equality. Thus the difference in extent of range, between the summer and 
winter months, diminishes, as we advance from south to north. 

When we group the months into seasons, we find the winter months, with 
the exception of December in the Arctic Regions, above mean range ; the 
summer, except June, in the same regions, below ; May leans to the lower 
range, being in it at four stations, and in the upper at one only. At all the 
stations, September is below, and October above; at four, November is 
above, at one below. Thus spring and autumn are almost equally divided, 
the former, however, inclining a little to the lower, and the latter to the 
higher group of ranges. 



556 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 



SECTION VII. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND ETIOLOGICAL EFFECTS OF VARYING ATMOS- 
PHERIC PRESSURE. 

In a country of such uniform elevation as the Interior Valley of our 
continent, most of the inhabitants live under the same mean pressure. It 
has been already estimated that the majority reside about six hundred feet 
above the level of the sea ; and, therefore, according to data, supplied by the 
preceding table, they live under a mean pressure, indicated nearly by 29.350, 
or .978 of the atmosphere resting on those at the level of the Gulf. But 
there are extensive table-lands, stretching off from the Appalachian Moun- 
tains, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York, whose inhabitants reside under 
a pressure indicated by about 28.7, or .957 of the whole atmosphere; and 
on the terraces of the Cordilleras of Mexico, and the southern Rocky Moun- 
tains, there is a considerable population which move in an atmosphere, the 
average weight of which must be far less ; while, on the other hand, the 
inhabitants of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, and of the estuary of the 
St. Lawrence, live under the pressure of nearly the whole column of 
atmosphere, equal to thirty inches of the barometer. 

These differences, ranging through several inches of the barometric scale, 
may fairly be presumed to exert an influence on our physiology, however 
difficult it may be to ascertain its hind or degree. Our constitutions, 
no doubt, become accommodated to the atmospheric pressure to which, from 
birth or long residence, they have been accustomed ; as they are known to 
become used to climates, the mean temperatures of which are very different. 
The inhabitants of each climate feel a change of temperature, though it 
may not rise as high as that in which persons further south reside ; nor fall 
as low as that in which persons further north enjoy themselves ; and it 
cannot, I think, be doubted, that those who live under the sea- side pressure 
of the whole atmosphere, and those who reside at an elevation, which 
reduces the pressure an eighth or a tenth, are equally affected by a rise or 
fall of the barometer through the same range. In other words, a depression 
or elevation of the mercury, amounting to half an inch, would, I suppose, be 
as sensibly felt by the inhabitants of the Gulf coast, at the mouth of the 
Rio del Norte, as by those of Santa Ee, or the Valley of Taos, among its 
upper waters, six thousand feet higher. From these facts we may, I suppose, 
reiterate the conclusion, that mean pressure is a physiological and etiological 
influence, which should not be overlooked, in making a recognition of the 
physical agencies which modify the human constitution. 

But the influence of the oscillations of pressure on the same level, are of 
deeper interest than the mean pressure at different elevations. A sudden 
diminution of pressure, is equivalent to the rapid ascent of a mountain — a 
sudden elevation, like the descent from a mountain into the valley below ; 
except, that when the barometer falls, the temperature of the air generally 
rises, and when the barometer mounts upward, the temperature commonly 
diminishes ; while in ascending a mountain, the heat decreases, pari passu, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 557 

with the weight of the atmosphere : and, in descending, it augments with the 
increase of pressure. Still further, the oscillations of atmospheric weight 
and temperature are, no doubt, accompanied by modifications in the humidity 
and electricity of the air, whereby the direct influence of variations of pressure 
are obscured. Thus the problem becomes complex, and we are thrown back 
upon a few well-ascertained and familiar facts. First. It is within the 
experience of every one, that when the barometer is low, and smoke, vapor, 
and fogs linger near the surface of the earth, the body feels languid, fatigue 
soon follows on exertion, and the intellectual functions are reduced in their 
activity ; effects which occur even in winter, when they cannot be ascribed 
to increase of temperature. To what extent this physiological change may 
predispose to disease, deserves to be considered. On the other hand, when 
the barometer ranges high, there is a feeling of vigor and activity in both 
body and mind, disproportionate, I think, to the mere reduction of tempera- 
ture, which is generally connected with that change. These vicissitudes, it 
is well known, are apt to generate inflammations of the lungs, joints, and 
other parts of the body, which are commonly ascribed to changes of temper- 
ature only ; but it may, fairly, be presumed, that the diminution of pressure 
is a predisposing, its sudden increase a cooperative, exciting cause of these 
effects. Second. The other facts, which bear on the question, have been 
reported by those who have ascended high mountains. Captain Fremont, in 
ascending the Rocky Mountains, had two attacks of dizziness and vomiting, 
when the barometer stood at about twenty inches; and those who have 
ascended to greater hights elsewhere, have suffered extreme lassitude, 
uneasiness, vertigo, nausea and vomiting, dyspnoea, and hemorrhages from 
the mucous membranes; effects, apparently, attributable to nothing but 
the diminished weight and density of the atmosphere. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WINDS OF THE INTERIOR VALLEY. 



SECTION I. 
INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 
Every physician must know, that winds are currents of air, created by 
inequalities of temperature in the atmosphere over different places. When 
a portion is heated, it expands, becomes lighter, rises, and flows off in some or 
every direction ; and, at the same time, the cooler and denser air, around 
and near the surface of the earth, flows toward the base of the rarified 



558 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

columns. In this manner, not only local but general winds are originated ; 
such as those which precede, accompany, or follow a thunderstorm ; and, 
also, those which blow from the tropical to the polar regions, et vice versa. 
But changes of temperature are the effect, not less than the cause of winds. 
When the atmosphere moves from a southerly to a northerly point, the tem- 
perature rises — from a northerly to a southerly, it falls; if the wind blow 
from a low plain or valley, upon a mountain, the elevated region becomes 
warmer — if from the latter, a current roll down upon the valley, the tem- 
perature sinks. In all these movements the weight or pressure of the 
affected atmosphere is modified. 

In some fundamental points all the movements of the great aerial ocean 
agree ; as, for example, that the equatorial currents, when they flow off 
toward the poles, assume, from the diminishing velocity of the earth in the 
higher latitudes, the character of south-westerly winds in the northern hem- 
isphere, and of north-westerly in the southern ; Vhile they raise the tempera- 
ture of the colder climates ; and, that the returning or compensating currents, 
as they advance toward the equatorial regions, from the increasing velocity 
of the earth's surface, seem turned from their original course, toward the 
west, assuming the direction of north-east and, at last, of east winds. 

But the winds of every country have peculiarities which depend on the 
vicinity or distance of seas, and broad lakes, mountain chains, deep valleys, 
large rivers, and extensive savannas or forests. In the second section of 
the first chapter on Climate, page 453, a general recognition of these great 
features of our Interior Valley was made, and need not be here repeated. 
I shall, therefore, proceed to remark, that to construct an accurate system of 
the winds of any country, is a labor of much magnitude and difficulty. To 
do it for our Interior Valley, at this time, is quite impracticable, for reasons 
which may be briefly stated : First. Observations have not been made at a 
sufficient number of places. Second. They have not, in general, included 
the velocity of the wind, or the length of time it blew from a particular 
point. Third. They have not been made on any uniform plan, and many 
of the tables are, therefore, not susceptible of being compared. Fourth. 
The duration of calms, and their relative frequency, before and after winds, has 
seldom been noted. Fifth. The course of the upper winds, as indicated by 
the movements of the clouds, has not often been recorded, in connection with 
the direction of the currents at the surface of the earth. Sixth. Observa- 
tions, with two or three exceptions, have not, in general, been made in the 
night. 

Until these desiderata shall be supplied, it will be in vain to attempt a 
full development of the laws which govern the atmospheric movements over 
the interior of our continent ; and I shall limit myself to the presentation of 
the results of observation at such a number of places, scattered over it, as 
will give a general view of this branch of its meteorology. In doing this, I 
propose to begin in the south and advance into the north. In constructing 
the tables, I have reduced all the observations to eight points of the com- 
pass, adding a column for calms. The latitude, longitude, elevation, and 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



559 



relation to seas, lakes, or mountains of each station, may be seen by a 
reference to the general table of mean temperatures, page 455, or to the 
topographical descriptions in Part I. 

I shall first present the observations recorded at our different military 
posts, which may, with the greater propriety, be thrown together, as they 
were made on the same plan and under one direction — that of the bureau of 
the Surgeon-general at Washington * In these tables, the single observa- 
tions, several times a day, are not given, but the numbers represent days. 
No post at which observations were made for less than three years, are 
included. A mean year for each post has been made out. The whole 
numbers represent days, and the decimals parts of days. There is no 
column of calms. 



SECTION II. 

TABULAR VIEWS OF THE WIND AT OUR MILITARY POSTS. 



TABLE L— CANTONMENT CLINCH, PENSACOLA BAY. 

Mean Monthly Prevalence of the Wind for Seven Years — 1822- 2 { 



Months. 


E. , S. E. | S. 


s. w. 


w. 


N. w. 


N. 


IS. 1 


3. 


Prev. Winds. 


January, 


1.4 


4.9 


5.1 


2.9 


1,6 


5.4 


4.1 


5./ 


N. E. 


February, .... 


1.7 


4.3 


3.6 


6.1 


0.6 


4.6 


4.6 


4.4 


S. W. 


March, 


2.9 


5.7 


6.1 


7.4 


1.4 


3.9 


2.7 


2.1 






April, 


0.3 


7.0 


6.1 


10.0 


0.9 


3.1 


1.6 


1.0 






May, 


1.0 


3.1 


8.0 


13.7 


0.9 


3.0 


0.9 


1.1 






June, . 




0.1 

0.7 


3.4 
3.3 


4.1 
3.4 


14.6 
13.6 


2.4 
1.4 


1.9 

3.0 


0.9 
2.4 


1.3 

1.6 






July, . 




August, 


0.6 


4.3 


4.1 


10.3 


1.3 


3.4 


1.4 


4.0 






September, .... 


1.1 


7.4 


3.4 


8.6 


2.0 


3.4 


2.1 


3.0 




October, 


1.0 


8.0 


3.1 


3.4 


0.7 


5.0 


4.0 


5.9 


S. E. 


November, .... 


1.6 


7.0 


2.4 


3.7 


0.6 


7.7 


3.9 


2.9 


N.W. 


December, .... 


2.9 


7.0 
"6574 


3.9 
53.3 


2.6 

"90 


1.4 


5.3 


2.6 


5.0 


S. E. 


Year, 


15.3 


15.2 


49.7 


31.2 


37.7 






MEAT 


* YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI -QUADRANTS. 






Course of 


Wind. 


Days. 


Course of Wind. 


Days. | Preponderance. | Days. 
16.2 West over East,' 0.9 






East, 




15.3 


West, 






South-eas 


St, 


66.4 


North-west, 


50.7 S.E. « N.W., 1 15.7 






South, 




55.2 


North, 


31.2 South" North, 24.0 






South-we 


St, 


97.9 


North-East, 


38.7|S. W. « N. E., 59.2 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-eas 


st, 


101.6 


North.west, 


74.4iS.E.overN.W., 


27.2 






South.we 


st, 


133.6 


North-east, 


62.0,S. W." N. E., 


71.6 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 




163.6 


Western, 


208.0 


W. over E. 


44.4 






Southern 


) 


235.2 


Northern, 


13« 4 


S. " N. 


98.8 





* Meteor. Register U. S. A., 1840. 



560 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE II. —FORT JESUP. 

Mean Monthly Prevalence of the Wind for Eight Years- 



-1823-'3G. 



Months. 


E. 

HT.6~ 

3.1 

2.1 

If 

3.9 
2.5 
2.5 
4.0 
3.2 
2.2 
2.0 


S. E. 


S. 


S. W. 
5.7 
2.7 
3.4 
4.7 
4.5 
6.4 
5.1 
3.8 
2.2 
3.0 
5.2 
3.6 

50.3 


W. 


N. 


W. 


N. 
3.4 
3.4 
2.5 
3.6 
2.1 
0.5 
2.7 
3.9 
4.1 
3.0 
2.2 
3.2 
34.6 


N. E. 


Prev. Winds. 


January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

Mav - - 


3.6 

6.9 
7.5 
4.9 
6.4 
6.6 
6.4 
5.5 
4.0 
6.0 
4.9 
7.6 


3.5 

2.7 
3.2 
2.5 
6.0 
4.7 
4.5 
3.7 
2.1 
2.5 
2.9 
3.0 


3.0 

1.4 
2.5 
1.9 
2.2 
1.2 
2.8 
1.9 
0.6 
0.9 
2.1 
0.9 


4.7 
3.6 
5.9 
3.7 
2.7 
2.5 
2.9 
3.1 
3.7 
5.6 
5.8 
6.7 


4.5 

4.5 
4.1 
6.0 
4.1 
4.1 
4.5 
7.0 
8.5 
6.7 
5.0 
4.0 


s. w. 

S. E. 

a 

N. E. 
S. E. 

<. 

tt 

N. E. 

it 

N.W. 
S. E. 






July, 

Augu 

Septei 

Octob 

Novei 

Decen 




st, 

Tiber,. . . . 

er, . . 

nber, .... 
iher, .... 


Year, 


34.8 


71.3 


41.3 


21.4 


50.9 


63.0 






MEA. 


N" YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of 


Wind. 


Days. 


Course of Wind. 


Days. 


Preponderance. 


Days. 






East, 

South-east, 

South, 

South-west, 


34.8 
71.3 
41.3 
50.3 


West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 


21.4 

50.9 
34.6 
63.0 


East over West, 
S. E. « N-W. 
South " North, 
N. E. « S. W. 


13.4 

20.4 

6.7 

12.7 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 
South-west, 


109.4 

81.7 


North-west, 
North-east, 


78.9 S. E. over N.W. 
97.7 |N. E. » S. W. 


30.5 
16.0 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, I 207.1 
Southern, | 191.1 


Western, 
Northern, 


160.6 
176-6 


E. over W. 
S. « N. 


46.5 
14.5 





TABLE III— FORT GIBSON. 

Mean Monthly Prevalence of the Wind for Three Years- 



-1828-'30. 



Months. 



January, . . 
February, . 
March, . . . 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, . . 
September, 
October, . . 
November, 
December, 



Year,. 



E. 



1.7 
1.3 
1.3 
1.3 

0.7 
1.0 
1.0 
1.7 
1.7 
4.3 
4.0 
2.7 



a. e. 



15.0 
15.3 
18.0 
16.7 
28.3 
25.3 
15.0 
22.7 
13.3 
16.3 
11.7 
13.3 



22.7 J210.9 



ss. w. 



0.7 
0.7 
0.0 
1.7 
0.0 
0.3 
0.3 
1.7 
1.0 
0.7 
0.3 
0.3 



7.7 



1.0 
1.3 

0.0 
1.7 
0.0 
1.0 
4.7 
0.3 
0.3 
0.0 
1.3 
1.0 



W. N. w. 

~0J 

3.0 
3.3 
5.0 
1.0 
0.3 
3.7 
0.3 
0.3 
4.3 
5.7 
6.0 



0.0 
0.0 
0.0 
0.3 
0.0 
0.3 
0.3 
0.0 
0.0 
1.0 
1.3 
1.3 



N. 

"sir 

3.0 
1.7 
1.3 

0.3 
0.0 
0.3 
1.0 
5.0 
2.3 
3.7 
0.3 



N. E. Prev. Winds. 



6.7 

3.7 
6.7 
2.0 
0.7 
1.7 
5.7 
3.3 
8.3 
3.0 
2.0 
6.0 



12.6 i 4.5 33.6 J 24.2 I 49. 



S. E. 



MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South,' 
South-west, 



Days. , Course of Wind, j Days.! Preponderance 



22.7 (West, 
210.0:North-west, 

7.7 North, 
12.6JNortheast, 



4.5jEast over West, 
33.6 S. E. " N.W., 
24.2 North " South, 
49.8 N. E. " S. W.. 



Days 



1S.2 

177.3 

16.5 

37.2 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



226.1 North-west, 
18.7 North-east, 



47.9 iS.E. over N.W. 
73.3IN. E." S. W, 



226.1 
55.2 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



299.4 Western, 
244.8 Northern, 



65.6TE. over W. 
121.2 S. « N.. 



233.9 
123.5 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



561 



TABLE IV.— JEFFERSON BARRACKS. 
Mean Monthly Prevalence oe the Wind eob, Four Years, 1827-30. 



Months. 



January, . 
February, 
March, . . . 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, . . 
September, 
October, . . 
November, 
December, 



E. 


S. E. 


s. 


s. w. 


w. 


N. W. 

~ 778" 


N. 
4.5 


N. E. 


0.5 


3.0 


2.7 


3.2 


2.7 


1.5 


6.5 


4.5 


1.2 


2.0 


7.7 


2.7 


2.0 


1.7 


6.7 


3.2 


5.7 


2.5 


6.2 


3.7 


1.0 


1.2 


6.7 


6.8 


5.0 


3.2 


5.7 


0.8 


4.5 


1.5 


2.0 


7.7 


3.2 


5.0 


5.0 


4.2 


2.2 


0,5 


3.8 


10.5 


5.2 


2.8 


5.5 


1.5 


0.8 


0.5 


4.7 


6.5 


4.0 


2.7 


4.8 


4.5 


3.2 


4,8 


7.2 


8.5 


5.2 


0.8 


2.0 


0.5 


2.0 


1.2 


4.5 


4.0 


4.2 


2.8 


5.7 


3.0 


4.5 


2.0 


5.0 


2.8 


5.5 


5.0 


5.8 


2.8 


2.2 


1.7 


5.0 


4.7 


4.8 


2.2 


6.5 


3.5 


1.5 


0.7 

17.8 


5.2 


5.7 


3.5 

50.2 


1.8 
34.0 


5.7 


4.0 
35 7 


4.3 

"309" 


60.3 


72.1 


68.4 



Prev. Winds. 



N. W. 

S. E. 

S. 



N.W, 
S.&N.W. 



S. 



MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Days. 

17.8 


60.3 


72.1 


50.2 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 

North, 

North-east, 



Days. 



34.0 
68.4 
35.7 



Preponderance. 



West over East, 
N.W." S. E.! 
S. « N., 



30.9 S. W. « N. E 



Days. 



16.2 

8.1 

36.4 

19.3 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



105.2) North-west, 
103.31 North-east, 



103.2 

57.7 



S. E. over N.W 
S.W. « N.E. 



2.0 
45.6 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



l62.9 1 Western, 

208.5 Northern, 



206.5 W. over E. 
160.9 S. " N. 



43.6 
47.6 



TABLE V.— COUNCIL BLUFFS. 
Mean Monthly Prevalence oe the Wind eor Five Years, 1822-26. 



Months 



January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, 

September,. . . . 

October, 

November,. . . . 
December, 



0.4 
0.4 
0.8 
1.8 
1.8 
3.2 
3.2 
3.4 
2.4 
1.0 
0.4 
0.6 



5. E. 

To" 

2.4 
42 
4.4 
3.6 
4.8 
6.0 
2.8 
4.0 
3.6 
2.4 
2.4 



7.0 
5.2 
3.6 
8.2 

12.2 
9.8 
9.8 

12.0 
8.2 
7.6 
6.8 
5.8 



s: w. 



2.2 
3.0 
2.0 
1.8 
2.6 
2.6 
3.6 
2.6 
3.6 
5.0 
1.2 
1.4 



w. 



1.0 
2.4 
1.2 
2.2 
1.8 
1.8 
0.6 
2.6 
1.2 
1.6 
1.8 
0.6 



N.W. 

- 576" 
7.8 
6.6 
4.0 
3.8 
2.0 
2.6 
2.0 
4.6 
4.0 
5.2 
4,8 



79.6 



N. E. Prev. Winds 



2.4 
1.0 
1.0 

2.2 
2.4 
2.6 
2.6 
2.2 
2.2 
0.6 
1.8 
2.0 



23.0 



N. 

N.W. 
N. 
S. 



S.W 
N. 



Year , 19.4 44 .6 96.2 31.6 18.8 53.0 

MEAN YEAR IN A NTXGcTN I S T I C O RDE~ir 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of W r ind. 



Days. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



19.4 
44.6 
96.2 
31.6 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 
North, 
JNorth-east, 



Days. 



18.8 
53.0 
79.6 
23.0 



Preponderance. 



East over West, 
N.W. « S. E. 
South "North, 
S. W. " N. E. 



Day 

0.6 

8.4 

16.6 

8.6 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



102.4 North-west, 
89.1 North-east, 



102.2 S.E. over N.W. 
72.5|S. W. « N. E. 



0.2 
16.6 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 

36 



174.9 
191.5 



Western, 
Northern, 



191.3 
174.7 



over E. 

N. 



16.4 
16.8 



562 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



TABLE VI— FORT ARMSTRONG— ROCK ISLAND. 

Mean Monthly Prevalence oe the Wind eor Four Years, 1827-30. 



Months. 



E. 



January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, 

September, 

October, 

Nove tuber, 
December, 



Year, 



3.5 
1.5 
2.2 
3.7 
2.2 
2.2 
1.5 
3.2 
3.2 
2.7 
4.8 
3.0 



33.7 



3.0 
0.5 
1.2 
2.0 
2.0 
2.5 
2.5 
2.0 
3.8 
2.2 
1.2 

25.1 110.2 



5.2 

8.5 
13.2 

6.5 
12.2 
13.8 

9.8 
11.5 

5.5 
10.0 

6.0 

8.0 



s. w. 



0.8 
1.0 
1.8 
1.7 
1.7 
1.8 
5.0 
3.8 
1.5 
1.7 
3.5 
4.2 



28.5 



w. 



4.2 
4.2 
3.0 
4.2 
4.2 
3.0 
3.0 
2.8 
1.8 
5.5 
3.2 
4.5 



44.6 



N. W. 



4.2 
4.5 
2.5 
1.8 
1.2 
2.0 
2.0 
0.5 
2.8 
1.7 
3.7 
2.8 



29.7 



N. 



N. E. Prev. Winds 



8.5 
6.0 
3.5 
7.0 
35 
3.0 
6.5 
4.8 
8.0 
4.5 
6.8 
4.7 



1.5 
2.0 
3.5 
3.0 
3.7 
1.5 
0.8 
2.5 
3.5 
2.5 
0.8 
1.5 



66.8 26.8 S. 



MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORD 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



ER. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Days. 



33.7 
25.1 

110.2 

28.5 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-East, 



Days. 



44.6 

29.7 
66.8 
26.8 



Preponderance. 

West over East, 
N.W. " S.E., 
South" North, 
S. W." N. E., 



Days. 

Tol) 

4.6 

43.4 

1.7 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



97.0 North-west, 
105.9 North-east, 



85.4 S.E. over N.W., 
77.0 S. W." N. E., 



11.6 

28.9 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



174.0 Western. 
202.9 Northern, 



191.3W. over E. 
162.4IS. " N. 



17.3 
40.5 



Mean Monthly 



TABLE VII.— FORT SNELLINGl. 

Prevalence of the Wind for Eight Years, 



1822-'30. 



Months. 


E. 


S. E. 


s. 
4.0 
4.1 
5.1 

4.4 
7.0 
5.9 
4.2 
5.8 
3.6 
2.7 
2.6 
3.4 


S. W. 




w. 


N. W. 


N. 


N. E. 


Prev 


. Winds. 


January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 


0.5 
0.5 
1.1 
3.0 
2.8 
1.4 
1.2 
1.0 
1.8 
1.0 
1.2 
1.5 


2.7 
2.1 
3.4 
4.5 
3.7 
4.6 
3.2 
35 
4.5 
2.2 
2.8 
1.2 
38.4 


8.2 
6.6 
4.9 
6.2 
6.0 
5.2 
7.2 
5.6 
5.6 
9.9 
4.6 
4.0 


5.7 
7.2 
8.4 
8.0 
4.7 
6.6 
7.5 
5.1 
5.7 
6.6 
8.0 
7.5 


6.1 

5.1 
6.2 
5.0 
3.0 
3.5 
4.0 
4.0 
4.8 
8.0 
5.9 
l 8.0 


2.5 

1.4 
1.0 
1.4 
2.8 
1.5 
1.7 
1.5 
2.8 
2.8 
2.2 
2.9 


0.9 
1.1 
0.9 
1.5 
1.7 
1.2 
1.5 
1.0 
2.6 
1.2 
1.7 
1.9 
~17\2 


S. W. 

w. 
w. 

w. 
s. 
w. 
w. 

s. w. 
w. 

s. w. 
w. 

N.W. 


June,. 




July, 

Augus 

Septer 

Octob 

Noven 

Decen 




3t, 

nber,. . . . 

5T, 

iber, .... 
iber, .... 


Year, 


16.0 


52.8 


74.0 


81.0 


63.6 


24.4 


w. 




MEA]> 


r ye 

II 


AR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

I EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of 


Wind. 


Days. | Course of Wind. 


Days. 


Preponderance. 
West over East, 
N.W. " S.E., 
South " North, 
S. W. " N. E., 


Davs. 

65.0 
25.2 
28.4 
74.0 






East, 
South-eas 
South, 
South-we 


t, 

st, 


16.0 

38.4 

52.8 
74.0 


West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 


81.0 
63.6 
24.4 
17.2 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-eas 
South-w 


3t, 
iSt, 


72.8 {North-west, 
140.9 iNorth-east, 


116.3 

37.4 


N. W. " S. E., 

S. W. « N.E.. 


43.5 
103.5 






IN SEMI-CIRLES. 






Eastern, 
Southern, 


11 0.2 } Western, 
213.71 Northern, 


257.2 
153.7 


W. over E., 
S. " N., 


149.0 
60.0 





PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



563 



TABLE VIH— FORT HOWARD— GREEN BAY. 

Mean Monthly Prevalence oe the Wind eor Nine Years, 1828-30. 



Months. 


E. 


S. E. 


'S. 


IS. w. w. 


N. VV. 


N. 

~~2lT 

3.7 
2.1 
4.1 
2.4 
2.2 
0.9 
1.8 
2.7 
2.3 
2.7 
2.0 


N. E. 


jfrev. Winds. 


January, 

February, 

March, 

April, 

May, 


0.2 
0.6 
1.4 
0.4 
0.7 
0.7 
0.6 
1.1 
1.1 
1.1 
1.0 
0.7 


0.1 
0.1 
0.9 
0.5 
0.6 
1.3 
0.7 
1.9 
1.3 
1.9 
0.5 
0.9 


4.0 

3.8 
3.5 
2.7 
5.4 
2.8 
4.4 
3.3 
4.1 
5.4 
4.0 
5.1 
T875" 


13.5 
10.7 

9.0 
10.1 

9.0 
12.1 
10.1 
10.2 

7.2 
10.0 

9.3 
12.5 


2.5 

2.9 
2.9 
2.4 
1.0 
2.9 
2.7 
2.6 
3.0 
3.0 
3.2 
2.9 


3.1 
1.3 
1.2 
1.1 
0.7 
1.8 
0.9 
1.7 
3.2 
1.9 
2.7 
3.7 


7.0 
5.1 
9.9 
10.8 
11.3 
9.1 
8.3 
8.3 
4.9 
5.3 
6.5 
3.1 


s. w. 

te 

N. E. 
tt 

S-W. 
(« 
a 
tt 

a 
a 

a 


June, 




July, 

Augu 

Septei 

Octob 

Novei 

Decen 




st, 

nber, .... 

er, 

nber, .... 
iber, .... 


Year, 


9.6 


10.7 


123.7 32.0 1 23.3 ) 28.9 1 89.6 


s. w. 




MEAN 


YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of 


Vind. 


Days. | Course of Wind. | Days, j Preponderance. | 


Days. 






East, 

South-east, 

South,* 

South-west, 


9.6West, 

10.7 North-west, 
48.5 ! North, 
123.7 iNortheast, 


32.0 !W est over East, 
23.41N.W. " S.E., 
28.9 South " North, 
89.6 S. W. " N. E., 


22.4 
12.7 
19.6 
34.1 






IN FOUR. DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 
South-west, 


39.7 North-west, ! 53.8'N. W. overS.E. 
163.9 North-east, | 108.8'S. W. " N. E. 


14.1 
55.1 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 
Southern, 


14 8.5 i Western, 
203.6'Northern, 


217.7 
162.6 


W. over E., 

S. « N., 


69.2 
41.0 





TABLE IX.— FORT BRADY— SAULT STE. MARIE. 
Mean Monthly Prevalence of the Wind eor Six Years, 1823-30. 



Months. 



January, . . . 
February, . . 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, .... 
September, . 
October, 
November, . . 
December, . . 



Year, 



E. 

~4.0 


S.E. 


s. 
2.0 


S.W. 

2.5 


w. 


NW. 
~^5~ 


N. 
2.2 


N. E. 

~2J3" 


7.3 


4.0 


3.5 


6.5 


1.5 


2.3 


5.0 


5.3 


1.8 


2.2 


2.2 


9.3 


2.7 


1.8 


4.3 


6.3 


2.0 


1.8 


3.7 


7.6 


1.6 


3.3 


6.7 


5.2 


0.8 


1.0 


4.0 


6.7 


0.8 


2.5 


6.3 


7.2 


1.2 


2.3 


3.7 


5.5 


2.0 


2.3 


6.2 


4.8 


1.5 


2.3 


1.5 


3.7 


2.0 


5.7 


8.1 


5.7 


2.0 


2.3 


2.2 


4.7 


1.5 


5.3 


8.3 


4.0 


1.8 


2.2 


1.7 


7.0 


3.2 


2.6 


5.6 


5.8 


2.2 


1.8 


2.3 


6.2 


2.5 


3.3 


5.5 


6.8 


1.8 


2.8 


5.8 


5.3 


3.0 


2.8 


2.5 


5.2 


2.8 


1.7 


5.5 


6.2 


2.0 
24.8 


2.8 


3.0 


6.2 


2.0 
22.1 


3.3 


40.1 


76.0 


37.2 


65.5 


68.0 


26.2 



S.E. 



W. 



S. E. 
N. W. 

N. E. 
N.W.&SE, 



K. 



MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind | Days. 



East, 

South-east, 

South, 

South-west, 



40.1 
76.0 

24,8 
37.2 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-East, 



Days. Preponderance. 



65.5 
68.0 
22.1 
26.2 



W. over E., 
S.E. " N. W 
S. « N., 
S-W." N.E., 



Days 



25.4 
8.0 
2.7 

11.0 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
iSouth-west, 



108.5 North-west, 
82.4 North-east, 



111.7 N.W. over S.E.I 3.2 
57.2 S.W. " N.E.I 25.2 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



165.7, Western, 
190.91 Northern, 



194.1 
168.9 



W. over E., 
S, « N., 



28.4 
22.0 



564 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



SECTION III. 

TABULAR VIEWS OF THE WIND AT VARIOUS CIVIL STATIONS. 
We come now to observations made "by different observers in civil life, 
most of whom are practical meteorologists, on whom reliance maybe placed; 
but their observations have not been reported on the same plan. In a few 
instances only do they show the duration of any wind, or its force. We 
again begin in the South. 

TABLE I— FLORIDA REEF. 
Winds at Tortugas Islands, Key West, Indian Key, and Caryspord 

Reef, in 1835.* 

The figures denote days. 



WINTER. 


Place of Obser- 
vation. 


16 
17 
22 
10 


1 


TRADEb, 
N. E. to S. E. 


o 

m 

i 


02 

6 

8 
4 


> 

XIX 


02 


1 

2 
4 

7 


12 
13 
14 

18 


•-• 
>_ 

3 


1 


Pi 
2 
1 
2 
2 


cr 
c 

o 

90 
90 
90 
90 


.5? • 

S c 

o 
26 
16 
27 
23 


pa 

fc 

32 

22 

13 

15 


10 

11 

14 
16 


i 

H 

XII 

7 
13 
13 

| 12 


2 


Tortugas, 
Key West, 
Indian Key, 
Carysford Reef, 


3 ! 
2 2 

J 1 


SPRING. 


Tortugas, 
Key West, 
Indian Key, 
Carysfo?d Reef, 


4 
10 
14 
10 


1 
1 


33 

17 

2 

20 


J4 
24 
20 
15 


18 
13 
17 

18 


1 
2 




5 

3 

25 

12 


21 1 
• 5 2 
2 


1 

5 

8 
2 


3 
9 

2 
4 


1 


1 


9 

1 
6 


92 
92 
92 
92 


37 

22 
33 
27 


SUMMER. 








Tortugas, 

Key West, 
Indian Key, 
Carysford Reef, 


1 

] 

2 


1 


6 

4 

3 

15 


11 
36 
46 

21 


16 

22 
23 

22 


2 


i 


2 

7 
16 


3! 

41 2 

6 
7 


2 
4 
2 
1 


1 

4 
1 
2 


1 


4 

; 3 


4 
1 

6 


45 
92 
92 

92 


21 
36 

38 
40 


AUTUMN. 


Tortugas, 
Key West, 
Indian Key, 
Carysford Reef, 


8 
11 
16 

9 


2 


34 
32 
19 
31 


151 13 
18 6 
30 8 
15| 13 


1 

2 


i i 
j i 
1 ? 

! 2 


2 
4 
4 
? 


1 


1 
1 

5 

2 


7 

7 

5 

11 


4 


i 

i 

i 


8 
2 


91 

91 

91 

1 91 


21 
15 

20 

27 


RESULTS FOR THE YEAR. 


Tortugas, 

Key West, 
Indi.in Key, 
Carysford Reef, 


28 
39 
53 
31 


1 
5 


105 

75 
37 
81 


52 

88 

110 

67 


54 
54 
61 
65 


2 
8 


2 


14 

9 

43 

34 


10 
15 
12 
25 


1 

7 
1 


5 
12 
19 
12 


23 
33 
22 
35 


9 


i 

5 
5 
1 


23 
4 
2 

14 


319 
365 
365 
365 


105 

89 

118 

117 




MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONIS 


TI 


C OR 


DER. 






IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADR 


ANT 


3. 








Course of Wind. 


Davs. 


Com- 
A r est 
^ortj 
^orti 
^ort 


e of Wind. | Days. | P 


repo 


iderance. 


| Days. 






East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 


79.2^ 
58.7 1 
25.2 I 

17.81 


» 

i-west, 
i, 
i-ea'st, 


■12.0 E. 
35.5 S.I 

38.5 N. 
75.2 N. 


ove 
3." 

E. « 


r W., 

N.W., 
< S. 
S.W., 


67.2 
23.2 
13.3 
57.4 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 
South-west, 


111.0 

42.4 


Vorth-west, 1 60.7IS.I 
^orth-east, | 134.0|N.l 


1. ov 

G. 


erN.W. 

" s.w. 


1 50.3 
| 91.6 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 1 245.0 Western, 
Southern, | l53.4|Northern, 


103.1 IE. 

194.7 N. 


ov 


er W., 

S., 


1 141.9 
41.3 







* Extracted from a table in the American Almanac for 1837, by W. A. Whitehead, 
Esq., the Observer at Key West. The other observers were, Captain H. Thompson, C. 
Howe, Esq., and Captain J. Walton. Observations made in the forenoon and after- 
noon of each day, and the results shown by adding the half days together. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



i65 



TABLE II.— NEW ORLEANS— LOUISIANA. 
Me. Mo. Prey, of Wind, for Three Years, 1840-42. By D. T. Lillie. 



Months. 



January,. . 
February,. 
March, . . . 

April 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, . . 
September, 
October, . . 
November, ; 
December. , 



N. 
~9.0 


N E 


E. 


S. E 
2.3 


[S. 
~573~ 


s. w. 


w. 


N. W.| 


2.0 


5.7 


2.3 


4.0 


4.3 


5.0 


2.3 


4.0 


3.7 


2.3 


2.7 


4.7 


1.3 


3.3 


10.3 


2.3 


6.3 


1.7 


1.7 


2.3 


1.0 


4.0 


4.0 


9.7 


3.7 


2.7 


2.7 


5.3 


0.3 


3.7 


3.0 


8.7 


2.3 


4.3 


3.3 


1.7 


0.7 


2.7 


2.0 


9.7 


4.0 


8.7 


0.7 


2.3 


0.3 


3.7 


1.0 


10.0 


3.0 


6.0 


1.7 


5.7 


2.7 


3.3 


4.7 


5.3 


2.7 


3.7 


3.0 


6.3 


1.3 


5.7 


3.0 


9.3 


0.7 


2.3 


1.3 


10.0 


0.7 


4.7 


4.0 


6.0 


0.7 


1.0 


4.0 


8.3 


2.3 


4.0 


2.3 


4.3 


2.0 


2.3 


4.3 


10.0 


2.0 


6.3 

52.1 


1.3 

4072 


3.3 

77.9 


2.0 
33.4~ 


2.7 
39.7 


3.7 


72.6 


18.9 


31.4 



1.39 
2.30 
2.27 
2.47 
2.37 
2.20 
1.37 
1.38 
2.17 
2.10 
2.27 
1.80 



4.3 Me 



MEAN YEAR I N A N T A G O N I S T I C ORDER 



IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of VV ind 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Day 



52.1 
40.2 
77.9 
33.4 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 



Days. | Preponderance 



39.7|Eastover West. 
31.4IS. E. " N. W., 
72.6|South " North. 
18.9|S.W. " N. E., 



Days. 

12.4 

8.8 

5.3 

14.5 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



105.2 
92.2 



North-west, 
North-east, 



87.7 jS.E. overN.W, 
81.2|S. W. « N. E.. 



17.5 

11.0 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



186.4 Western, 
197.4 Northern, 



179.9 E. over W. 
168.8 S. « N., 



6.5 

28.5 



TABLE III— NATCHEZ— MISSISSIPPI. 

Me. An. Prey, of Wind, for 15 Ys., 1825 to 1839. By Dr. H. Tooley. 







uO CD j>- 


GO 


en O 


rH o? co i ^ in cr> 


r- ooi m 


■ 






Of 


cn 


Cj! 


Of 


OJ 


CO 






CO CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 




A gg- c 


t mean 




ou 
"77 


00 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO 


CO I oc 


CO 


CO 


CO 


00 


GO 


■Obs. 


Year. 


E. 




89i 91 


92 


88 


58 


65; 88, 75 84 


51 79 


124 


66 


7? 


120' 


t 80.40 


S. E. 




132 


103 76 


64 


84 


44 


54 43; 40 ! 39 


52 33 


66 


61 


66 


95 r 


f 63.12 


S. 




80 99116132 


141 


131 


110 


93 88149 


148155 


119 


84107 


175S 


I 116.12 


S. W. 




88116 85j 68 


64 


90 


54 


72| 71 i 96 


59 661123 


87)120 


125< 


) 83.14 


w. 




31 


31i 21! 26 


26 


38 


25 


25! 33| 38 


31 37 


65 


53! 49 


291 


> 19.10 


N.W. 




54 


46 26 11 


25 


28 


31 


lfil 25; 20 


20 21 


4 


30| 28 


43( 


) 28.10 


N. 




95 


72 88 116 


100 


88 


94105J 82144 


143131 


173 


132118 


1681 


112.10 


N. E. 




58 


44 44 41 


45 


21 


19) 38, 54 56 


34 22 


37 


41 44 


62£ 


41.13 


Year, 


|615;600 547 550 573 


498 


452480 468 626 


538!544;711 


554 609 


8206 






MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORI 


>ER- 






IN EIGHT DIRECTI 


DNS, 

• Wi 


OR SEMI 


■QUA 


DRANTS. 








Course of Wind. 


Obs. 


Course o 


nd. 


Ob 


s. 




Preponderance. 


Obs. 
61.30 






East, 


84.40 


West, 


19.10 


E. over W., 






South-east, 


63.12 


North-west, 


28.10 


S.E. « N.W., 


35 02 






South, 


116.12 


North, 


112.10|S. " N., 


4.02 






South-wesit, 


83.14 


North-east, 


41.13|S.W. « N. E., 


42.01 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 


161.38INorth-west, 


93.70 


S. E. overN.W.. 


67.68 






South-west, 


!50.75lNorth-east, 


137.38 


S. W. " N. E., 


13.37 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 


54.31 






Eastern, 


298.76 Western, ,244.45, E. over W., 






Southern, 


312.13 Northern, 1231.08; S. « N., 


81.05 





566 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book 



TABLE IV.— HUNTSVILLE— ALABAMA. 
Mean Mo. Prey, of the Wind eor 13 Ys. 1829-42. — By Key. John Allan. 



Months. 



January, 

February, . . . 

March, 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, 

September,. . . 

October, 

November, . . 
December, . . . 



Year, 149.14 193.92 



s. 
~9^9 
11.76 
15.15 
14.43 
15.69 
14.07 
12.61 
11.30 

9.15 
11.07 
13.61 
10.61 



s. w. 



14.30 
16.76 
17.07 
16.76 
18.38 
21.76 
20.76 
13.00 
13.15 
13.84 
14.61 
13.53 



W. 



4.23 
3.61 

2.84 
4.87 
4.23 
5.38 
4.07 
3.30 
2.53 
3.92 
6.76 
2.91 



N. W. | 

Tao"7j 

19.92: 

21.40 1 
16.61 
18.38 
13.23 
15.67 
17.38 
12.76 
13.53 
18.30 
21.23 



N. 



N E 



14.92 

13.30 

13.38 

13.91 

9.61 

8.54 

8.46 

15.00 

11.53 

16.61 

14.30 

14.84 



E. 



8.61 
8.53 
7.07 
7.38 
8.00J 
7.61 
9.38! 
11.61 
12.23 1 
9.53 
4.38 
6.84 



48.65 206.54154.40101.17 



0.61 
0.53 
0.30 
0.84 
0.85 
2,07 
2.46 
2.53 
3.00 
0.76 
1.30 
0.46 



S. E 


Calm. 

2.69 


P. w. 

sTeT 


18.84 


10.84 


1.69 


N. W. 


10.61 


3.52 


S.W. 


10.76 


4.46 


(i 


12.23 


4.61 


SW&NW 


10.92 


4.84 


S.W. 


12.46 


5.23 


it 


13.38 


4.00 


N. W. 


18.84 


3.30 


S. E. 


9.76 


5.84 


N. 


11.53 


4.38 


S. W. 


17.07 


2.15 


S. E. 


157 24 


46.71 





MEAN 



YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN SIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Obs . 
15771 
157.24 
149.14 
193.92 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 

North, 

North-east, 



Obs. 
~4876"5 
206.54 
154.40 
101.17 



Preponderance. 



W. over E. 
N.W."S.E. 

N. "S, 
S.W " N.E 



Obs^ 

32.94 

49.30 

5.26 

92.75 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



239.66 North-west, 
292.81 North-east, 



308.06IN. W.overS.E. 
186.22 S.W. " N,E, 



68.40 
106.59 



IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



425.88 
532.47 



Western, 
Northern, 



1600.87 

J494.28 



W. over E. 
S. « N. 



174.99 
38.19 



TABLE V.— CINCINNATI— OHIO. 
Mean Mo. Prey, oe the Wind for 6 Ys., 1809-14.— By Br. D. Drake. 



January, . , 
February, . 
March, . . . 

April, 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, . . 
September, 
October, . . 
November, 
December, 



Two Obs. a day, 



S.E. 


s. 


s. w. 


n. e. 


N. 


N. W. 


E. 
3 


6 


2 


13 


8 


1 


21 


5 


1 


13 


8 


1 


14 





10 


1 


16 


11 


1 


10 





7 





24 


10 


1 


8 


1 


7 


1 


19 


10 





10 


1 


9 


1 


23 


12 


5 


7 


1 


6 


1 


19 


11 


2 


11 


1 


6 


1 


23 


10 


1 


12 


1 


6 


1 


23 


9 





8 


2 


9 


1 


24 


6 


• 1 


10 


2 


9 


3 


13 


6 


1 


10 


2 


7 


1 


11 
W 


5 



14 


15 


2 
16 1 


87 


14 


106 


136 



w. 


Calm 


Prev. Winds. 


6 


6 


N. W. 


5 


8 


(« 


5 


4 


s. w. 


3 


5 




4 


6 




2 


3 




4 


4 




1 


6 




3 


3 




4 


3 




7 


5 




6 


9 


N. W. 


50 


62 


s. w. 



MEAN YE 

IN 



AR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Obs. 
"T6" 

87 

14 

221 



Course of Wind. 



West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 



Obs. 



50 
136 

14 
106 



Preponderance. 



W. over E 
N.W. » S.E 
S. " N 

S.W. over N.E 



Obs 



34 

49 
Equal, 
115 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South east, 
South-west, 



102 
253 



North-west, 
North-east, 



168 
121 



N.W. over S.E, 
S.W. « N.E, 



66 
132 



IN SEMI-CIIlC!.i: ■!. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



223 Western, 
355 Northern, 



421 W.overE., 198 

289 S. " N., 66 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



567 



o 
til 

h 



o 
*-| 

QO 
CO 

oo 
O * 
t— i 



a ° 

r ■ © 

g S 



eg 
© 

Eh 



H 



W 



t-!CO CO iO t-H id "^ CM 



CDiO»OOCDiOI>COQO»NoO 



oi^iCQ S 



NCONHCDON>OOOCOOOO I tH 



^ICOOOHNiOOCOHCOM 
OQXOHGOOHOCOO(M 
t— 1 t— IH r- IHr- It— IHH 



NiOOOMCOOOOO^COGO© It— I 
O^OJClCOOTtlHfNCOlNH OO 

H(MOTHHvM(^(M(N(M(^H t- 

CM 



iO OS O O CO Oi CO CO CM GO O CM 

TH^ooiocqcicofM" coonoo 



r- io j> t— no f»orooNi>rt 

COOOWNOHHHOOiOM 
GO* t-H* O tH C5 cm' cm" t^ go go" cm" id 

OCiNOONNOiOMiO^iO 



COCOiOCOOOONMiOOO 
T-iOCMiOuO ^ H lO H CM' 



HHOONNHCOCNHMiOH 
t^l^GOGOCOGOlr-i^l^GOr-GO 



cx> 



>OCO^OQ1>CDO^^QCM 
T)Jl>CNb;HOqT}fOiCDCOCX)CM 

idT^oocici^Jt^cM'coidci 

coGOj>CiOj>cooocNa)ai 



THN^QOOiNHOiOOiOb.CO .CM 
i> "^ H iO OO lO CO O M N'C5 CO 



COOiOCOCMJr-OiOCMCMCOTjH 
rHCOCOCMCMCOCMCOCOCOCOCM 



iQOGOCNNOO^Mr- ICMGO 
b; CO l> H O CI J> N Oi CO Th CO 

rHcoj^di^^co'incdidcico" 

CO^tlCO'^fCOCOTtliOTtliOLOiO 



COHCnOCOCCiOiO^OOCOCO 
'vh iO CO O O GO t-H CO Ci iO CO CM 

ri-5 rH* go' t-h" o co cd id id -^* rj-I cm 

OCOCOiOTH^oOCOCM^rJH'sh 



„ . . . . t3 - r 2 is'*' h b 

,-T m 8 ^ fl d ^ ^ 

^_r „ ~ ^ ■ § § ■ .ua § a cS -3 

^ -Th s^(D k ^ Jj O ® (^ Q f-< 



P3 

H 
Q 

o 
a 

I— i 

H 
m 

O . 

O H 



. Id rH 

E Id cm 
o\oo cm" 



H^ 





CM GO 




Gb CM 





-* d 




T-H 


— ' 




a 




> 


„ 


r» 




0) 


^ 


5 
o 








CO d 

OS ^ 
id t-h 

rH 



c3 q 

Her} 



568 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE VIL— MIL WAUKIE— WISCONSIN. 

Me. Mo. Prev. op Wind for 3 Ys., 1838-41. By I. A. Lapham, Esq., and 

W. P. Proudfit, M. D. 



Months. 



January,. . 
February, . 
March, . . . 
April. 

May, 

June, 

July, 

August, . . 
September, 
October, . . 
November, 
December, 



ear, . 



N. 



5.0 
4.0 
6.0 
1.7 
3.0 
7.0 
3.0 
3.3 
3.0 
0.7 
3.3 
1.3 



41.3 



N. E. 



7.0 

10.0 
28.7 
23.0 
30.3 
21.7 
21.7 
26.0 
22.0 
18.0 
7.0 
12.7 



E. 



2.0 
2.0 
6.0 
4.7 
8.7 
7.0 
6.7 
3.7 
2.0 
1.7 
0.0 
0.7 



238.1 45.2 



S E. 



6.3 

2.7 
4.3 
17.3 
10.7 
17.7 
10.0 
23.0 
13.0 
19.0 
18.0 
10.3 



3.7 
0.3 
2.0 
0.3 
0.7 
6.7 
2.0 
2.0 
3.3 
3.0 
0.7 
0.7 



s. w. 



20.7 
18.0 
19.7 
11.3 
11.3 
13.7 
30.3 
12.7 
17.7 
15.3 
23.7 
21.3 



152.3 25.4 I 215.' 



w. t i\. w, 



13.3 
14.3 
8.7 
2.3 
4.7 
2.0 
4.3 
3.0 
8.7 
5.3 
3.0 
4.7 



29.0 

29.3 

13.7 

15.0 

9.7 

3.3 

6.7 

13.7 

55.3 

20.3 

28.0 

40.0 



74.3 224.0 N. E 



Frev. Winds. 



N. W. 
N. E. 



S. W. 

N.E. 

N.W. 



MEAN YEAR I N AN T A G O N I S T I C ORDER 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 



Obs. I Course of Wind. 



45.2 West, 
152.3jNorth-west, 

25,4' North, 
215.7! North-east, 



Obs. 

^74~3 

224.0 

41.3 

235.1 



Preponderance. 



Obs. 



W. over E., I 

N.W. « S.E., 1 
N. « S., 
N. E. " S. W.J 



29.1 
71.7 
15.9 
22.4 



IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



I 187.6 
I 265.5 



North-west, 
North-east, 



281.7JN.W.overS.E.| 94.1 
281.3 N.E. " S.W.i 15.8 



IN SEMI -CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Western, 



I 468.91 Western, 
! 453.1 1 Northern, 



I 547. 2! W. over E. 
562. 1|N. « S. 



78.8 
I 109.4 



TABLE VIII.— ROCHESTER— NEW YORK. 



Mean Annual Prev. 


of the Wind, foe, 


13 Ys 


. By Wm. L. 


Wetherell. 


Year. 


N. 


N. E. 


E. 

16.5 

5.0 

6.0 

7.0 

17.0 

9.0 

20.0 

12.0 

12.5 

12.5 

6.0 

14.0 

8.0 


S. E. 
~27.5 
42.5 
24.0 
17.0 
11.0 
19.5 
16.5 
15.0 
30.0 
26.5 
21.0 
38.5 
38.5 

~2572 


s. 
~245 
14.0 
19.0 
55.0 
48.0 
21.0 
14.5 
37.0 
14.0 
27.5 
20.5 
13.5 
33.5 
26.3 


SS. VV . 

~9975 
106.0 
98.5 
61.0 
60.0 
110.0 
70.5 
71.5 
63.0 
52.0 
50.5 
47.5 
68.0 
73.7 


VV. 


N. W. 

58.0 

57.5 

94.0 

46.0 

61.0 

92.0 

79.5 

72.5 

96.0 

98.5 

146.5 

109.5 

102.5 

85.7 


Prev. Winds. 


1835, 




18.5 
21.0 
30.5 
35.0 
38.0 
9.5 
50.5 
31.0 
27.0 
28.0 
27.5 
23.0 
14.0 
"~2772 


28.0 
62.5 
35.0 
12.0 
30.5 
36.5 
38.5 
46.5 
34.5 
47.5 
19.5 
43.5 
32.5 

3579 


92.5 
57.5 
58.0 
32.0 
99.5 
68.5 
75.0 
79.5 
88,0 
73.5 
73 5 
75.5 
68.0 
~Y2A 


s. w. 

cc 
it 

w. 

S.W. 
N. W. 

w. 

N.W. 

a 
a 
a 
is 


1836, 




1837, 




1838, 




1839, 

1840, 




1841, 




1842, 
1843, 
1844, 
1845, 




1846, 




1847, 








Mean Year, . 


11.2 


N. W. 




MEAN YI 

IN 


iAR IN ANTAGONIST 

EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRj 


IC ORDER. 

UVTS. 






Course of Wind. 


Days. 


Course of Wind. 


Day 


74 

.7 
.2 

.9 


Pre 
W. 

N.W 

N. 
S.W 


ponclerance. 

over E. 

r . " S.E. 

S. 

. « N.E. 


Days. 






East, 

South-east, 

South, 

South-west, 


11.2 
25.2 
26.3 

73.71 


West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 


72 
85 
27 
35 


61.2 

60.5 

0.9 

37.8 








IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRAN1 


s. 






South-east, 

South-west, 


43.9| North-west, 
l23.0|North-east, 


135.5N.W 

55.1;S.W 


r . over S.E.I 91.6 
. " N. E.I 67.9 






IS SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 
Southern, 


99.0 
166.9 


Western, i 258.5 W. 
Northern, | 190.6 ! N. 


over E. 

S. 


159.5 
23.7 





PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



569 



TABLE IX.— TORONTO— CANADA WEST. 

Results of Seven Years Observations at the Magnetical and Meteoro- 
logical Observatory, 1841-47, inclusive.* 

The figures denote observations. 



Yer 



1841, 
1842, 
1843, 
1844, 
1845, , 
1846, , 
1847, 



Mean Year,. 



N. w. 



794.0 
1134.0 
1254.0 
1300.0 
1618.0 
1468.0 
1536.01 



w. 



507.0 
939.0 
1385.0 
879.0 
1375.0 
1211.0 
1355.0 



1300.4 1093.0 



S. E. 



489.0 
810.0 
881.0 
1025.0 
911.0 
904.0 
929.0 



N. E. 



688.0 

896.0 

988.0 

672.0 

816.0 

1053.0 

( 969.0 

"849761 "868T6 



Calm. 



Remarks. 



1254.0jl2 observ's daily. 
1861.0|12 obs., first half. 
" second half. 



2940.024 

3607.0 24 

2735.0 

2826.® 

2675^0 

2556.6 



daily. 



Prev. Winds 



N. W. 

a 

s. w. 
n.:w. 



MEAN 



YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 



Course of Wind. 



South-east, 
South-west, 



Course of Wind. 



849.6 
1093.0 



North-west, 
North-east, 



Obs. ^Preponderance. I Obs. 

I30O4 N. WT^sTeT, 11561 
868.6'S. W. « N.E.J 224.4 



IN SEMI -CIRCLES. 



Eastern, 
Southern, 



1718.2 Western, 
1942.6 Northern, 



2393.4 1 W. over E. 
2169.0JN. " S. 



675.2 
226.4 



TABLE X.— MONTREAL— CANADA EAST. 

Mean Results op 5 Ys. Obs. on the Wind, from 1836 to 1840 inclusive. 
By J. S. McCord, EsQ.f 





Westerly, 


Easterly, 






No. of days 


Years. 


NW.,W.,SW. 


N.E., E., S.E. 


North. 


South. 


observed. 


1836, 


189.20 


46.25 


65.85 


55.66 


357.00 


1837, 


200.00 


32.00 


56.50 


38.50 


327.00 


1838, 


163.00 


32.2& 


66.75 


49.25 


311.25 


1839, 


179.00 


83.00 


63.50 


33.50 


359.00 


1840. 


188.50 


71.50 


47.50 


45.50 


353.00 


Mean 


183.94 


51.00 


60.02 


44.48 


341.45 


About 


54 per cent. 


15 per cent. 


18 per cent. 


13 per cent. 





From Captain Lefroy. 
37 



t Amer. Jour. Science, Vol. III. 



570 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



TABLE XL— WINTER ISLAND—ARCTIC REGIONS. 
M. Mo. Prey, of Wind for 1 Yr., 1821-2.— By Sir W. E. Parry, R. N. 











The figures denote hs 


If days 












£ Months. 


N. 

6 


N. E. 


E. S.E. 


s. 


S. W. 



w. 

6 


N. W. 


Prev. Winds. 


January, 


4 


4 








42 


N. W. 


February, 


6 


2 











2 





46 


«( 


March, 


8 


6 





2 





3 


2 


39 


K 


April, 


6 


10 


4 


10 





10 


4 


18 


(( 


May, 


4 


12 





5 





5 


6 


34 


a 






5 

9 



9 

7 
8 


2 
3 
2 


15 

8 
1 




2 
4 


10 
11 
20 


4 
3 
1 


15 
11 
23 


S. E. & N. W. 

S. W. & N. W. 

N. W. 


July, . 
Augus 




St. 


September, . . . 





6 


2 


11 


6 


8 


1 


21 


tt 


October, 


4 


20 


4 


9 





4 





18 


N.E. 


November, . . . 


10 


18 


2 


2 


2 


4 


6 


16 


a 


December, .... 


11 


2 





10 
73 



14 


2 





37 


N. W. 


Year, 


69 


104 


23 


79 


33 


320 


N. W. 




MEAN YI 


]AR 


IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 






IN 


EIGHT 


DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of Wind. 


Hf. dy 


.[ Course of Wind. 1 


If. dy [ 


Preponderance. 


Hf. dy. 






East, 


23 


West, 


33 | 


W. over E. 


10 






South-east, 


73 


North-west, 


320 


N.W. " S.E. 


247 






South, 


14 


North, 


69 


N". " S. 


55 






South-west, 


79 


North-east, 


104 ! 


N.E. overS.W. 


25 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South east, 


1 91 


North-west, 


371 I 


N.W. over S.E. 


280 






South-west, 


J 103 


North-east, 


150 


N.E. - " S.W. 


47 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 


241 


Western, 


474 


W. over E., 


233 






Southern, 


194 


Northern, 


521 


NT. " S., 


327 





TABLE XII.— IGLOOLIK— ARCTIC REGIONS. 
M. Mo. Prev. of the Wind for 1 Yr. 1822-3. — By the same. 









The figures denote 


half days. 










Months. 


N. 

14 

8 
12 
8 
4 
14 
6 
3 
2 
4 
2 
4 


N. E. 

8 

8 

2 



8 

4 

10 

11 

8 

20 

1 

8 


E, 





2 
2 
2 




6 


S.E. 

6 





2 

12 

2 

9 

7 

14 

12 

4 




s. 


S.W. 


w. 


NW. 


Prev. Winds. 


January, 

February, .... 

March, 

April, 

May, 


2 


2 
8 
4 
10 
2 

4 
2 



4 
2 
4 
6 
9 
6 
3 
4 

3 
5 
4 




2 

12 

6 

4 

4 

2 

3 

6 



12 

22 


28 
36 
32 
46 
17 
24 
20 
30 
30 
18 
34 
24 


N. W. 

tt 
a 
tt 
ts 
ft 
tt 
tt 
t< 

N.E. 

N. W. 

tt 






July, 

Augu 

Septei 

Octob 

Nover 

Decen 




st, 

nber, . . . 
er, ..... . 

nber, .... 

iber, .... 


Year 


81 


88 


68 


34 


50 73 


339 


N. W. 




MEAN 


YE 

IN 


AR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER- 

EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of 


Wind 


Hf. dy. 


Course of Wind. Hf. dy. 


Preponderance, f 


If. dy 

67 

271 

47 

38 






East, 
South-eas 
South, 
South-we 


t, 
st, 


6 

68 
34 
50 


West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-East, 


73 

339 

81 
88 


W. over E., 
N. W. " S.E. 
N. « S., 
N.E. «S-W. 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 
South-west, 


88 
103 


North-west, 
North-east, 


416 IN.W.overS.E.I 328 
132 N.E. " S.W.j 29 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 
Southern 


1 
1 


220 
191 


Western, 
Northern, 


519 |W. over E., 

548 |N. " S., 


299 
357 





INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



571 



TABLE XIII.— FELIX HARBOR— ARCTIC REGIONS. 

Me. An. Prev. of Wind, for 2 Ys., 1830 to 1831. By Sir John Ross.* 

The figures denote hours. 



Years 1830-'31 


N. 
1331) 
97.0 


W . 


S3. 


E. ,N.,W.iS. vi. | S. E. 


N. E. 


Calm. 


Prevailing Winds. 


Tan J 1830 ' 
Jan - (1831, 


20.0 
41.0 


41.0 

78.0 


7.0 292.0 210.0; 21.0 
6.0 232 92.0 53.0 


33.0 
16.0 


87.0 
129.0 




Mean,115.0 


30.5 


59.5 


6.5262.0 


151.0 37.0 


24.5 


108.0 


North-west. 


p u U830, 
Feb< {1831, 


96.0 

47.0 


17.0 
42.0 


95.0 
112.0 


3.0j 5.0 
3.0151.0 


102.0 7.0 
170.0J 42.0 


166.0 
11.0 


181.0 
94.0 




Mean, 


71.5 


29.5 


103.5 


3.0j 78.0 


136.0J 24.5 


88.5 


137.5 


South-west. 


iitu U830, 

Mh - ]i83i; 


121.0 

17.0 


44.0 
61.0 


23.0 
113.0 


14.01 91.0 
16.0141.0 


118.0! 8.0 
132.0! 34.0 


91.0 
25.0 


234.0 
205.0 




Mean, 


69.C 


52.5 


68.0 


15.0J116.0 


125.0 21.0 


58.0 


219.5 


South-west. 


* $1830, 

■ A P r - jl831, 


58.0 
105.0 


49.0 
32.0 


30.0 
62.0 


13.0158.0 

20.0J286.0 


151.01 33.0 
73.0 31.0 


178.0 
51.0 


50.0 
61.0 




Mean, 


81.5 


40.5 


46.0 


16.5222.0 


112.0] 32.0 


114.5 


55.5 


North-west. 


Mv J 1830 ' 
M y* {1831, 


59.0 
118.0 


49.0 
67.0 


56.0 
24.0 


89.0|l64.0 
11.0202.0 


93.0 44.0 
68.0 71.0 


146.0 

98.0 


45.0 

85.0 




Meanjl38.5 


58.0 


40.0 


50.0183.0 

i 


80.5J 57.5 


122.0 


65.0 


North-west. 


T (1830, 
Je " " {l831, 


70.0 
43.0 


82.0 
81.0 


38.0 
71.0 


15.01 63.0 
6.0195.0 


128.01 4.0 
202.0 40.0 


249.0 
9.0 


71.0 
73.0 




Mean, 


56.5 


81.5 


54.5 


10.5129.0 


165.0, 22.0 


129.0 


72.0 


South-west. 


T $1830jl91.0 
J y-" {1831, 88.0 


43.0 
25.0 


15.0 
49.0 


8.0136.0 
66.01117.0 


50.0: 35.0 
36.0106.0 


159.0 

189.0 


107.0 
68.0 




Mean,' 139.5 


34.0 


32.0 


37.0126.5 


43.0| 70.5 


174.0 


87.5 


North-east. 


A (1830,141.0 

Au 2 {1831, 84.0 


41.0 
57.0 


51.0 
56.0 


8.0299.0 
67.0|l77.0 


46.0; 22.0 
77.0j 54.0 


91.0 
115.0 


45.0 

57.0 




Mean,;112.5 


49.0 


53.5 


37.5238.0 


61.5[ 38.0 


103.0 


51.0 


North-west. 


o (1830, 
Se P' {1831, 


97.0 
87.0 


45.0 
26.0 


87.0 
49.0 


3.0243.0 
22.0J267.0 


212.0J 19.0 

75.0 52.0 


90.0 
83.0 


24.0 
59.0 




Mean, 92.0 


35.5 


68.0 


12.5 255.0 


143.5 35.5 


86.5 


41.5 


North-west. 


Oct 4 l830 'l 14 ° 
Uct> {1831,144.0 


99.0 
24.0 


55.0 
76.0 


50.01219.0 

31.0190.0 


145.0: 55.0 
91.0 1 76.0 


59.0 
32.0 


50.0 
80.0 




Mean, 


79.0 


61.5 


65.5 


40.5 


204.5 


118.0 


65.5 


45.5 


65.0 


North-west. 


at U830, 
Nv ' |l83i; 


151.0 

120.0 


75.0 
23.0 


64.0 
75.0 


22.0 
23.0 

"2^5 


124.0 
115.0 


62.0 
31.0 


78.0 
173.0 


22.0 
4.0 


122.0 
156.0 




Mean, 


135.5 


49.0 


69.5 


119.5 


46.5 


125.5 


13.0 


139 


North. 


n U830, 
Ue ' {1831. 


40.0 
86.0 


52.0 
14.0 


121.0 
30.0 


18.0 
54.0 


171.0 

285.0 


98.9 
9.0 


117.0 
70.0 


4.0 

8.0 


123.0 
188.0 




Mean, 


63.0 


33.0| 75.5 


36.0 


228.0 


53.5 


93.5 


6.0 


155.5 North-west. 




MEAN YEAR IN ANTAGONISTIC ORDER. 

IN EIGHT DIRECTIONS, OR SEMI-QUADRANTS. 






Course of Wind. 


Hours. 


Course of vx ind. 


Hours. 

554.5 
2161.6 
1153.5 

964.5 


Preponderance. 


Hours. 






East, 

South-east, 
South, 
South-west, 


287.5 

622.5 

735.5 

1235.5 


West, 

North-west, 
North, 
North-east, 


W. over E. 

N.W. " S.E. 
N. " S. 
S.W. " N.E. 


267.0 

1539.0 

418.0 

271.0 






IN FOUR DIRECTIONS, OR QUADRANTS. 






South-east, 
South-west, 


1134.0 

1880.5 


North-west, |3015.5:N.W. overS.E.il88l.5 
North-east, 11685.0 S.W. " N. E.I 195.5 






IN SEMI-CIRCLES. 






Eastern, 
Southern, 


28l9.0|Western, 
30l4.5|Northern, 


4896.0 f W. over E. 
4700.5'n. " s. 


2077.0 
1686.0 





* Second Voyage. 



572 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Each of the foregoing tables indicates the relative frequency of different 
winds at a particular place, but not the length of time they blew, nor their 
velocity. It shows the oscillatory movements of the atmosphere, with a 
certain degree of approximative accuracy, but not its progressive motion. 
To disclose the latter, the duration and velocity, as well as the direction, of 
each wind should have been observed and recorded. To the scientific 
meteorologist, seeking to ascertain the direction and force of the progressive 
motion of the atmosphere, such observations would be indispensable ; but to 
the practical physician, who regards all meteorological phenomena, in 
reference to the preservation or destruction of health, rather than the 
advancement of physical science, these tables will not be found without 
interest and value. Scattered over such a broad extent of country, from 
Cape Florida to the coasts of the Polar Sea, they show what winds may be 
expected in different regions, and will thus aid in making such an estimate of 
their respective climates, as etiology and practical medicine demand. In 
advising those who are ill, or those who are threatened with diseases which 
may be accelerated, averted, or cured by climate, an inspection of the tables 
may prevent a bad recommendation, or suggest a good one ; and, thereby, 
contribute to the great end of all medical prescription. 

But I should not disparage the tables in reference to a philosophical history 
of the winds of the Interior Valley; and will, therefore, indicate some 
general conclusions which may be legitimately drawn from them, with an 
outline of the character of the winds of each quadrant, which will make 
the subjects of the next section. 



SECTION IV. 

ORDER, RELATIVE PREVALENCE, CHARACTERISTICS, AND EFFECTS 
OF OUR VARIOUS WINDS. 

I. Order. — Our winds, like those of the northern hemisphere generally, 
change from one point in the horizon to another, in a certain order. From 
the manner in which the tables are made out, they do not present evidence 
of this fact ; but every observer, in the middle and southern portions of the 
Valley, is aware of its reality. The common order of mutation is from the 
left hand to the right, the face of the observer being turned to the south, and 
the same when his face is directed to the north. Thus a south-east wind 
will become a south, south-west, west, north-west, north, and north-east 
wind, without any intervening calm ; but the reverse never happens without 
a calm following on a northern wind; and in that case, if a southern wind spring 
up, it is properly a new commencement. An easterly wind rarely begins 
nearer to a true east course than the south-east, and the north-west wind, 
in veering round, seldom reaches the east. Thus, while the wind often 
traverses three of the cardinal points of the compass, south, west, and north, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 573 

it scarcely ever crosses the east. Commencing generally to the south of 
east, the wind expires before reaching that cardinal point from the north. 
But we must not overlook another mode of change, which is oscillatory. In 
this case, the change is in the same plane, which is generally one that passes 
between the cardinal points. Thus, after the south-east wind has blown 
for a time, it may, without an intervening calm, be turned into a north-west — 
rarely the reverse ; and a north-east wind may arrest and triumph over a 
south-west ; though it scarcely ever happens that the latter succeeds to the 
former, without the occurrence of a calm. The antagonism of these winds 
is much more common, than that of any others. What has been said 
applies especially to winds that continue for some time. In certain seasons 
the oscillations of the atmosphere are so diversified and fitful, that in the 
course of a single day, there will be many sudden changes without any 
perceptible order. 

II. Kelative Prevalence. — Around the Gulf, of Mexico, near the 
northern limits of the trade-winds, even as far north as the thirty-second 
degree, the east wind prevails over the west and some others ; but, above 
that parallel, up to Boothia Felix, within the Polar Circle, it prevails far less 
than any other. This fact harmonizes with what has just been said, as to 
the beginning and ending of the various winds of the card ; and strongly 
indicates the east as a zero or minimum point of the compass, from which to 
commence the enumeration of different winds. Hence, in the summaries 
attached to most of the different tables, I have placed this wind first, and 
proceeded round the horizon to the point of departure. A true south or 
north wind is, also, comparatively rare ; though both are more frequent than 
the east; and, on the northern margin of the continent, the north wind 
predominates to a decided degree over any other, which blows from a cardinal 
point. A wind directly from the west, is still rarer than from south or north ; 
but more frequent, as we have seen, than from the east. Taking all the 
stations together, we find the order of frequency for the entire Valley, 
beginning with the lowest, to be east, west, north, and south. 

But the aggregate of the winds on the cardinal points, bears so small a 
proportion to those which blow between them, that we are justified in 
distributing them among the winds of the intervening points, and thus 
establishing quadrants. This has been done in the supplements to the 
tables, by dividing the cardinal winds into halves, and uniting them to the 
winds on either hand. Thus half the east wind is thrown with the north- 
east, and the other half with the south-east ; and so of the south, west, and 
north winds. We thereby obtain four principal winds, or rather include the 
whole under four heads ; and this, too, without any violation of philosophical 
propriety; for the winds on the cardinal points are well known to be inter- 
mediate in properties, as well as direction, to those with which they are thus 
associated. The quadrants formed in this manner are, of course, the south- 
east, south-west, north-west, and north-east. 



574 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



General Table oe the Winds, at Nineteen Stations, Reduced to 
Quadrants, and Expressed in Percentage. 



Groups of Stations. Stations. 


S. E. | S.W. | N.W. 


N. E. 


f Florida Reef, .... 

Southern Group, | Camp Clinch, . . . 

N. Lat. 24°— 32°, <[ New Orleans, .... 

Five Stations. Fort Jesup, . . , . . 

L Natchez, 

Southern Mean, 


32 
27 
29 
30 
30 


12 

36 
25 

22 
28 


18 

20 

24' 

21 

17 


38 
17 

22 
26 
25 


30 


25 


20 


25 


Middle Group, 
N. Lat. 34°— 46°, . 
Eleven Stations. 


" Huntsville, 

Jefferson Barracks, 

Cincinnati, 

Council Bluff, . . . 

Fort Armstrong, . . 

Fort Snelling, . . . 

Fort Howard, . . . 

Milwaukie, 

Rochester, 

Toronto, 

_ Fort Brady, .... 


23 

28 
16 
28 
26 
. 20 
11 
18 
12 
21 
30 


28 
28 
38 
24 
29 
39 
44 
26 
34 
26 
23 


29 
28 
26 
28 
23 
32 
15 
27 
38 
32 
31 


18 
16 
19 
20 
21 
10 
30 
27 
15 
21 
16 


Mean of Middle Group, 

Arctic Circle, f Winter Island, . . . 

N. Lat. 66°— 70°, <| Igloolik, 

Three Stations. 1 Felix Harbor, . . . 
Northern Mean, 


21 


31 


28 


20 


12 
12 

. 15 


14 
14 

24 


52 
56 
39 


21 

18 
22 


13 


17 


49 


20 


M 


ean of all the Groups, 


21 


25 ' 


32 


22 



When we look at this condensation of the observations in each table, 
we see, at once, that the greater part of our winds are but oscillations of 
the atmosphere, resembling, on a large scale, the land and sea breezes around 
the Gulf of Mexico, which compensate or balance each other every day and 
night, and do not imply a progressive motion. Still, such a movement is, no 
doubt, a reality; but the tables do not afford data for calculating it. We 
must now introduce the winds of the different quadrants, and examine them 
separately. This we shall do in the order of the card, and not of their 
relative prevalence ; beginning, therefore, with the south-east and ending 
with the north-east. If the other mode were adopted, the order, commencing 
with the least prevalent, would be south-east, north-east, south-west, and 
north-west; for such, as maybe seen in the table of percentage, is their 
order of prevalence. 

III. The South-East Wind. — The winds composing this quadrant 
make, of the whole, twenty-one per cent., or about one-fifth. In the 
southern group they make thirty per cent.; in the middle twenty-one; in 
the northern thirteen. Thus the relative prevalence of the winds of this 
quadrant diminishes from, the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. When 
the different stations of the southern group are compared with each other, 
we find a remarkable equality; Florida Reef, the highest (thirty-two), 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 575 

being only five above Pensacola — Cantonment Clinch — (twenty- seven) the 
lowest. In the middle group, however, the relative prevalence of the winds 
of this quadrant, at different places, varies much more widely. Thus, at 
Fort Gibson, according to the Army Register, they make sixty-four per 
cent., or nearly two- thirds of all that blow, and constitute the prevailing 
wind of every month of the year. This anomaly is so great, that I have 
omitted this post in constructing the table of percentage, supposing some 
error in the observations. Yet there are topographical causes which may 
give to the atmospheric currents, at that place, an extraordinary amount of 
south-eastern direction; and, as illustrating the mechanical influence of the 
surface of the earth, or the course of the wind, they should be mentioned. 
In connection with them, I will also refer to other geographical and hydro- 
graphical conditions, which deflect certain winds from the paths they would 
otherwise pursue. 

First. The Ozark Mountains, from fifteen hundred to eighteen hundred 
feet high, in the interior of the State of Missouri, constitute a barrier well 
fitted to arrest the course of the south-west wind ; which is reported, in the 
Fort Gibson table, as being at a lower per cent, than at any other station in 
the whole interior of the continent. Now, the course of the Arkansas River 
is to the south-east, through or near the southern side of those mountains ; 
and thus the south and south-west winds are deflected and largely mingled 
with the true south-east, which explains the anomaly. Second. Another 
anomaly is presented at Cincinnati : the general course of the Ohio River is 
to the west south-west, and its valley deflects the south-east and south 
winds from their course, and blending them with the south-west, raises its 
figure high, while it reduces the south-east correspondingly low ; the former 
amounting to thirty-eight per cent., the latter only to sixteen. Third. 
Council Bluffs, on the Missouri River, the course of which is to the south- 
east, has a higher per cent, than Jefferson Barracks, Fort Armstrong, or 
Fort Snelling, on the Mississippi, the course of which is directly from north 
to south. Fourth. At Fort Brady, near Lake Superior, the south-east- 
quadrant rises nine per cent, above the mean of the group — twenty-one ; and, 
therefore, merits attention. The general course of the river, or Strait Ste. 
Mary, connecting Lake Superior with Lake Huron, by a south-east direction, 
offers an obvious explanation ; which becomes entirely satisfactory when we 
connect with it the range of high hills, or rather low mountains, seen 
stretching nearly east and west, on the northern side, or to the summer 
leeward of the strait. Thus it is, that mountains and valleys deflect the 
lower currents of the atmosphere, and impose different names on what is 
essentially the same wind. 

Having thus explained the anomalies in this group, and other groups of 
stations, it may be said, in general terms, that from Cape Florida, where the 
outer trade-wind is felt, to the Polar Circle, the south-east wind diminishes 
in its relative prevalence. The manner in which the diminution is effected, 
I suppose to be this : From the warm surface of the Gulf of Mexico, which 
is closely pressed, on the west, by the Cordilleras of Mexico, the rarified air 



576 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

arises and flows over the continent toward the Polar Circle. At first these 
columns have a direction to the north-west; but, as they advance, they 
gradually lose it for one to the north, and, finally, to the north-east; 
becoming thus changed into south and south-west winds. This apparent 
change is, of course, to be ascribed to the diminishing velocity of the earth's 
surface, as we pass from the torrid to the frigid zone. But there is still 
another cause for the infrequency of the south-east wind, as we advance to 
the north. I refer to the Appalachian Mountains. Originating in the State 
of Alabama, in the thirty-third degree of latitude, and terminating on the 
coast of Labrador, near the fiftieth, these mountains constitute, between the 
Interior Valley and the warm Atlantic Ocean, a barrier from two thousand 
to four thousand feet high, over which the atmosphere of the latter does not 
often pass; while, far in the north, the tendency of the cold and dense air 
to flow to the south-east and overspread the surface of the same ocean, is so 
great, as to arrest the currents which might otherwise set in the opposite 
direction. 

In temperature the south-east wind is always warnvbut except, perhaps, 
near the Gulf, it does not bring the hottest weather ; when it prevails in the 
morning, and veers to the south-west, its temperature is high, and its 
humidity small ; but, if it continue through the day and night, clouds and 
rain are the consequence ; while, in winter, it often precedes or accompanies 
the deepest snows of the middle parts of the Vailey. While this is going 
on, it generally veers round to the south-west, but is sometimes suddenly 
arrested by the antagonistic north-west wind; or, if not arrested, is raised 
into the upper regions of the atmosphere, and lost to the view of the 
observer. This wind affects the barometer less than some others; never 
sinking it as low as the south-west, nor raising it as high as the north-west. 
It never blows a gale in the middle and higher latitudes, nor does it often 
generate electrical phenomena ; but, on the northern shores of the Gulf of 
Mexico, it does both. It is, indeed, the principal agent in those drivings of 
the water of the G-ulf, which produce deep inundations around the Balize 
and the city of New Orleans, or roll the waves of the Gulf over Santa 
Rosa Island into the Bay of Pensacola. 

IV. The South- West Wind. — The winds of this quadrant make twen- 
ty-five per cent., or a fourth part of all the winds of the Interior Valley. 
When we bring those for each station into comparison with the general 
mean, twenty-five per cent., we do not find the regular decrease, in advan- 
cing from south to north, that was found for the south-east wind. On the 
contrary, high and low per cents, are distributed throughout, apparently 
without order. Thus Florida Beef (twelve per cent.) and Winter Island 
(fourteen per cent.) are among the lowest, while Cantonment Clinch (thirty- 
six per cent.) and Fort Snelling (thirty-nine per cent.) are both high, and 
nearly equal. The highest of the whole, is Fort Howard, being forty-four 
per cent., but Toronto, in nearly the same latitude, is only twenty-six per 
cent. Yet, notwithstanding these and other irregularities, there is an order 
in the relative prevalence of the winds of this quadrant, which may be 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 577 

deduced from their ratios. Thus, the average of the five stations of the 
southern group is twenty-five per cent. ; of the eleven stations of the mid- 
dle group, thirty- one per cent. ; of the three stations of the northern group, 
seventeen per cent. The numbers twenty-five, thirty-one, and seventeen, 
express, then, the relative prevalence of the winds of this quadrant, in the 
hot, the temperate, and frigid zones of the Valley. Thus, it appears that 
they are preeminently the winds of the middle latitudes of the Valley. Thi s 
may be explained as follows. In the south, as we have seen, there is a great 
prevalence of south-west wind; much of this, before it reaches the middle 
latitudes, assumes, from the diminishing velocity of the earth's surface, a south- 
west course, and before reaching the polar circle, dies away, or is converted 
into a west or north-west wind, by the descent of the cold and dense atmos- 
phere of the Rocky Mountains. 

But there is another and greater cause of this prevalence, which I shall 
proceed to set forth. The winds of the south-west quadrant appear in two 
varieties, the arid, and humid, which must be considered under separate 
heads.* 

1. The Arid South-West Wind. — This wind begins in the morning, when 
the sun has been above the horizon two or three hours ; attains its maxi- 
mum from two to four in the afternoon : and subsides by sunset or soon 
afterward, when, in general, a dead calm ensues. The common time of 
commencement, is that morning hour, which has the mean heat of the twenty- 
four — its greatest velocity generally occurs during the highest heat of the 
day. It never blows but in fair weather. Its general prevalence is in the 
early part of spring, throughout the summer, and in early autumn. Yet it 
is sometimes felt in the depths of winter, when other winds are quiet, but 
does not then acquire the velocity which it shows in hot weather ; and pre- 
vails for a much shorter portion of the day. This wind, which so closely 
resembles the sea breeze of the Gulf of Mexico, does not consist of air 
brought from a distance, but is a simultaneous and fitful movement of the 
atmosphere over the surface of the continent, from south-east, south, or 
south-west, to north, or north-east. Thus, it begins and ends at the same 
time, under the same meridian ; but progressively from east to west, under 
the same parallel of latitude. There can be no doubt of its immediate de- 
pendence on the action of the sun upon the surface of the earth. The facts 
which have been cited, lead to this conclusion ; but, still further, it generally 
commences as a south-east wind, while the sun is yet east of the meridian, 
and veers to the south or south-west, with the progress of that luminary. In 
what manner the solar rays act upon the earth's surface to generate it, does 
not, to my mind, seem very obvious. Perhaps it is by warming the sides on 
which the solar rays impinge, of every tuberosity of the ground, and of every 
object standing upon it, while their opposite sides still retain the tempera- 
ture of the night. The effect of this warming must necessarily be to rarify 
the air in contact with the surfaces thus exposed, and produce upward 

* Drake's Picture of Cincinnati, 1815. 



578 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

currents ; these being established, the cold air on theunwarmed sides of the 
same objects, is put in horizontal motion, toward the base of the ascending 
currents. Thus, two movements are generated; and if we refer to the 
countless number of inequalities, including hills and forests, which are thus 
acted on, we may perhaps find in this operation a sufficient motive power for 
the effect in question. In support of this conclusion, two additional facts 
may be cited. First. It is well known, that when this wind blows with aug- 
mented velocity, it often raises light bodies to a considerable hight, indica- 
ting apparently, an oblique, upward current. Second. It blows chiefly near 
the surface of the earth, for the clouds (cumuli) which form in the atmos- 
phere, more on the days on which this wind prevails than any others, are 
commonly observed to be at rest. 

This dry south-west, is always a wind of high temperature. The days on 
which it occurs in the cold seasons are comparatively mild and genial. It 
prevails in the hottest days of summer, when the mercury ranges between 
90° and 100°; but cannot be regarded as the cause, so much as the effect, of 
the great heat ; and so far from adding to the heat and debility felt on those 
days, diminishes both, by promoting evaporation from the surface of the 
body. 

This wind does not, to any great extent, affect the barometer ; nor is it 
attended with any other rain than a thunder shower, which invariably termi- 
nates it for the day. On the contrary, it is the principal wind through the 
long droughts of summer and early autumn, when it prevails over all other 
winds of the card. In the year 1814, between the 25th of July and the 19th 
of August — twenty- six days — I saw it prevail on twenty-two days, and a part 
of three others — the north-west being the wind of one day. Of that period, 
eighteen days were fair, five cloudy, and three mixed. Six thunder showers 
were scattered through the twenty-six days. In the whole time, the barome- 
ter (uncorrected) oscillated between 29.34 in. and 29.70 in. — range only 36. 

During the reign of this wind, we sometimes feel, at evening twilight, a 
momentary breeze of hot air ; but a much more frequent phenomenon is a 
cool current at that hour or soon afterward, descending by the lateral ra- 
vines into a principal valley, where the difference of elevation between the 
valley and surrounding hills is considerable. This compensating descent of 
cooler air, analagous to the land breeze of the night along the Grulf of 
Mexico, suggests that the currents of the day, during the prevalence of our 
dry south-west, have an oblique direction upward, as already intimated, and 
are compensated by the descent of colder air, thus presenting a vertical 
rather than a horizontal oscillation. It is quite obvious, then, that the dry 
south-west is not a wind of progression. What proportion it bears to the 
humid variety is not known ; but, I am satisfied, that it prevails on a much 
greater number of days than the latter; and hope some of our practical 
meteorologists will make their comparative prevalence a subject of obser- 
vation. Meanwhile we may assert, that it is this variety which gives to the 
south wind so large a place in the registers kept in the interior or middle 
latitudes of the continent. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 579 

2. The Humid South- West Wind. — This variety differs widely from the 
last. It is not the wind of a single day, but generally continues throughout 
the twenty-four hours, and often for two or three clays. It is an occasional 
wind, and sets in at any hour of day or night. It sometimes unites itself 
with the dry south-west, which may be known by a continuance through the 
night. A turbid and, at length, cloudy state of the atmosphere, never fails 
to be developed by it ; and the clouds are not at rest, but move with a steady 
velocity in the same direction, with the currents at the earth's surface. Sooner 
or later, they send down rain, which is often copious and prolonged. In 
winter, deep snows occasionally fall from them, and sometimes deluges of 
rain, accompanied, as high up as the forty-fifth degree of latitude or still 
higher, with thaws and floods. The termination of this series of phenomena 
is, generally, in one of two modes. First. The wind veers to the west or 
north-west, the rains cease, the clouds are dissipated, the thermometer falls, 
and the barometer rises : Or, Second, an antagonizing north-east wind 
arrives, and the clouds are driven back, still, however, ncotinuing to be 
dissolved in rain ; the sky, at length, becomes fair, and the north-east, as a 
cool and comparatively dry wind, continues to blow for one or many days, 
when a calm succeeds. The heat of this wind is generally high; but the 
rain it brings cools the air, and refreshes all organized nature. In many 
instances it takes on the velocity of a stiff breeze ; and, occasionally, when 
it impinges against a north-west wind, a hurricane is generated. Electrical 
phenomena often attend its commencement, but, in general, are not of the 
most violent kind. 

Unlike the arid south-west, this wind always sinks the barometer. 
Indeed, the minima of that instrument are connected with it. This I have 
verified by the inspection of tables formerly kept by myself; and Professor 
Ray has made, as he informs me, the same observation. 

The humid south-west is unquestionably a wind of progression — a current 
passing from the warm surface of the Gulf, where it has become saturated 
with moisture, toward the polar regions. But it does not always preserve 
the same direction. In the lower latitudes it very commonly has a south 
course, and sometimes a south-east; in the middle latitudes it varies from 
south to west, still preserving its characteristic properties. It is even some- 
times so deflected, as to become more or less of a north-western wind ; but, 
when this happens, the rain soon ceases, a true north-wester sets in, and the 
clouds are dissipated. 

V. Winds of the Noetii-West Quadrant. — According to the table of 
percentage, the amount which represents these winds for the entire Valley, 
is thirty-two per cent.; making them nearly one-third of the whole. In 
the southern group, they only reach twenty per cent, or one-fifth; in the 
middle group twenty- eight, or more than a quarter; in the arctic forty-nine, 
or almost one half. We see, then, that these winds increase in prevalence 
as we go from south to north, at a still higher ratio than the antagonizing 
winds of the south-east quadrant, decrease through the same extent of 
continent; and their increase, if we compare the groups by their percentage, 



580 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i- 

and their mean latitudes, makes a near approach to uniformity. The north- 
west wind presents, like the south-west, two varieties, distinguishable chiefly 
by their duration. 

The transient north-west is the wind which attends or follows our thunder 
showers ; but its occurrence, in connection with them, is not invariable ; for 
some of them are accompanied by a south-west wind, and are not succeeded 
by a north-west. When this wind does not follow, the storm is generally 
repeated ; and, this occasionally happens day after day, at last winding up 
with a stiff north-west breeze. When the first movements of the storm are 
from the north-west, it is not often repeated on the same day or night. It 
was a correct suggestion of Volney,* that this wind consists of air which 
descends from the higher regions. It is always comparatively cold. It 
sinks the thermometer, raises the barometer, and dissipates the clouds, giving 
a bright sky. Thus it completes the vertical oscillation of the atmosphere, 
begun by the ascent of heated air, and restores the equilibrium. 

The other, and more 'permanent variety, is not a wind of diurnal oscilla- 
tion, and must be considered in reference to its efficient causes. 

1. As the atmosphere moves westwardly between the tropics, and, as the 
table of percentage shows, to some degrees of latitude, above the northern 
tropic, there must, in the higher latitudes, be a compensating movement to 
the eastward. 

2. In the south the heated Caribbean Sea and the G-ulf of Mexico, lie 
east of and near to high ranges of mountains, the cold and dense atmosphere 
of which readily slides down to the surface of these warm seas, whose at- 
mosphere is continually rising and flowing off toward the pole. 

3. As these currents traverse our Valley, they sink the barometer, as 
already stated, and thus invite upon it the colder air of the Rocky Moun- 
tains to its west. 

4. The Atlantic Ocean, from the West Indies to New Foundland, is warmed 
by the G-ulf stream, and also by the action of the sun, to a far greater depth 
in summer, than the interior of the continent ; and, therefore, in winter has 
a much higher surface heat, with a correspondingly greater rarefaction of the 
atmosphere resting over it, than of that resting over the continent, especi- 
ally its western Alpine regions ; consequently, there is a tendency in the 
atmosphere of the latter to flow down upon the former. Indeed, there can, 
for the western side of the Atlantic basin, be no other compensating sup- 
ply, than that afforded by the adjacent continent. 

Under the influence of these causes, this variety of our North-west is 
made a wind of progression, and often blows for several days in succession, 
while the other variety commonly endures for a few hours only. 

The greatest hights of the barometer are occasioned by this wind. The 
extreme oscillations of that instrument are produced by the sudden alterna- 
tion of this with the humid south-west. On the afternoon of the 1st 
of February, 1814, under the influence of this wind, the barometer, at Cin- 

* View of the Soil and Climate of the United States. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 581 

cinnati, sunk to 28.93 ; a change of weather took place, accompanied by a 
north-west wind, and, on the morning of the 4th, ^the barometer stood at 
29.95, having risin more than an inch. On the 10th, 11th, and 12th of May, 
of the same year, a southerly wind prevailing, the barometer, for three days, 
ranged between 28.80 and 29.00 ; the north-west wind then set in, and for 
the next three days it ranged between 29.30 and 29.60. 

Coming from a higher latitude and greater elevation, this wind is always 
relatively cold. The sudden depressions of temperature with which the 
people of the middle latitudes of the Valley are so familiar, are produced by 
this wind. The extreme depressions of the thermometer do not, in general, 
happen while the wind is still blowing, but in the calm which follows ; and 
the greatest cold, as yet recorded in the Valley, occurred during a calm. 
Thus, at Fort Reliance, in N. Lat. 62° 46', where for a week, in January 
1834, the mercury ranged between — 56° and — 70°, two-thirds of the obser- 
vations are reported calm. The day before and the morning of the last 
extraordinary depression, were entirely calm.* 

When the north-west and the humid south-west winds impinge against 
each other, the former at length predominating, it seems, to those who have 
not observed the antecedent phenomena, to bring rain or snow; but the 
precipitation is from the deflected south-west currents. The north-west is, in 
fact, essentially a dry and a drying wind, except where it blows over the 
northern lakes, the axis of which lies in its course between the forty-first 
and forty-eighth parallels. The causes of this dryness are easily understood. 
The low temperature of the atmosphere, resting on the Rocky Mountains, 
occasions the deposit of a large portion of its vapor in the form of snow ; 
and when it descends to traverse the great inclined plain, which stretches 
from their base to the Mississippi River, it rolls over the dryest part of the 
continent. In descending this broad and treeless desert, where but few 
objects rise up to retard its progress, it necessarily acquires great force ; and 
often becomes, indeed, the swiftest wind of the Valley, if we except that 
which constitutes our hurricanes. Hence, on the prairies of Missouri, Iowa, 
"Wisconsin, and Illinois, in a winter night, it is sometimes so piercing, as to 
destroy both man and beast when long exposed; although the latitude might 
not suggest the possibility of such a catastrophe. We must now study it 
in the southern latitudes. 

We have seen that the winds of the north-west quadrant^make a fifth or 
twenty per cent, of those which blow around the Gulf of Mexico. This is 
but four-fifths of the north-east and south-west, and but two-thirds of the 
south-east ; yet it is greater than, at first view, might have been expected. 
A clearing up of the difficulty may be found in the distinction which has 
been drawn between the transient and permanent winds of this quadrant. A 
large part of the winds which make up the twenty per cent, of the table 
were of the former variety: mere local breezes, following the numerous 
thunder showers of that region. The other variety, however, does prevail 

* Captain Back's Narrative. 



582 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

around the Gulf, even down to the Tropic of Cancer. In the states which 
rest on the Gulf, it occurs in the colder parts of every year ; but is less violent 
and rigorous on the eastern than the western side of that basin. In Texas, and 
south of that state in the tier r a caliente of Mexico, this wind is frequently 
of great force ; and so low in temperature, as to prove exceedingly chilling. 
It is not, however, until it reaches the smooth surface of the Gulf, the 
rarified atmosphere of which has contributed to its production, that it attains 
its greatest momentum. It then traverses the northern segment of the 
Gulf, and drives the waves upon the coasts and reefs of Cape Florida; on the 
recession of which it is not uncommon to find many fish that have perished 
apparently from the change of temperature in the shallow waters.* The 
currents which make up this wind are, by the inhabitants around the Gulf 
and the seamen who navigate it, called the Northers — los Nortes. Hum- 
boldt has given the following account of their prevalence at Vera Cruz : f 

" The north winds (los nortes), which are north-west winds, blow in the 
Gulf of Mexico from the autumnal to the spring equinox. These winds are 
generally moderate in the months of September and October ; their greatest 
fury is in the month of March; and they sometimes last to April. Those 
navigators who have long frequented the port of Vera Cruz, know the symp- 
toms of the coming tempest as a physician knows the symptoms of an acute 
malady. According to the excellent observations of M. Orta, a great change 
in the barometer, and a sudden interruption in the regular recurrence of the 
horary variations of that instrument, are the sure forerunners of the tempest. 
It is accompanied by the following phenomena. At first a small land wind 
(terral) blows from the west-north-west; and to this terral succeeds a 
breeze, first from the north-east and then from the south. During all this 
time a most suffocating heat prevails ; and the water dissolved in the air is 
precipitated on the brick walls, the pavement, and iron or wooden balustrades. 
The summits of the Pic d' Orizaba and the Cofre de Perote, and the moun- 
tains of Villa Rica, particularly the Sierra de San Martin, which extends 
from Tustla to Guasacualco, appear uncovered with clouds, while their bases 
are concealed under a vail of demi- transparent vapors. These cordilleras 
appear projected on a fine azure ground. In this state of the atmosphere 
the tempest commences, and sometimes with such impetuosity, that before 
the lapse of a quarter of an hour it would be dangerous to remain on the 
mole in the port of Vera Cruz. All communication between the city and 
the castle of S. Juan d'Ulloa is thenceforth interrupted. These north wind 
hurricanes generally remain for three or four days, and sometimes for ten or 
twelve. If the north wind change into a south breeze, the latter is very 
inconstant, and it is then probable that the tempest will recommence ; but if 
the north veers to the east by the north-east, then the breeze or fine weather 
is durable." 

It will have been remarked that, according to Humboldt, the northers 



*MS. of the late Commander Johnston, United States Navy. 
fPolitical Essay on New Spain, Vol. I, Book I, Chapter 3. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 583 

rage with the greatest fury in the month of March. This does not arise 
from the occurrence of the vernal equinox in that month, for, according to 
the same philosopher, they are generally moderate in the September, the 
month of autumnal equinox. Their violent prevalence in early spring, is to 
be ascribed to the difference between the temperature of the Gulf and the 
mountains having at that time reached its maximum ; while in autumn they 
vary much less in that respect. 

We must, in conclusion, ascend to the group of northern stations, lying 
between the sixty-sixth and seventieth degrees of latitude. The winds of 
this quadrant make, in that desolate region, about one-half, or forty-nine per 
cent, of all that blow. An inspection of the monthly tables of Parry and 
Ross shows that, like the other winds, these are exceedingly variable ; yet 
they indicate a progressive motion of the atmosphere from north-west to 
south-east. The winds of the northern semi-circle there amount to 
seventy per cent. — of the southern to thirty. The Arctic Circle is, in 
fact, almost at the terminating point of the tropical currents, which are 
flowing toward the pole, and the gelid air of the frigid zone is there on its 
way toward the equatorial regions. But, although moving southerly, and 
by the increasing velocity of the earth's surface, it might be expected to 
flow toward the south or the south-west, it rolls most of the time to a 
point east of south. This, doubtless, arises from the attractive influence of 
the Atlantic Ocean, which is known to maintain, in the same northern lati- 
tudes, a temperature far higher than the adjoining continent. 

VI. Winds of the North-East Quadrant. — An inspection of the table 
of percentage shows the winds of this quadrant to be less than those of the 
south-west and north-west quarters, but a fraction greater than the south- 
east; the former being twenty-two, the latter twenty-one per cent, of all 
that blow. When the groups of stations are compared, we find their amounts 
more uniform than those which represent the other winds. Thus, in the 
southern, the per cent, of prevalence is twenty-five, while that of the south-east 
is thirty; in the middle it is twenty, that of the south-east being twenty-one; 
in the northern twenty, that of the south-east thirteen per cent. Hence, 
both winds decrease in going north, but the south-east at the greater ratio, 
the difference between the amount of its southern and its northern per 
centage being seventeen, while the corresponding difference in the north- 
east percentage is only five. In the southorn group the north-east wind is 
equal to the south-west ; in the middle far less — in the northern much more. 
Compared with the north-west, it is greater in the southern group, much 
less in the middle, and far less in the northern. It appears, then, that this 
wind in the southern latitudes consists, in part, of currents moving south, 
which, by mingling with the outer trade-winds, are deflected toward the west. 
In fact, the winds of this group consist of air which is gravitating from the 
frigid zone in compensating currents. They are not divisible, like the 
south-west and north-west, into transient and more permanent. The length 
of time it blows, without ceasing, is various; but, in the middle latitudes, it 
seldom terminates in twenty-four hours; and sometimes continues for a 



584 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

week. In many instances it is preceded by a north-wect and north wind, 
when it generally sinks the barometer, and raises the thermometer a little. 
At other times it is preceded by a south-west wind, and then the barometer 
rises and the thermometer falls ; but, under the influence of this wind, the 
cold is never intense. On the Grulf it is apt to blow as a destructive gale, but 
over the continent it never attains to that velocity. It is essentially a humid 
wind, as appears from its not dissipating the clouds, which are borne on the 
south-west wind, as rapidly as they are dissolved when traversed by the 
north-west. It often precedes and accompanies rain, but this arises from its 
meeting the humid south-west. The rain or snow is, then, at the beginning of 
the north-easter; and it often continues for several days afterward, with a 
clear sky ; still, even then it produces a sensation of rawness not felt under 
a north-west wind of the same temperature, which sufficiently indicates its 
greater humidity. 

In conclusion, it may be said of this wind, that it is characterized by its 
intermediate qualities ; being not so cold, dry, heavy, and rapid as the north- 
west ; nor so warm, humid, light, and electrical as the south-west and south- 
east — with less of a fitful character than belongs to either. 

VII. The Winds of the Quadrants reduced to Semi- Circles. — The 
object of this induction is to obtain a knowledge of the relative prevalence 
of our eastern, western, southern, and northern winds. If the observations 
contained in the monthly tables had been so made, as to show the duration 
and velocity of every wind, a condensation of this kind would indicate the 
direction and rapidity with which the whole atmosphere of the Valley is 
moved. As it is, this generalization affords but the remotest approximation 
to such a result, yet, it answers a different end. It shows us the com- 
parative frequency of the eastern, western, southern, and northern winds in 
the different latitudes of the Valley. In forming such a table, the winds 
that blow on the cardinal points which divide a semi-circle, might be 
left out. For example, in determining the amount of easterly and 
westerly winds the south and north winds might be omitted, as belonging to 
neither. To divide each of those winds, however, and add their halves to 
the eastern and western, maintains the same relation between the two latter, 
and as this was done in forming the quadrants, I shall continue it here, using 
the percents which represent them, in constructing the following table. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 585 

Table showing, percentum, the relative frequency of the "Winds, 

CONDENSED INTO SeMI-CIRCLES. 



SOUTHERN GROUP. 



Eastern : S. E. 30 -j- N. E. 25 = 55 per cent. 
Western : S. W. 25 + N. W. 20 = 45 
Southern: S. E. 30 + S. W. 25 = 55 
Northern : N. W. 20 + N. E. 25 = 45 



MIDDLE GROUP. 



Eastern : S. E. 21 + N. E. 20 = 41 per cent. 
Western : S. W. 31 + N. W. 28 = 59 
Southern : S. E. 21 + S. W. 31 == 52 
Northern: N. W. 28 + N. E. 20 = 48 



NORTHERN GROUP. 



Eastern: S. E. lb + N. E. 20 = 33 per cent. 

Western : S. W. 17 + N. W. 49 = 66 

Southern: S. E. 13 + S. W. 17=30 

Northern: N. W. 49-f-N. E. 20 = 69 



MEAN OF THE WHOLE. 



Eastern 43 — Western 57 — Southern 46 — Northern 54. 



By the last line of this table we perceive that, taking the Interior Vallej 
as a whole, the western winds prevail over the eastern in the proportion of 
fifty- seven to forty- three ; and the northern over the southern in the pro- 
portion of fifty-four to forty- six. But when we examine the different groups 
of stations, there is considerable diversity. Thus, in the southern, up t© 
the thirty- second degree of north latitude, the eastern winds prevail 
over the western, in the proportion of fifty-five to forty-five, and the 
southern over the northern as fifty-five over forty-five. In the middle group, 
from the thirty- second to the forty- sixth parallel of latitude, the western 
winds prevail over the eastern as fifty-nine to forty-one — the southern over 
the northern as fifty-two to forty-eight. In the northern group, about the 
Arctic Circle, the western exceed the eastern in the proportion of sixty- six 
to thirty- three, that is, are twice as frequent; and the northern rise over the 
southern in the proportion of sixty-nine to thirty, or more than twice as 
much. All these results conform to principle ; for, in the south, the greater 
velocity of the earth's surface gives to the air which has glided down from 
the north, an apparent direction to the west, making it the highest of the 
whole ; and, as ^much of it is rising and flowing off toward the pole, the 
southern winds predominate over the northern. In the middle section, these 
currents are largely turned round toward the east, and give a preponderance 
to the western winds ; and the dry or arid south and south-west winds, which 
are generated by the action of the sun on the surface of the earth, raise the 
proportion of southerly winds, so as still to keep it above the northerly, not- 
withstanding they have increased. Finally, in the distant north, we arrive 
at a region whence the air is departing to the south, chiefly by way of the 
Atlantic Ocean ; and, there, the western winds exceed the eastern, by one 
38 



586 ' THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i< 

hundred per cent, of the latter, and the northern surpass the southern in a 
still higher proportion — all of which might have been expected. 

VIII. Calms. — Nearly all our observers have omitted calms. Of 
four thousand two hundred forenoon and afternoon observations on the com- 
mon vane, made by myself, at Cincinnati, from 1809 to 1814 inclusive, three 
hundred and sixty-eight, or nearly nine per cent., were calm. The calmest 
month was December — the windiest June, September, and October — equal.* 
Of eighteen thousand three hundred and thirty- eight hourly observations, 
continued through night and day, in the years 1841, '42, at Toronto, five 
thousand and seventy-eight were calm; making nearly twenty-eight per 
' cent.f The calmest month was August — windiest April. Of seventeen thou- 
sand six hundred and thirteen hourly observations, at Felix Harbor, under the 
direction of Captain Ross, in 1830, '31, two .thousand one hundred' and 
twenty were calm, making about thirteen per cent. The windiest month 
was September — the calmest March. J The difference between the two 
northern stations and Cincinnati, may be ascribed, in part at least, to the 
nocturnal observations at the former stations, for it is well known to every 
inhabitant of the Valley, that the wind blows more in the day than night ; 
and that the number of calm nights, in the course of the year, is much 
greater than of calm days. Among our winds there is, however, in this 
respect, considerable diversity. The land breeze of the evening, on the 
shores of the Oulf of Mexico, is succeeded by a morning calm. The dry 
south and south-west wind is followed, generally, by a calm night ; and the 
west or north-west wind, which succeeds aii afternoon thunder-storm, com- 
monly subsides in a few hours, and is followed by a calm. Even when these 
winds are of a more permanent character, they often cease or greatly abate 
at the going down of the sun ; but, at other times, continue with unmitigated 
violence throughout the night. The humid south-east, south, and south- 
west winds, blow through the night as well as the day ; and the north-east 
wind generally continues of the same force day and night. A dead calm 
often precedes a thunder-shower, and greatly increases the feeling of heat 
and exhaustion which ordinarily precede that phenomenon. A perfect and 
long-continued calm, such as is met with at sea, seldom occurs in our Valley; 
and, hence, in all our registers, the course of the wind, is found noted for 
a part, at least, of almost every day of the year. Calms are pleasant after 
we have been exposed, for some time, to high winds ; but their long continu- 
ance is, in reference both to health and comfort, undesirable. 

•IX. Good and Evil op our Winds! — The arid south-west, in the heats 
of summer, fans and cools the body. The humid, brings us clouds, which 
intercept the fiery beams of the sun, and refresh all organized nature with 
rain ; but in the latter part of winter, and in early spring, it brings forth 
vegetation before the proper time ; and by leading the imprudent to cast off 

* Picture of Cincinnati. 

t Observations made at the Mag. and Met. Observatory, p. 96. 

| Second Voyage. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 587 

their winter clothing too soon, subjects them to catarrhs, Vernal interinittents, 
and various phlegmasia?. The north-west wind terminates our settled 
rains, brings a fair sky, and invigorates the body, languishing under the heat 
of summer ; but it may be the exciting cause of autumnal fever, and when 
its blows fiercely after hot weather, generates a high degree of phlogistic 
diathesis. The north-east wind, meeting the humid south-west, acts as a 
cooler, and generates rain ; but its direct effects on the body are unfavorable, 
as it chills the surface, reproduces paroxysms of dyspepsia, generates catarrh, 
croup, and bronchitis, excites autumnal and yellow fever, in the predisposed, 
and awakens intermittents in the spring, where they have prevailed in 
autumn. Calms permit the exhalations from foul localities to accumulate in 
the atmosphere which rests over them ; but all winds operate to disperse and 
dilute them with purer air ; in doing which they may promote the salubrity 
of one spot, and diminish that of another. On the whole, the oscillations of 
the atmosphere are indispensable to a proper equilibrium of its various 
qualities, and to its beneficial influences on the growth and health of both 
plants and animals ; and, although they often do mischief to both, their utility 
greatly predominates. 



CHAPTER IV. 

AQUEOUS METEORS. 



SECTION I. 

RAIN AND SNOW. 

I. Tabular Yiew. — Following out the method pursued in the discussion 
of the temperature, atmospheric pressure, and winds of the Interior Valley, 
I have arranged into a general table, the results of observations made 
at different places, on the quantity of atmospheric water, which annually 
falls in the form of rain and snow. The table embraces thirty-two stations, 
lying between and including Key West in the Gulf of Mexico, and Toronto on 
the north side of Lake Ontario ; and, therefore, extending through twenty 
degrees of latitude. At eighteen of the stations, the mean quantity of rain 
in each month is given ; at the remaining fourteen, that of the year only. 
The stations have been thrown into groups which represent different regions. 
The quantity falling in the polar regions is unknown to me. The observa- 
tions made at a number of the stations are altogether reliable ; but there is 
reason to fear that many of the others are but approximations to the truth ; 
nevertheless, it seems better to use than reject them, as an error of an inch 
or two, in the year, is not of great moment in this branch of our inquiry. 
I presume that, in all cases, the quantity of melted snow is included under 
the head of rain. 



588 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



BOOK I. 





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590 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

II. Remarks on the Year. — The first thing which strikes the eye, when 
it rests on the foregoing table, is the unequal amount of rain, or rain and 
snow, in the different regions of the Valley. The smallness of the amount 
at Key West, 30.783 inches, will perhaps excite astonishment in those who 
are accustomed to think, that as we go south, the rains become more copi- 
ous. But we must recollect that Key West is a small island, which scarcely 
rises above the level of the Gulf, and that the nearest land, Cape Florida, is 
almost as depressed. We must also call to mind the prevalence of easterly 
winds at that place, which, although humid, find no elevated object, and but 
few cold currents, over the south-eastern surface of the Gulf, to condense 
their vapor into rain. They are, in fact, there augmented in temperature, 
and become still more highly charged with vapor, than before their arrival on 
the Gulf. In this condition, they arise, as from a great evaporating basin, 
and wheel toward the pole. When they reach the northern coasts of the 
Gulf, about the thirtieth parallel, they begin to traverse a cooler region ; the 
inequalities of temperature between land and water, begin to exert an influ- 
ence upon them ; and they are, frequently, met by northerly winds. Under 
these agencies, their vapor is condensed into copious rains. At Mobile, the 
amount which falls, is more than double that of Ke}?" West ; and the mean of 
all the stations around the northern arc of the Gulf, 56.190 inches,, is to that 
of Key West, as that number is to 30.783. This, in fact, is the rainy zone 
of the Interior Yalley; not only rising eighty-two per cent, upon Key West, 
but twenty-four per cent, over the average of the fourth group, the next high- 
est to the one we .are now considering. Much of the rain in this maritime 
zone, falls in showers; which are unequal in number and , copiousness; at 
places so near each other, that we should expect uniformity. Thus the dif- 
ference of Mobile and New Orleans, by simultaneous observations, in 1841- 
? 42, was no less than nineteen inches. Whatever allowance we can reason- 
ably make for errors of observation, we must still admit a great disparity. 
This inequality may, indeed, be announced as prevailing over the entire Val- 
ley ; of which the proofs will be cited as we advance. 

When we leave the Gulf coasts, and advance into the interior, keep- 
ing to the east of the Mississippi, the first and second stations, Huntsville 
and Nashville, show their southern position by averages, respectively, almost 
as high as the mean of the stations near the Gulf; but as we continue to 
the north, through the group No. IV, to which the two just mentioned be- 
long, we find the quantity lessening; yet the mean of the whole is only 10.7 
inches below that of the Gulf stations. When we ascend from the latter, on 
the western side of the Mississippi, through the third group, we find the 
most southern, Fort Towson, which, of the whole, lies nearest to the Gulf, to 
have the highest number, 46.73 inches. All the more northern stations, up 
to Fort Snelling, have much lower numbers : St. Louis, the highest, does not 
reach 40 inches, and Fort Gibson, the most western and southern of the 
group, is only 30.64. Fort Smith, in the same region, is 35.25. These dis- 
tant western posts are nearly in the same latitude with Huntsville and 
Nashville, on the eastern side of the Mississippi, which are respectively rep- 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 591 

resented by 54.89 and 55.00, or about twenty-two inches more. St. Louis 
on the eastern margin of the group, is about equal to Portsmouth, but more 
than seven inches below Cincinnati. Fort Leavenworth, in the same lati- 
tude with Marietta, is nearly eight inches behind it, and Fort Crawford, but 
little north of Steubenville, is six inches lower. The mean of the eastern 
group is 45.317, of the western, 35.017 — difference, 10.3. Now this an- 
nual difference of ten inches of rain and snow between the regions on the 
opposite sides of the Mississippi, is a deduction from too many observations, 
to permit the conclusion, that it can be the result of accidental or tempo- 
rary causes; and, therefore, it presents an interesting subject of inquiry, to 
which we may proceed. 

It cannot be doubted that nearly all the rain which falls in the interior of 
our Valley, is brought from the Gulf of Mexico by our southerly winds. 
When they reach the middle latitudes, a cooler atmosphere condenses a por- 
tion of their vapor into rain, or snow; and they often meet with north-east 
currents, which greatly increase the condensation. Having such a source, 
the rains will be most copious, over those places which lie most directly in 
the track of the Gulf winds ; which are the stations between the Missis- 
sippi and the Appalachian Mountains, in the States of Alabama, Mississippi, 
Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. When we cross the Mississippi, 
and advance into the west, every mile carries us further from that humid, 
south-west wind, which has traversed, or started from the surface of the Gulf 
of Mexico ; and, of course, the quantity of rain suffers diminution. We enter 
a region which becomes dryer and dryer, the further it is penetrated; and 
beyond the hundred and second meridian, as Doctor Gregg has informed me, 
scarcely ever refreshed by evening or morning dews. The rivers of that 
side of the Interior Yalle}^ testify to the deficiency of rain, for, in propor- 
tion to the extent of surface which they drain, they are fewer, and less abun- 
dant in water, than those on the eastern side of the Mississippi; although 
most of them have the advantage of originating in the Rocky Mountains. 
Moreover, the superficial parts of that region are more sandy and bibulous, 
than those on the eastern side of the Mississippi, and, therefore, a greater 
proportion of the water which falls, sinks into the earth. Thus both geo- 
graphical position and geological constitution, contribute to an aridity which 
must continue, until the state of the surface is changed, or the Gulf of Mex- 
ico is removed further west, or the Rocky Mountains sunk so low, as to admit 
the winds of the Pacific Ocean. This dryness has sometimes been ascribed 
to the absence of forests : but why are they absent? They are said to have 
been burnt up by the Indians. The annual burnings, however, do not de- 
stroy the woods in the humid, river valleys of those immense plains ; and 
the Indians were once more numerous on the eastern side of the Mississippi 
than the western, and yet the forests remained. The truth is, that if the 
desert had ever been overspread with a vigorous forest, it would have main- 
tained and perpetuated itself. The influence of trees in producing rain, is, 
perhaps not very great; but their power of preserving the moisture of the 
soil in which they grow, is unquestionable; for they intercept the rays of the 



592 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

sun, retard the velocity of the winds, and thus diminish the rate of evapora- 
tion and drying. They may augment the depth of rain — they certainly se- 
cure to the soil a greater proportion of what falls, especially in summer when 
it is most needed. 

We come now to the fifth and last group of stations, those which lie 
round the Northern Lakes. The mean of thirteen stations is 33.360, which 
is the lowest of the whole. The highest, Fort Howard, only reaches 38.830 
— the lowest, Pottsdam, falls to 28 inches. We should not, I think, have 
expected to find the quantity of rain so small in this lacustrine region ; yet 
there seems no just reason for doubting the accuracy of the observations, 
most of which were continued through a long period of years. One cause 
of the diminished amount, in this region, compared with the region lying 
between it and the Gulf of Mexico, is, doubtless, its greater distance from 
the Gulf — another, its higher latitude; which brings an increasing preva- 
lence of dry, north-west wind. The same quantity of rain in this region 
can maintain the moisture of the earth much longer than in that west of the 
Mississippi; for, first, less of it sinks deep below the surface; second, the 
power of the sun is diminished by the higher latitudes; third, evaporation 
from the lakes keeps the atmosphere so replenished with moisture, that evap- 
oration from the surface of the adjacent land is retarded. The effect of 
lacustrine evaporation is rendered manifest, by the girdle of lofty forest trees, 
which surrounds every lake, and beyond which, at the distance of a few 
miles, we frequently enter extensive prairies. These forests bear to the 
lakes, the same relation which the trees along the rivers west of the Missis- 
sippi, bear to them. 

III. Distribution through the Year. — The distribution of rain and 
snow, through the months and seasons, at eighteen stations, is presented in 
the foregoing table ; but a further induction is necessary to their compari- 
son with each other ; I have, therefore constructed a subordinate table, 
which shows the months of maxima and minima, and, likewise, that which, at 
each station, approaches nearest to the mean month of the year. The table 
also presents, for each station, a quarterly mean, and likewise, a quarterly 
mean for each group of stations, an average quarter, or equal fourth part, of 
the whole, being prefixed as a term of comparison. By this method, and 
the use of the signs plus and minus, the eye at once discovers which are 
the rainy, and which the dry seasons, at every place, and for every group of 
places. 



PART II. J 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



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594 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

We see from this table that there is no particular month which, at a ma- 
jority of the stations, comes nearest to a mean month for the year. July is 
that month for six, or one-third of the stations. They are not confined to 
one region, but extend from Key West to Fredonia, on the shores of Lake 
Erie. November is the month, at four places, three of which are in the 
south, the fourth in latitude 39°. March occurs once in the first and twice 
in the second group. April, September, and October, each occur once. 
January, February, May, June, and December, are not the mean months of 
any station. The only generalization which the table permits, is, that the 
mean months fall chiefly in summer and autumn, eight occurring in the former 
and six in the latter season, from July to November inclusive ; while the 
remainder and larger part of the year has but four. 

The months of greatest rain, are still more dispersed through the calendar — 
ten out of twelve being found in the column of maxima. June occurs four 
times, and all the stations are in the middle latitudes. The column of 
minima shows that, at seven stations, February has less rain that any other 
month. They are dispersed from south to north. October and December 
are, respectively, the dry months at three stations. Thus February and 
June stand in some degree of antagonism. 

At four out of the five groups of stations, winter brings less rain than the 
average quarter of the year. The exception is found in the group which 
embraces New Orleans. Spring is above the mean quarter in three of the 
groups — below at two ; but here, again, the difference is not connected with 
latitude. Summer is above at every station, showing that throughout the 
Valley it is the rainy season. Autumn is above in two and bplow in three; 
showing that next to winter it is the dryest. If we enumerate the seasons 
in the order of their comparative raininess, beginning with the least, they 
stand— winter, autumn, spring, summer. It should not surprise us to learn, 
that so much rain falls in summer, notwithstanding the air then seems so dry 
and the streams fall so low. The warmth of the surface of the earth, at 
that season, causes a rapidity of evaporation unknown in the other quarters 
of the year; and the high temperature of the air admits of its receiving a 
great quantity of vapor, without becoming moist to our feelings. Much of 
this is thrown down in autumn, when the rate of terrestrial evaporation is 
every day diminishing ; so that winter becomes the least rainy season of the 
whole, except in the group around the Grulf of Mexico, where that season, 
as might be expected, takes the place of autumn. 



SECTION II. 

CLEAR, CLOUDY, RAINY, AND SNOWY DAYS. 
I. We cannot infer the relative number of clear, cloudy, and rainy days, 
from knowing the relative quantities of rain and snow which fall at different 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 595 

places ; for a large fall of rain, in the course of the year, is not incompatible 
with a great number of fair days. On the other hand, there may be a great 
deal of cloudy weather, with much drizzling, and yet the annual quantity of 
rain may be comparatively small. It is necessary then to ascertain from 
observation the state of the weather as to cloudiness, and the frequency of 
rain and snow. Nothing is more difficult, however, than to assign the pro- 
portions of clear and cloudy weather, seeing that many days in every month 
of the year wear such an aspect that while one observer might record them 
as being clear, another would write them down cloudy. Then, again, the 
canopy of clouds may, on some days, be much thicker and more impervious 
to the rays of the sun than others, and yet both will be recorded in the 
same language: Sometimes, moreover the clouds will float very low, at 
other times very high in the atmosphere, when their influence on the radi- 
ation of heat from the earth will be very different, as will also the amount of 
caloric which they return, by radiation, upon the earth; yet this will not 
appear from the record. Still further, clouds have different forms and 
aspects, the results of the mode in which the vapor of which they are com- 
posed, is set free and aggregated; but these forms, of which the elementary 
types are few and simple, have, in most instances, not been recorded ; finally, 
observations have seldom been made in the % night. In reference to that 
portion of the twenty-four hours, we know, with accuracy, but little on this 
point ; yet, I am persuaded, that in the middle latitudes, at least, the nights 
are less cloudy and rainy than the days, 

In the following table I have attempted to give such an abstract of the 
observations, made in different parts of the Valley, as will show the propor- 
tions of clear and cloudy weather, and the number of rains and snows ; but, 
I fear, that the larger portion of the observations are not entitled to full 
confidence. In most of the tables there are two columns, which are headed 
clear and cloudy ; in several a third, entitled variable or mixed. In these 
cases I have divided the numbers equally, distributing them under the two 
former heads, thereby augmenting both, and making them, when united, 
equal to the whole number of days in the year. Many of the observers 
have not included the days of rain and snow in the column of cloudy days, 
which, of course, has been done in constructing the table. The stations 
have been arranged into the same groups, as those of the table, giving the 
quantity of rain. 



596 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



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PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



599 



II. I Lave not attempted to form a tabular view of results from the 
foregoing table. Its deficiencies and anomalies are too many to warrant 
such a generalization; yet there are a few conclusions which may be drawn 
from it, and held subject to future correction. 

1. In regard to the number of clear and fair days in the mean year, in 
the different groups of stations, we find for five stations, around the Gulf of 
Mexico — Group II — the number is two hundred and thirteen. This ex- 
cludes Natchez and New Orleans, which, included, would reduce the average 
to one hundred and sixty-eight. But, at the former, the number reported is 
only forty-three — at the latter, seventy. These numbers must refer to days 
absolutely cloudless ; indeed, Mr. Lillie, the New Orleans observer, tells 
us so, in regard to that place. Such observations cannot be compared 
with those which are generally recorded. Group II — region west of the 
Mississippi — gives, as the average of five stations, two hundred and twelve 
clear days. Group IV — east of the Mississippi — presents, as the mean of 
five stations, one hundred and ninety-eight. Group V— region of the 
Lakes — affords an average, for six stations, of one hundred and sixty- seven. 
Thus we find that the number of fair days increases as we go to the south- 
west from the Northern Lakes. 

2. The number of rainy days at Key West, Group I, is ninety-two ; the 
average number of Group II, around the Gulf, is ninety-four ; of Group III, 
west of the Mississippi, seventy; of Group IY, east of that river, unknown; 
of Group Y, around the Lakes, one hundred and one. Thus the region of 
the Lakes has more cloudy weather, and a greater number of rains or snows, 
than any other. But it is when we compare that region, with the gre^t prai- 
ries, west of the Mississippi, that we find the highest differences. The for- 
mer has not less than forty-five clear days more than the latter, and thirty- 
one fewer days of rain or snow; while the depth of water, falling from the 
atmosphere, in the two regions is nearly the same. Of all the Lake stations, 
Fort Brady, east of Lake Superior, has the greatest number of cloudy, 
rainy, and snowy days. It will be instructive to compare them with Fort 
Snelling, on the Mississippi, which lies nearly in the same latitude : 





Clear. 


Cloudy. 


Rainy. 


Snowy. 

~~i 6U0 
26.5 


Rainy 
and 

Snowy. 


Brady, 
Snelling, 


145.8 
218.3 


217.5 
147.0 


78.2 
53.7 


138.2 
80.2 



In this comparison, we find the proportions of clear and cloudy days re- 
versed : while the number of rainy days at Brady is fifty per cent, greater 
than at Snelling, and those of snow, upward of a hundred per cent. more. 
We may extend the comparison, by placing a station on the south coast of 
Lake Erie, by the side of one on the Missouri River, varying from it, in lat- 
itude, but one degree. 



600- 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



Fredonia, 
Council Bluffs, 



Clear. 


Cloudy. 

IMO 

129.0 


Rainy. 


Snowy. 


Rainy 

and 

Snowy 

101.2 

50.7 


166.0 
236.0 


68.7 
35.6 


32.5 
15.1 



If we make a large allowance for inaccuracies of observation, there is still 
left enough of disparity between these numbers, to show that the great 
plains have a far brighter sky and dryer atmosphere than the Lakes. 

In each group, the months having the greatest and least number of clear, 
cloudy, and rainy days, are respectively the following : 



Group I, 
" II, 
" III 
" IV, 

" V, 



GREATEST. LEAST. 
1 


Clear. 


Cloudy. 


Rainy. 


Clear. 


Cloudy. 


Rainy. 


Oct. 
Aug. 
Oct. 
July. 


July. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Dec. 


Sept. 
July. 

May. 

Sept. 


July. 

Nov. 
Dec. 
Nov. 


Nov. 
Aug. 
Oct. 
July. 


April. 

Oct. 

Aug. & 
Sep. 

Feb. 



III. The first snow mentioned in the table, is at Cantonment Clinch, 
Pensacola Bay, in latitude 30° 31'. At Fort Jesup, a degree further 
north, it is noted as occurring in January and February. We may, perhaps, 
take the thirty-second degree, as that at which it occurs in every winter 
month. As we advance north, the number of snowy days regularly in- 
creases. At Fort Snelling, snow falls in all the month of the year, except 
June, July, August, and September. At Fort Brady, in every month, but 
the three summer. At the Arctic Circle,* where the number of cloudy 
days in the year amounts to two hundred and twenty-three, it snows in 
every month, and rains only in June, July, and August. Thus the sixty- 
sixth parallel reverses the order of the thirty-second. The loss of sixty 
degrees of mean temperature, works out this change, in the relations of 
rain and snow. Below the fortieth parallel, it never lies on the ground 
throughout the winter months — above that latitude, as far as Lake Supe- 
rior, it is often dissolved by warm rains, and leaves the earth uncovered 
in the midst of winter. 

The aggregate depth of snow in the different latitudes of the Valley, has 
not been determined. Mr. McCord, from observations continued for ten 
years, states it, for Montreal, at 69.7 inches, or nearly six feet. In that 
period, it varied from 47.7 in. to 107.6 in., or more than a hundred per cent. 
A similar range is observed everywhere south of that city. 



* Parry's Second Voyage. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 601 

SECTION III. 

HUMIDITY. 

I. The Dew Point. — As the dryness or moisture of a climate, cannot 
be inferred from the quantity of rain which falls, nor even from the relative 
number of clear and cloudy days, recourse must be had to hygrometric ob- 
servations. Of these, few have, as yet, been made, within the geographi- 
cal limits assigned to this work. In former times, I made observations at 
Cincinnati, with the expansible hygrometers of that day, but such records 
are now of little value. 

It is known to all the world, that air, which does not feel damp nor impart 
moisture to the bodies immersed in it, may be made to do both, by lowering its 
temperature. Now, when two volumes of air, having the same sensible heat, 
are subjected to cooling, the one which first begins to deposit moisture on 
the refrigerator, contains the greater quantity of water, and is said to have 
the higher dew point. The range through which the thermometer falls, be- 
fore the dew appears, is called the complement of the dew point. The less 
vapor there is in air of the same temperature, the greater will be the num- 
ber of degrees in the complement, el vice versa. When air feels clamp, and 
wets the bodies with which it is in contact, it is saturated with vapor ; and 
then the complement of the dew point is annihilated. If a reduction to a 
small extent, say five degrees, cause the condensation of vapor, the comple- 
ment is five degrees; if the reduction must be thirty degrees, before that 
phenomenon will show itself, that number expresses the complement. If air, at 
the temperature of thirty-two degrees, be saturated with vapor, it is moist 
to our senses ; but if its temperature be raised, it will feel dry; and if, with 
the increase of temperature, up to seventy-two degrees, for example, there 
should be no addition of water, it comes to feel as if it contained none, al- 
though the absolute quantity continues the same. 

It is incorrect to speak of the capacity of air for holding water in solu- 
tion, for evaporation goes on more rapidly as the air is less dense. Wind, or 
air in motion, promotes evaporation, by carrying away the vapor which hov- 
ers over the surface from which it has arisen. Caloric, in short, is the cause 
of vapor, and the quantity which can exist in any portion of the atmos- 
phere, in such a state as not to impart moisture, or be in any manner percep- 
tible to our senses, is determined by the temperature ; but as the air into 
which the vapor rises, and the vapor itself, will necessarily have the same 
temperature, it is common to speak of the capacity of air for holding vapor 
in solution. This capacity increases at a higher ratio, than the increase of 
temperature. Thus, starting from any point of Fahrenheit's scale, it is 
found, that for every twenty degrees of elevation, the quantity of vapor ne- 
cessary to saturate the air, is doubled. 

If water be passed up the tube of a barometer, into the vacuum over the 
column of mercury, it expands into vapor, and sinks the column. If heat 
be applied, the rarefaction of the vapor causes a further descent of the mer- 
cury. By experiments of this kind, the expansive force or pressure, gener- 



602 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



ally called tension of vapor, for every degree of temperature, has been 
determined. 

The following table shows the quantity of vapor necessary to the satura- 
tion of a cubic foot of air, at every degree of temperature from — 13° to 
-|- 95°, of Fahrenheit's scale ; and also the tension for the same degrees. It 
is constructed from two tables in Kaemtz's Course of Meteorology. I have 
reduced the volume of air from a cubic metre to a cubic foot, and brought 
the weight of vapor from grammes to grains troy, and the degrees of tem- 
perature from the centigrade scale to that of Fahrenheit. A similar trans- 
lation has been made of what relates to the tension of vapor, the scale of 
the thermometer being changed, and the barometric hights being given in 
decimals of inches, instead of millimetres. The calculations of the first 
part of the table are by Kaemtz, from his own experiments; those of the 
second part, are by August, from the experiments of Dalton. 



TABLE 

Of the Weight op Vapor, in Grains Troy, required to saturate an 
English Cubic Foot op Air, with the corresponding Tension op Va- 
por, in English Inches ; at every degree op Fahrenheit's Thermome- 
ter, from — 13° to -4-95°. 



Degrees 


Gs. troy 


Tension 


Degrees 
of Fah- 


of Fah- 


in cubic 


in Eng. 


renheit. 


foot. 


inches. 


renheit. 


6~~ 






o 


—13 


0.0406 


0.0303 


4-15 


12 


.0425 


.0316 


16 


11 


.0445 


.0329 


17 


10 


.0466 


.0344 


18 


9 


.0488 


.0361 


19 


8 


.0510 


.0381 


20 


7 


.0529 


.0398 


21 


6 


.0545 


.0414 


22 


5 


.0572 


.0432 


23 


4 


.0601 


.0452 


24 


3 


.0623 


.0476 


25 


2 


.0647 


.0498 


26 


1 


.0679 


.0513 


27 


Zero. 


.0699 


.0532 


28 


+ 1 


.0701 


.0556 


29 


2 


.0735 


.0581 


30 


3 


.0790 


.0607 


31 


4 


.0833 


.0635 


32 


5 


.0872 


.0663 


33 


6 


.0905 


.0687 


34 


7 


.094(; 


.0714 


35 


8 


.0995 


.0748 


36 


9 


.1036 


.0783 


37 


10 


.1071 


.0818 


38 


11 


.1107 


.0856 


39 


12 


.1144 


.0895 


40 


13 


.1196 


.0934 


41 


14 


.1253 


.0974 


42 



Gs.troy Tension 

in cubic in Eng 

foot. | inches. 



0.1303 0.1015 
.1354 .1053 
.14071 .1097 
.1462 1 .1143 
.1518 .1194 
.1580' .1244 
.1645' .1294 
.1713 .1346 
-1780J .1398 
.185l! .1457 
.1923, .1517 
.2003' .1577 
.2081 ! .1639 
.2157! .1702 
.2232 .1768 
.2307 .1836 
.2388 .1909 
.2471 .1984 
.2553 .2062 
.2639 .2142 
.2742 .2227 
.2844 .2313 
.2946 .2400 



Degrees 
of Fah- 
renheit. 



.3057 
.3174 
.3284 
.3393 
.3510 



.2492 

.2586 
.2683 

.2781 
.2891 



+43 
44 
45 
46 
47 
48 
49 
50 
51 
52 
53 
54 
55 
56 
57 
58 
59 
60 
61 
62 
63 
64 
65 
66 
67 
68 
69 
70 



Gs.troy 

in cubic 

foot. 



0.3629 
.3759 
.3887 
.4012 
.4144 
.4280 
.4437 
.4599 
.4757 
.4916 
.5074 
.5240 
.5419 
.5602 
.5787 
.5987 
.6191 
.6374 
.6562 
.6774 
.6990 
.7214 
.7448 
.7688 
.7934 
.8182 
.8436 
.8693 



Tension Degrees 
in Eng. of Fah- 
inches. Srenheit. 



0.3001 
.3113 

.3229 
.3347 
.3471 
.3600 
.3743 
.3889 
.4018 
.4151 
.4299 
.4448 
.4599 
.4764 
.4938 
.5109 
.5279 
.5463 
.5649 
.5850 
.6047 
.6240 
.6438 
.6642 
.6890 
.7150 
.7397 
.7646 



+71 
72 
73 
74 
75 
76 
77 
78 
79 
80 
81 
82 
83 
84 
85 
86 
87 
88 
89 
90 
91 
92 
93 
94 
95 



Gs.troyjTension 

in cubic in Eng. 

foot, inches. 



0.8958 
.9231 
.9518 
.9818 
1.0126 
1.0431 
10735 
.1.1062 
1.1392 
1.1727 
1.2071 
1.2429 
1.2796 
1.3169 
1.3546 
1.3924 
1.4341 
1.4762 
1,5199 
1.5622 
1.6047 
1.6496 
1.6962 
1.7428 
1.7894 



0.7893 

.8166 

.8437 

.8710 

.8986 

.9245 

.9500 

.9856 

1.0210 

1.0555 

1.0899 

1.1242 

1.1597 

1.1962 

1.2342 

1.2726 

1.3130 

1.3538 

1.3962 

1.4393 

1.4837 

1.5298 

1.5772 

1.6253 

1.6735 



Different methods have been invented, for ascertaining the dew point. If 
a lump of ice be thrown into a bright, metallic pitcher, containing water, 
dew or moisture, will in a short time, begin to be deposited from the air, on 



part ji.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 603 

the outside of the vessel. The temperature of the immersed thermometer 
at that moment, is called the dew point ; and the difference between it, and 
the temperature of the air, is the complement of the dew point. By a ref- 
erence to those figures, in the table, which correspond with the two found in 
the experiment, the weight of the vapor then in the atmosphere, with its ten- 
sion, both corresponding to the dew point, may be seen ; and, also, how 
much more would be required to saturate the air, at the temperature which 
it then has. 

Another method of determining the same thing, is to observe the temper - 
ture of the air, and then wrap the bulb of the thermometer with some frag- 
ments of thin muslin, or locks of cotton, and after wetting it with water, to 
hold it in the wind, or swing it in the air, till the mercury ceases to fall. 
The cessation, indicates that no further evaporation is going on, for the tem- 
perature of the water around the bulb, has been reduced to the point at 
which the air can receive no. more vapor from any source. Having ascer- 
tained the lowest degree to which the wet bulb can be reduced, the difference 
between it, and the temperature of the air, must be multiplied by one hun- 
dred and three, and the product divided by the temperature of the wet bulb ; 
lastly, the quotient must be subtracted from the temperature of the air, 
and the remainder is the dew point. If the air be below the freezing point, 
the bulb of the thermometer must be dipped in water before being swung, 
when a thin pellicle of ice will form over it, from which the evaporation will 
take place.* 

I hope those physicians who are familiar with these elementary matters, 
will pardon their introduction, which has been done under the impression 
that many of our brethren have not studied this subject, and have not even 
the necessary books. 

II. Moisture. — From what has been said, we perceive that the abso- 
lute quantity of vapor in the atmosphere, if it were always saturated, would 
be in proportion to its temperature, and would, therefore, decrease from the 
tropical to the polar circle — from July to January — and from the maximum 
heat of the afternoon to the minimum heat of the following morning. If, 
however, it be not saturated, it may, at a high temperature, contain no more 
vapor than that which has a much lower temperature, but is saturated. As a 
general fact, the absolute quantity, is far greater in the warm than the cold 
latitudes ; and yet the atmosphere of the latter, may be the damper of the 
two, because it may approach nearer to saturation. 

The nature of the surface over which the air rests, not less than its tem- 
perature, exercises an influence on the absolute quantity of vapor. 

In our climatic geography, there are five great regions, which may be pre- 
sumedrto differ widely from each other in their absolute quantities of atmos- 
pheric vapor ; and also in the dew point complement. They are, first, the 
Gulf of Mexico; second, the region west of the Mississippi River; third, 



* Espy on Storms. 



604 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

the region east of that river, between the Gulf and Lakes ; fourth, the Lakes 
themselves ; fifth, the Arctic regions. Let us consider them in succession. 

1. The Region of the Gulf. — The atmosphere resting over the Gulf, and 
over its coasts, and the estuaries and deltas of its rivers, is constantly near the 
point of saturation; although from its high temperature, a large amount of 
vapor is necessary to that condition. Thus, the mean annual temperature of 
the thirtieth parallel, is seventy degrees, at which point, the quantity of vapor, 
which, according to the table, is necessary to the saturation of a cubic foot of 
air, is 0.8693 ; while at the thirty-ninth parallel, where the mean annual heat is 
53°, the amount of vapor required to saturate the same quantity of air, 
is only 0.5074. Hence, around the Gulf, there is not only an impregnation of 
the atmosphere, nearly up to the point of saturation, but the absolute quan- 
tity of vapor is great. The dew point is always high, and its complement 
small. In every season of the year, the loss of a few degrees of tempera- 
ture, is sufficient to cause the condensation of vapor, and render the air moist. 
When the wind blows over the interior of the continent from the Gulf, it 
brings with it this great amount of vapor ; and coming into colder climates, 
which have a lower dew point, the atmosphere is at first made damp, then 
hazy, and at last rainy. During the winter, the heat of the Gulf keeps up, 
while that of the inland regions becomes greatly reduced; and in the spring, 
the winds from the former have their vapor condensed in passing over the 
latter, and hence the copious rains of that season. At midsummer, currents 
from the Gulf are still passing to the north ; but the air over the continent is 
so hot, that it can receive and retain much of their vapor, in addition to wha^ 
it already possesses. In autumn, the continental atmosphere is cooled, and 
then the southern currents send down, in the form of rain, a liberal quantity 
of their vapor. Hence there are vernal and autumnal floods in our rivers. 
If the Gulf of Mexico were filled up, the winds from that region would have 
a high temperature, with a low dew point, and would shed upon the interior 
but little rain — the condensation from the difference of temperature, would 
not reach the dew point. 

2. Region West of the Gulf and the Mississippi. — The great inclined 
plain west of these waters, stands in opposition to the region of the Gulf. 
Its southern latitudes are as warm, as those of the northern curve of the Gulf; 
and even for ten or fifteen degrees further north, the summers are almost as 
hot as those of the latter region. The temperature is such as would admit 
of a high dew point ; but the surface does not afford water for copious evapo- 
ration; and the air seldom approaches the state of saturation — is generally 
capable of receiving more vapor, and feels dry. The mountains to the west, 
are equally deficient in sources of vapor, and their low temperature causes 
the precipitation in the form of snow and frost, of so great a quantity, that the 
atmosphere over them has a dew point still lower, than the atmosphere of th^ 
plain. When the winds of the Gulf traverse that region, much of their va- 
por is required to bring its atmosphere to the point of saturation, and less is 
left to be precipitated in the form of rain or dew. On the eastern margin 
of the plain, near the Mississippi River, this is not the case, for the evapora- 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 605 

tion from the broad and watery trough of that river, keeps up the atmos- 
pheric vapor; but on advancing toward the mountains, the quantity of 
vapor becomes so small, that it remains uncondensed during the minimum tem- 
perature of the summer night, and dew does not form. In autumn, how- 
ever', when the temperature sinks still lower, saturation is reached, and 
vapor is then deposited in the form of hoar frost. 

These facts disclose to us the cause of the dryness, and the drying quality, 
of our west, and north-west winds. The absolute quantity of their vapor 
is small, much less than, at their temperature, they are capable of contain- 
ing ; and hence, when they roll over the eastern half of the Valley, they take 
from it a large quantity of water. By the vulgar, their coldness is supposed 
to be the cause of their drying power, and hence they speak of freezing 
things dry ; but if they came with the same small, absolute quantity of va- 
por, and had a high temperature, their drying power would be far greater. 
The winds which possess this power in the highest degree, are those which 
blow from a southern, sandy desert. They come with a low dew point, while 
their heat gives them a capacity for sustaining one much higher. 

3. Region East of the Mississippi, between the Gulf and Lakes. — The 
geological, hydrographical, and botanical conditions of this region, conspire 
in affording more vapor to the atmosphere, than the region beyond the Mis- 
sissippi. The south-west winds which traverse it, come from the Gulf, 
much oftener than those which traverse the more western plains. Finally, 
the north-east winds come almost saturated with vapor, afforded by Davis's 
Strait, the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the Northern Lakes. Under such 
circumstances, its atmosphere is of necessity more humid, has a higher dew 
point, and a complement of shorter range, than the region to the west of the 
Mississippi, between which and the region of the Gulf, it may be regarded as 
holding an intermediate position. 

4. Region of the Lakes. — Here is abundance of water, but the temper- 
ature, compared with that of the Gulf, is low; and the absolute quantity of 
atmospheric vapor is, of course, much less than along the shores of the 
Gulf. Hygrometric observations have not yet determined the relative num- 
ber of degrees in the dew point, of these two different regions, lying thirteen 
or fourteen degrees of latitude apart. At Toronto,* the elastic force or 
tension of vapor, from observations every two hours for two years, was found 
to be 0.259 in., and the mean annual temperature for the same years was 
44°. 8. Now, by a reference to the table of tensions, we find that vapor of 
this temperature, when the air is saturated, has a tension of 0.313 in., show- 
ing that the atmosphere around the Lakes, taking the year throughout, does 
not approach the dew point. 

At Hudson, nearly thirty miles south of Lake Erie, Professor Loomisf 
found the complement of the dew point for two years to be 8°. 10, while at 
Toronto it is about 5°. 25 — difference 2°. 85, in favor of Hudson, which is 
what might be expected from their relations to the Lakes. 

* Mag. and Met. Obser. f American Journal of Science. 



606 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i, 

From the table of Professor Loomis, it appears that the month of April 
has the least vapor, compared with what, from its temperature, the atmos- 
phere might contain. The complement of the clew point of that month, is 
12°.80; that of December, which has the least, is 4°.95. Of the seasons, 
spring is the dryest, winter the most humid; summer and autumn are inter- 
mediate, and differ but little from each other. Two observations were made 
daily by Professor Loomis, one at nine, A. M., the other at three, P. M. 
The difference between them was, for the year, 5°.2. The greatest differ- 
ence was in spring — the least in winter. 

5. Arctic Region. — A reference to the general table of mean tempera- 
tures, and the table of this section, will show that the actual amount of va- 
por which can at any time exist in the atmosphere, within the polar circle, 
is very small. In the latitude of thirty degrees, where the mean tempera- 
ture of the air is seventy degrees, it requires 0.8693 grains troy, to saturate a 
cubic foot of air. Under the fortieth parallel, which has a mean heat of 
fifty-one degrees, 0.4757 grains are required for saturation; at the seven- 
tieth degree of latitude, where the average annual heat is but five degrees, 
the required amount is only 0.0872 grains. In popular language, the vapor 
of the atmosphere is nearly frozen out. Still, in those regions, one of the 
chief inconveniences, experienced on shipboard in winter, was the humidity 
of the apartments. The atmosphere has no capacity for receiving the exha- 
lations from the lungs and skin, which, being condensed against the walls, by 
reevaporation, maintained the air at the dew point, while everything without, 
had its moisture congealed and deposited. When the wind blows from that 
region, it does not, however, reach the more southern latitudes, in such desti- 
tution of vapor; for, in traversing Hudson Bay, and a countless number of 
lakes, its temperature is raised, and it imbibes a great additional quantity of 
vapor. 

III. Dew, Frost, Fog. Smoke-Fog oil Indian Summer. — 1. Dew. — A 
reference to p. 150, will prepare us for understanding, why there are two 
periods in the twenty-four hours, when dew is deposited more copiously, 
than in any others. Evaporation begins at sunrise, and goes on until 
the maximum heat of the day is reached, between two and four o'clock, 
P. M.; but with the increase of atmospheric temperature, comes an 
increase of capacity for holding vapor in a state of insensible suspen- 
sion ; and hence the air, and all the objects which it envelops, feel 
dry compared with the morning, although the quantity of vapor is 
greatly augmented. As the sun declines, and its rays develop less 
heat at the surface of the earth, cooling commences, and goes on in 
three modes : First. Evaporation continues in virtue of the heat of the 
surface, and carries off caloric in a latent state : Second. A portion of the 
surface heat is conducted into the earth : Third. Radiation continues, and 
is, by far. the most efficient mode of cooling. Thus the decline of atmos- 
pheric temperature begins at the surface of the earth, and when it has sunk 
until the vapor, at the lower temperature, begins to saturate the air, it 
becomes fresh and moist. This often happens before sunset; always, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 607 

indeed, before that time in ravines and narrow valleys; for the sun ceases to 
act on them before it leaves the plains. As radiation is the chief cause of 
the cooling, it proceeds more rapidly from surfaces which are covered with 
objects which rise from the ground, as grass and trees, than from the earth 
itself. It proceeds slowly from water, for when the superficial stratum gives 
out its heat to the rising vapor, it sinks and the one immediately below comes 
up to the surface. As the decrease of temperature, from four or five o'clock 
to nine, is more rapid than for the remainder of the night, it follows, that a 
large part of the vapor, suspended in the hot air of the day, is thrown down 
as evening dew ; and thus, by ten o'clock, the deposit on the leaves of our forest 
trees is often so great, that drops are formed, and can be heard falling from leaf 
to leaf. But dew does not appear on every evening in those seasons in which 
it prevails, for if clouds overcast the sky, radiation from the earth is, in part, 
compensated by radiation from the clouds, and the air near the surface is 
not reduced in temperature to the dew point ; or the humid south or south- 
west wind may spring up and prevent the necessary cooling ; or a dry north- 
west wind may absorb the liberated vapor. It is a popular opinion, that 
the vapor which arises during the day in summer and autumn carries up, in 
solution or combination, whatever noxious gases or miasms may be liberated 
at the surface of the earth, to return with the so-called falling dew ; and 
hence the insalubrity of evening exposures in those seasons. Without 
adopting this opinion, we may admit the fact, that such exposure aids in the 
production of certain fevers; and find an explanation in the sudden 
transition of temperature from four to nine o'clock, and in the humidity 
which it occasions. 

The second period in which dew may be copiously deposited, is the latter 
part of the night and at the dawn of day. After nine or ten, P. M., the 
rate of decrease in the temperature of the air is much diminished, and 
with it the deposition of dew; but when the minimum is reached, the 
deposition is increased. Sometimes we have morning dew only, the temper- 
ature in the evening not falling low enough to reach the dew point. Expo- 
sure to this dew, in traveling through tall prairie grass, or working in 
corn or cotton fields, has been found unhealthy. The cold wetting which it 
occasions, followed by a rapid increase of forenoon heat, may, perhaps, do 
the mischief; but if we admit that miasms may be deposited in dew, their 
ascent, with the vapor generated by the morning sun, will enable them to 
act on the systems of the exposed. The former is a fact — the latter a 
hypothesis. 

The theory of dew, first developed by Doctor Wells, and briefly recognized in 
this section, discloses to us, that there is, over every spot, in spring, summer, 
and autumn, a circulation of the same water rising into the atmosphere 
through the day and returning at night, to reascend on the following day ; yet 
the whole of it is not deposited, and in the absence of rain the earth con- 
tinues to dry, which drying goes on much more rapidly over naked surfaces, 
than those which are covered with trees or rank herbage, which favor cooling 



608 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and the deposit of dew; and hence a forest sustains a drought much better 
than a treeless plain with a scanty herbaceous vegetation. 

2. Hoar Frost is dew congealed into crystals. It is found on objects 
which project a little from the earth, when it is not seen on the earth itself, 
because they radiate more freely, and their temperature is but imperfectly 
kept up by conduction from the earth. Thus a degree of cold which will 
deposit frost may not freeze the ground. What is, by the people, called a 
black frost, is the freezing of water at the surface of the earth, when the 
dew point is so low, that atmospheric vapor will not be deposited. Such a 
reduction of temperature is necessary in spring to freeze the vegetable 
juices, and in the autumn to arrest bilious and yellow fever. A copious 
white frost may appear without doing either. We sometimes see frost 
falling, in a winter-day, when the atmosphere is cloudless. In the inter- 
mixture of strata of air, some one has become saturated and gives out a 
portion of its vapor, which is congealed, and falls in minute crystals, rendered 
visible by reflecting the light of the sun. 

3. Fog appears when the atmosphere over a watery surface is colder than 
the water — a condition the opposite of that which originates dew. The 
vapor, which escapes in quantities proportionate to the temperature of the 
water, saturates the air, and is converted into floating vesicles, or cloud. 
The action of the sun, by expanding the vapor, causes it to disappear. Fogs 
imply cool nights, and, the extent of watery surface being the same, they are 
denser, and occur more frequently in the higher than the lower latitudes, 
because the difference between the temperatures of the night and the watery 
surface, are there greater. Fogs appear but seldom along our rivers in 
spring and early summer, for the reason that the water has not yet acquired 
its highest heat. When that is reached, and the nights begin to cool, in 
the latter part of summer, they prevail and continue in autumn, until the 
streams are reduced' in temperature to a certain point, when they cease. 
Their coincidence in season and locality with autumnal fever, has given rise 
to the opinion that they contribute to the production of that disease. 

4. Smoke-Fog, or Indian- Summer. — An aspect of the atmosphere which 
occasionally shows itself for a brief period in spring, is an annual and pro- 
tracted phenomenon, in autumn. For its popular name, Indian- Summer, I 
have proposed one, more expressive — Smoke-fog. In Europe a correspond- 
ing state of the atmosphere is denominated Dry-fog. In our Valley, the 
months of October and November are those in which this atmospheric phe- 
nomenon appears. Its duration varies from one to two, three, or even four 
weeks, in different years. It also varies in depth or intensity, in successive 
autumns. A copious fall of rain, sometimes mingled with snow, and followed 
by hard frosts, generally precedes its appearance. The atmosphere, during 
its continuance, is commonly, tranquil; temperate in heat, and hazy; but 
not much obscured by clouds. Falls of rain are, however, not uncommon; 
and in general, the whole appearance vanishes with a rain-storm, followed 
by a winter temperature. An apparent smokiness through which the sun 
and moon, when near the horizon, and especially in the evening, appear of 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 609 

a crimson hue, is the great characteristic of the season. As the time when it 
occurs, coincides with the period of our densest river fogs, the nights and 
mornings in our valleys sometimes present a deep and gloomy obscuration; 
which exerts on the hypochondriacal a depressing influence; and, as opthal- 
mia prevails more in autumn than any other season of the year, it is possi- 
ble, that this state of the atmosphere may be an exciting cause. 

The origin of Smoke-fog, is supposed by many to be unascertained ; but the 
greater number think it dependent on extensive conflagrations, in our forests, 
where the ground is overspread with dead leaves; and on the extended 
prairies, interspersed with groves, through which the Mississippi holds its 
way; but, above all, on the immense desert which stretches off to the 
Rocky Mountains. The dryness of that region, leads to an early withering 
of its grass and herbaceous plants ; and running fires are known annually 
to consume that which, allowed to accumulate, would at length increase the 
fertility of the soil. An objection to this opinion is drawn from the well- 
known fact, that rain does not permanently dissipate the Smoke-fog, 
which is often quite as great, the next morning after a copious shower , 
as it was immediately before. But we must recollect, that rains are local, 
and might be profuse in places remote from the scene of conflagaration, 
without including it. 

The state of the atmosphere here described, does not appear to have any 
connection with a dew point ; for, according to the observations of Profes- 
sor Loomis, at Hudson, the dew point of October and November is nearly 
that of the year; nor with the weight of the air — for the observations of 
Doctor Engelmann and Doctor Ray show, that the barometer in October and 
November, has very nearly the average elevation of the twelve months : nor 
can it arise from volcanoes, for, although some of the mountains on the coast 
of the Pacific Ocean are volcanic, they are too far in the north-west, to 
spread their influence over the central parts of the Valley. 

IY. The Dew Point considered in reference to Health. — When 
the complement of the dew point is small, or, in other words, the dew point 
is high for the temperature, whatever the latter may be, the air begins to be 
damp ; when the complement of the dew point is reduced to nothing, and 
that point coincides with the temperature of the air, saturation exists and 
evaporation ceases. This condition may occur at any temperature; and 
hence, we may have a cold and moist air, or a hot and moist air. The latter 
is the condition of the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, for more than half the 
year — the thermometer ranging between eighty and ninety degrees, the air, 
at the same time, being nearly saturated with vapor. To this condition, 
many of our physicians have ascribed the fevers of the south ; but without 
attempting to assign the modus operandi. Adopting, to some extent, the 
same conclusion, Doctor Lee* suggests, that such a state of the air retards the 
pulmonary excretion of carbon, thereby changing the condition of the blood, 
and throwing upon the liver the necessity of increased secretion. At the same 

* Forry's Climate of the United States, p. 111. 



610 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

time, cutaneous evaporation is impeded ; and, in his opinion, the matters 
which the skin should excrete, are in part retained in the blood. Finally, a 
moist air conducts off the electricity of the body more rapidly than a dry. 
These effects he ascribes to a high dew point, and not to the great heat, 
with which, in the south, it is associated. But if saturation of the air with 
vapor, or the state approaching to it, can impair these functions, in warm 
climates, why does not the same cause produce the same alledged effects, in 
higher latitudes ? We know, moreover, that the seamen of the Gulf of 
Mexico, who are immersed in an atmosphere nearly saturated with vapor, 
are little affected with fevers, while they keep at sea, provided their ships be 
not foul; but are apt to be seized, while in port. Lastly, it is well known, that 
the operatives in certain manufacturing establishments, spend their days in a 
hot, super-saturated, vaporous atmosphere, and yet enjoy good health. A hot 
climate, with a high dew point, is eminently fitted, however, to exert an in- 
fluence in the production of the gaseous products of organic decomposition ; 
and may, in that way, prove an indirect cause of fevers. In such a climate, 
everything, both animal and vegetable, which is dead, putrifies rapidly; 
while in colder or dryer climates, from lack of heat or of moisture, such 
decomposition goes on much more slowly. 

A high dew point, with a low temperature, presenting coldness and mois- 
ture combined, is, perhaps, more injurious to health, than the condition just 
considered. Its influence in the production of tubercular phthisis, deserves 
to be considered. It doubtless favors the production of bronchial catarrh ; 
and rheumatism is among its effects. Those who spend most of the day, 
and lodge through the night, in cellars, vaults, and cells with thick walls, are 
immersed in an atmosphere of medium temperature, kept constantly near the 
point of vaporous saturation. In such habitations, dyspepsia, chronic 
bronchitis, consumption, scrofula, and scurvy, are apt to occur; and may 
perhaps be ascribed to the humidity, and the absence, at all times, of a high 
temperature. 

Our west and north-west winds, as we have already seen, have a low dew 
point, and are either temperate or cold. They are always invigorating, and 
contribute, in the end, to generate an inflammatory diathesis ; — especially to 
produce inflammations of the lungs and joints. By their dryness, they pro- 
mote a rapid evaporation from the skin and bronchial membrane. When of a 
low temperature, their chilling influence is so much increased by this rapid 
exhalation, that persons exposed on the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, are 
frozen to death, when the temperature of the air is not so low as to suggest 
the possibility of that event. If a person thus exposed, were to bury him- 
self in snow, his body would soon be surrounded by a saturated atmosphere, 
when further evaporation would be suspended, and the danger of perishing 
diminished. 

When the temperature is high and the dew point low, the action of the 
air is very powerful. It rapidly drys and hardens the ground, withers its 
plants by carrying off their juices, and exerts on men and animals all 
the bad effects of excessive evaporation, among which are dryness of the 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 611 

mucous membranes of the mouth, fauces, nostrils, and eyes. It is an observa- 
tion of summer laborers in the field, that when they sweat freely, they can 
bear the heat ; but if their skins remain dry, they are apt to fail. In this 
case, I suppose, the air has a low dew point, and carries off the transpiration 
of the skin, before it is condensed : and if so, they suffer from the dryness 
of the air, and not from being unable to perspire. 

Of all portions of our Interior Valley, the southern and middle latitudes 
of the western prairies are most exposed to the fiery atmosphere we are now 
considering. At Fort Gibson, near the ninety-fifth meridian and thirty- 
sixth parallel of latitude, it has raised the thermometer to one hundred and 
sixteen degrees. On the same desert, from eight to ten degrees of longitude 
further west, and as far north as the thirty- seventh parallel, this state of the 
atmosphere exists in a still higher degree. The horse fly, and the green or 
pantry fly, are there unknown ; and, in the month of July, the flesh of the 
bison, cut in slices and hung in the air, dries so rapidly as to be preserved 
without salt ; and is carried to Santa Fe for future use. The optical phe- 
nomena of looming and mirage, are strikingly exhibited in the same hot and 
dry air. Small bodies are often seen in the distance, at a considerable 
elevation; and the delusive appearance of lakes and streams frequently tan- 
talizes the way-worn and thirsty traveler.* 



CHAPTER V. 



ELECTRICAL PHENOMENA: DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS 

AND ANIMALS. 



SECTION I. 

ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY.— THUNDER STORMS.— HURRICANES. 

I. Atmospheric Electricity. — It would be absurd to question the 
value, to a physician, of a thorough knowledge of the temperature, winds, 
weather, and moisture of the country in which he is to ascertain the causes, 
and prosecute the cure of diseases. If the study of its electrical condition 
and phenomena, cannot, in the present stage of our knowledge, be shown to 
possess an equal importance, it is by no means to be neglected. The myste- 
rious, but apparently, intimate relations between light, caloric, magnetism, 
galvanism, and electricity, suggest that they are, perhaps, but one agent 

* See Dr. Gregg's interesting Commerce of the Prairies, Vol. I, pp. 96-100 



612 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

in different states or modes of action, the whole of which should be studied 
in connection. The manifest part which electricity plays in the systems of 
certain aquatic animals, as the gymnotus electricus, and the influence it may 
be made to exert on the nervous system of man, still further point to it as 
an agent, upon which the physician is bound to direct a portion of his attention. 
After the experimental demonstration, by our great countryman, Franklin, 
of the identity of electricity and lightning, by which the immense amount of 
that fluid in the atmosphere was made known, many physicians vaguely 
indulged the opinion, that it performs an important part in the animal 
economy. The subsequent discoveries of G-alvani and Volta, gave a new 
impulse to these speculations ; and suggested many experiments, on the 
effects of galvanic electricity upon the living body, both in health and 
disease. No satisfactory results have, however, been reached. The subject, 
nevertheless, is not likely to be relinquished by the imaginative ; and, even 
the most sober-minded must admit, that an agent so powerful, so universally 
present, and so operative in many of the secret processes of inorganic nature, 
can scarcely fail to perform some important part in the living body. Perhaps 
the proper mode of studying it, in reference to that body, has not yet been 
discovered. That atmospheric air performed a vital part, in the kingdom of 
organized nature, was known from the beginning ; but it was reserved for the 
last century to discover its mode of action. We are, perhaps, at this time, 
in a similar condition, in reference to electricity; and some future generation 
may devise instrumentalities, by which modes of action and effects, of which, 
at present, we can form no conception, will be rendered plain. 

Electricity exists at the surface of the earth, and in the atmosphere at all 
times, and is forever circulating between them. Experiment has shown, that 
during combustion, the aeriform products which escape are positively elec- 
trified, leaving the residuum negative ; but the process by which the greatest 
amount of electricity makes its way into the atmosphere, is solar evaporation ; 
the vapor, which arises from every wet or watery surface, in which any saline 
matter is held in solution, being positively electrified. Wherever, then, there 
is a high temperature with a high dew point, the atmospheric, electrical 
phenomena, are of a striking character ; and where the temperature is low, 
and the evaporation feeble, they are correspondingly reduced. The 
condensation of vapor into fog, rain, or dew, appears to increase atmospheric 
electricity, setting it free, in conjunction, if we may so speak, with the latent 
caloric of the vapor. The tension or quantity of atmospheric electricity, as 
measured by the electrometer, is greater, in a tranquil state of the atmos- 
phere, in winter than summer ; it would seem that, as the vapor of the 
atmosphere is more and more deposited by increasing coldness, its electricity 
is disengaged and left behind. There is, also, a diurnal variation in the 
amount of electricity at the same place, when the weather is serene. 
According to Kaemtz :* 

" At sunrise the atmospheric electricity is feeble ; it continues to increase 

* Complete Course of Meteorology, page 338. 



PART II.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



613 



as the sun rises, and the vapors are collecting in the lower regions of the 
atmosphere. This increasing period lasts, in summer, until six or seven 
o'clock in the morning ; in the spring and autumn until eight or nine, and 
in the winter until ten or twelve o'clock in the day. By degrees the tension 
attains its maximum ; during this time the lower regions are filled with 
vapors, the humidity of the air increases, and the hygrometric tension is 
stronger than in the morning ; in the cold season there is often fog. Gener- 
erally electricity decreases immediately after attaining its maximum, at first 
rapidly, then more slowly. The visible vapors of the lower strata disappear, 
the fogs disperse, the atmosphere becomes clear, and distant objects seem to 
approach the spectator. Toward two o'clock in the afternoon, the atmos- 
pheric electricity is very feeble, and scarcely stronger than at sunrise. It 
continues to diminish until about two hours before sunset; in summer until 
four, five, or six o'clock in the evening, and in winter until five o'clock. 
Its minimum lasts longer than its maximum. As soon as the sun approaches 
the horizon, it again begins to advance, increases sensibly at the moment of 
sunset, goes on increasing during twilight, and attains a second maximum 
an hour and a half or two hours after sunset. Then vapors form in the 
lower regions of the air, damp increases, and the night- dew falls. This 
second maximum usually equals that of the morning, but it continues a 
shorter time, and the electricity decreases slowly until the next morning." 

I am not in the possession of any series of experiments on the electrical 
condition of "the atmosphere, at any place in the Interior Valley. Two 
questions may be here proposed : First. What are the effects, if any, on 
the human constitution, of a highly positive or highly negative state of the 
atmosphere, and of the sudden transition from one to the other ? Second. 
In what manner, if at all, does electricity contribute to the production or 
spread of epidemic diseases? I shall not undertake a reply to these ques- 
tions, but dismissing the consideration of electricity as it exists in equilibrio, 
or a neutral state, say something of its phenomena and effects when in a 
state of perturbation. 

II. Thunder Storms. — These electrical phenomena diminish in frequency 
and violence from the tropical to the polar regions. On the shores of the 
Grulf of Mexico they occur in every month of the year, but much oftener in 
hot than cold weather. In the middle latitudes, at St. Louis, their frequency 
has been observed and recorded, by Dr. Engelmann, for sixteen consecutive 
years. The mean of this long period was 49, distributed through the months 
and seasons as follows : 



December, 
■January, . 
February, 



0.60 
0.69 
1.25 



Winter, 



. 2.54 



March, 
April, . 
May, . 



2.60 
5.70 

8.30 



Spi 



16.60 



June, 10.40 

July, 6.90 

August, 5.10 



Summer 



22.40 



September, .... 3.60 
October, .... 2.40 
November, .... 1.26 



Autumn, 



7.26 



614 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

We see by this table that, beginning with the season in which thunder- 
storms are least frequent, the order is winter, autumn, spring, and summer. 
In referring to the months we find a regular increase from December to June, 
and of decrease from the former to the latter. It is worthy of remark, that 
the extremes do not fall in the months of least and greatest mean tempera- 
ture, which are January and July, but in the solstitial months, when the 
direct action of the sun is at its minimum and maximum. 

Thunder storms become exceedingly rare as we approach the polar circle, 
in the northern part of our Yalley. Ross, as far as I recollect, does not 
mention one at Boothia Felix, N. Lat. 70°, where he spent the greater part 
of three years. Simpson saw one in N. Lat. 68° 32'. Back speaks of one 
in latitude 68°, and says it was the most northern he had witnessed. Parry 
records one in latitude 66°, but none further north. We must recollect, 
however, that all these- observations were made near or over the pole of cold, 
and that, in other meridians to the east and west, they probably occur in 
higher latitudes. For the Interior Valley we may assume the seventieth 
parallel as the zero for these electrical phenomena, which increase to forty- 
nine per annum, at St. Louis, in N. Lat. 38° 37'. The increase in the num- 
ber is, perhaps, according to the square, or some higher power of the com- 
plement of the angle of incidence of the sun's rays, and is, therefore, 
constantly augmenting in quantity down to the Tropic of Cancer. 

Our thunder storms, in every latitude, are more frequent in the day than 
night ; but those of the latter period are often as violent as any which occur 
in the day. Occasionally they happen early in the morning, and are then 
generally repeated in the course of the day, or they usher in a ( steady rain. 
The most common time, however, is the afternoon, when they begin to form, 
during the period of maximum heat. A calm, or fitful breezes, precede 
them ; the temperature is high, and the atmosphere, at the same time, is 
charged with vapor nearly to the point of saturation. The sultriness often 
becomes insupportable, and the feeling of lassitude very great. As the air 
and clouds are in a highly positive, electrical condition, that of the surface 
of the earth, and of the objects and animals resting upon it, must be in the 
opposite state, and hence, perhaps, arises a part of the langor felt while the 
storm is forming. 

The first appearance of a thunder storm is generally to the west of the 
observer, on the Ohio. I have never seen one form further east than a few 
degrees from south. Around the Gulf of Mexico, they much oftener form 
to the east of south, for there a south-east wind corresponds to a south or 
south-west, in the middle latitudes. , 

Thunder storms are almost invariably accompanied by high wind; which, 
at the beginning, is generally from some point between south and west, but 
it has a strong tendency to veer toward the north ; and, before the rain 
begins to fall, often changes to north-west ; whence, in almost every instance, 
it blows at the conclusion of the storm, and often for a few hours after- 
ward — its violence constantly diminishing. 

Discharges of lightning from the cloud to the earth, are, I am convinced 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 615 

much more common in town than country. No summer ever passes, I sup- 
pose, without one or several houses being struck in Cincinnati, although there 
are many lightning rods. In traveling through our woods, in various parts 
of the Valley, I have often passed many miles without being able to find a 
single tree, scathed by lightning. The buds and leaves of trees, no doubt, 
act as attracting points, while their sap renders them good conductors ; and 
thus the electricity is conveyed quietly into the earth ; which, moreover, is 
generally moist under their shade. It is a popular opinion that the beech 
tree (JFagus ferruginea) is never struck by lightning. I have not, as yet, 
seen one which had suffered. 

Particular spots, in city and country, have been observed to suffer more 
than others. Thus a part of Cincinnati, for a long while its north-western 
suburb, in former times, was peculiarly liable. I do not know how it is, 
compared with other parts, since it has been densely built over. In the year 
1836, I was told by Mr. Potter, of Randolph, on the Mississippi Biver, in 
West Tennessee, that he knew of two plantations, which had suffered more 
than all other parts of the surrounding country. 

Our steamboats are seldom struck by lightning. Many old commanders 
have assured me of this exemption. When at the Balize, in 1843, I was 
told by Captain Annable, of the Phoenix, who had been engaged for eleven 
years, in towing ships between the Gulf and New Orleans, that he had known 
ten or twelve ships struck, but not a single steamer. One of his most expe- 
rienced pilots testified to the same exemption ; and both state, that they had 
known ships to suffer from lightning, while steamboats, lying by their side, 
escaped. 

Broad flashes of lightning, without thunder, are not uncommon in our hot 
summer evenings. There is sometimes the appearance of a low bank of 
clouds — but at other times, none are visible. These corruscations are al- 
ways near the horizon, and may, perhaps indicate the summit of a thunder 
cloud, at such a distance as not to be seen, or its thunder heard. 

The physiological effects of a thunder storm, are always considerable. 
They may, perhaps, be referred to several heads. First, a sudden reduction 
of temperature. Second, lowering of the dew point, and an increase in 
its complement. Third, an augmentation in the pressure of the atmosphere. 
Fourth, a restoration of the equilibrium, or neutral condition of the electric 
fluid. Fifth, the terror excited in most persons, by the near approach of a 
thunder gust, must not be overlooked, in recognizing its physiological 
effects. 

An upward discharge of electricity, during a thunder storm, is not an un- 
common event. When animals, in open places, remote from all elevated 
objects, are killed by lightning, the discharge is, no doubt, generally from the 
earth. But they are sometimes destroyed when near to such objects, while 
the objects, themselves, escape. Not long since, a horse and small carriage, 
with two men, were struck by lightning, in one of the streets of Cincinnati, 
while the high houses on either side remained untouched. Many years since, 
in that part of the city which has generally suffered most, I saw a bean-pole, 



616 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

which had been split by lightning, as far down as the surface of the ground. 
The fluid had probably been discharged from the earth through this pointed 
rod, and while passing along the moist extremity in the ground, did no mischief, 
but on reaching the dry shaft above, destroyed it. The following fact shows that 
electricity may be discharged from the earth, in flashes, without producing 
thunder. My informant, Judge Collier, of the Supreme Court of Alabama, 
was at Montgomery, and about eight o'clock, P. M., in the month of April, 
1833, saw, with many other persons, repeated flashes, or electrical explosions, 
at the surface of the earth — which illuminated the surrounding objects, 
but produced no sound. Overhead there hung a black cloud, which sent 
forth a sound like that of low, distant thunder. A violent tempest imme- 
diately followed. 

III. Tornadoes and Hurricanes. — These terms are commonly regar- 
ded as synonymous ; but strictly speaking, they are not. A tornado is a 
limited thunder-storm, accompanied with a violent and destructive tem- 
pest. A hurricane is a wind of much greater extent and duration, attended 
with fewer electrical phenomena. Both occur in the southern and middle lati- 
tudes of the Interior Valley, chiefly in hot weather. According to Mr. Espy*, 
in every tornado, there is an imperfect vertical, or oblique vacuum, produced 
by columns of heated and ascending air, which aunulus moves forward ; and 
at the same time, invites into it the surrounding air, near the surface of the 
earth, so as to establish centripetal currents. These currents, by their ex- 
treme velocity, prostrate, overturn, or transport the objects which lie in their 
way. But these ravages are not the greatest, which the tornado occasions 
when it passes over a town or city. At the moment when the imperfect vacuum 
reaches such a spot, the air in every house that is closely shut up, suddenly 
expands, and bursts out the windows, drives off the roof, or even throws 
down the walls. The older, and more current opinion is, that every tornado 
is a whirl- wind. The axis or center of a whirl- wind must, of necessity, 
be an imperfect vacuum, and when it passes over houses, or objects inclosing 
atmospheric air, the same destructive expansion must occur, as if the rare- 
faction were produced in the other mode ; while the gyratory motion of the 
surrounding air, seems well-fitted to produce many of the devastations which 
render these storms so terrible. It is in our compact and lofty forests, that 
these ravages are most conspicuous. I have seen many spots which had been 
thus visited ; some of which presented the fallen trees with their trunks gen- 
erally in the direction of the path of the tornado, while others have presented 
them in all directions, indicating a gyratory motion. It is not uncommon, 
moreover, to see young trees, of tough fiber, with their tops apparently 
twisted off. It is worthy of remark, that these devastations are sometimes 
found in spots or areas, and not in long vistas ; indicating, apparently, a 
bounding motion in the tempest. In hurricanes, or tornadoes of vast extent 
and progression, Mr. Espy supposes the area of the region over which the 
air is rarefied to be of great range, and sometimes to be disposed in a 

* Philosophy of Storms. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 617 

linear, instead of a circular form; constituted an elongated center, into 
which the air rushes from two opposite directions. The whole storm is 
progressive, as in the case of common tornadoes ; and may move in the plane 
of rarefaction, or obliquely, or even at right angles to it. As in the case of 
tornadoes, the winds which, at the surface of the earth, reach the imperfect 
vacuum, immediately ascend, and in the upper regions roll off laterally to 
descend, and be again drawn inward. When this rarefied center passes 
over objects which contain atmospheric air, it expands, and they are destroyed, 
as in the case of tornadoes. By other meteorologists, however, a hurricane 
is regarded as a vast whirlwind, with a progressive movement, in the center 
or vortex of which the air is calm and rarefied. 

The plan and objects of this work do not permit an extended account of 
our tornadoes and hurricanes, and I must be limited to a few brief notices. 
Their frequency and destructive violence over and around the Gulf of 
Mexico is well known. Very lately, the insular town of Key West was laid 
waste, and then inundated, by a hurricane ; and the dangers of navigation 
around Cape Florida are chiefly from the same cause. When describing the 
Gulf (p. 39), a notice was introduced of a hurricane, which drove the waters 
of the Gulf over the lower part of the delta of the Mississippi. All the 
low and flat coasts of the Gulf are, indeed, subject to inundations from this 
cause. When we advance into the interior of the Valley, the same kind of 
storms still occur. 

Reference has been already made, to the tornado of Natchez, in 1840, the 
track of which is marked on the topographical map, No. VII. Its course 
was from south-west to north-east ; but the wind which blew in Natchez 
was from the south-east, setting into the annulus or rarefied center of the 
storm. It was the transit of that center, over the town, which laid it waste, and 
the destruction was produced by the expansion of the air shut up in houses. 
Of all which stood in the path of the hurricane, those only escaped, which 
had their doors and windows open. For six days before the storm, the 
weather had been hotter than in the corresponding period, for the preceding 
five years. On the seventh day of the month, that of the storm, the barom- 
eter sunk to 29.46, or .15 of an inch below the mean of the preceding six 
days. 

" The seventh day " (says Dr. Tooley, from whose paper * the preceding 
facts are taken), " was ushered in densely overcast, and very warm, with a 
brisk wind at S. 4,f increasing at noon, and veering to the E. 5. At 
meridian, the south-western sky assumed a darker and more tempestuous 
aspect, the gloom and turbulence increasing every moment. At 12.45, the 
roar of the approaching storm began to be distinctly heard, the wind blowing 
a gale, N. E. 6. The roar and commotion of the storm grew more loud and 
terrific, attended with incessant corruscations and flashes of forked lightning. 
As the storm approached nearer, the wind veered to the E. 7. At 1.45, the 
storm-cloud assumed an almost pitchey darkness, curling, rushing, roaring 

* Espy on Storms, page 338. f Ten being the maximum velooity. 

40 



618 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

above, below a lurid yellow dashing upward, and rapidly approaching, striking 
the Mississippi some six or seven miles below the city, spreading desolation 
upon each side, the western side being the center of the annulus. At this 
time a blackness of darkness overspread the heavens; and, when the 
annulus approached the city, the wind suddenly veered to the S. E. 8, 
attended with such crashing thunder as shook the solid earth. At 2, the 
tornado, 10, burst upon the city, dashing diagonally through it, attended 
with such murky darkness, roaring and crashing, that the citizens saw not, 
heard not, knew not the wide-wasting destruction around them. The rush 
of the tornado over the city occupied a space of time not exceeding five 
minutes, the destructive blast not more than a few seconds. At this mo- 
ment the barometer fell to 29.37. 

" The quantity of rain that fell during the passage of the tornado over 
the city, was only .83 of an inch, holding in suspension so much mud and 
minute particles of leaves and other vegetable matter, as to be impervious to 
sight, and leaving a thick coating upon whatsoever it came in contact. 

" The effects of the storm upon the leaves and buds of plants was in a 
manner to sear them, abstracting or destroying so much of their vitality, 
that such as did not die outright were crisped, and their growth so suspended, 
that it was for ten or more days, before they resuscitated and began again 
to grow. Some very thriving grape cuttings, in the garden of the writer of 
this paper, were killed, and the old vines stunted Even the leaves of the 
succulent morus multicaulis, appeared as if an eastern sirocco had passed 
over them. A luxuriant arbor vitae, in the writer's yard, appears blighted 
and dying. Fruit trees, grass, and weeds, put on the same appearance." 

We learn from Professor Forshay (loco citato), that a thorough investi- 
gation of the desolations produced by this hurricane, resulted in the unde- 
niable conclusion, that the houses were destroyed by the outward explosion 
of the air which they contained, at the moment when they were traversed by 
the annulus. 

A tornado at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, occurred at six o'clock, A. M., on 
the 4th of March, 1842. Its devastations could be traced to the south- 
west, for more than forty miles, but not so far to the north-east. They 
were, however, not continuous, for, as Judge Collier informed me, spots lying 
in the path of the tempest, were uninjured, while others were devastated. 
Thus the base of the storm seems to have bounded on the surface of 
the earth. In a ride with Doctors Guild and Harrington, I saw the 
vista it had opened through a piece of woods. The fallen trees, almost 
without a single exception, lay with their trunks in the plane of the vista, 
with their roots to the windward, but those of the opposite sides of the 
path were inclined a little toward the central line or axis, as if they had 
been acted upon by lateral winds, driving inward, while the whole atmos- 
phere was in a still more rapid movement forward. That portion of the 
town over which the hurricane passed, as Doctor Harrington and Doctor 
Guild assured me, suffered much more, in the following autumn, from fever, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 619 

than other parts of the town, or than it had suffered previously, which they 
ascribed to the foul condition of the foundations of the demolished houses. 

On the night of the first day of June, 1830, the southern part of Ten- 
nessee was visited by a hurricane, the general course of which was from 
south-west to north-east. The town of Shelbyville suffered more than any 
other. At that place, for several days before the storm, the air was calm, 
sultry, and oppressive. Early in the evening the wind began to blow, and 
clouds to form. For several hours the gale increased in violence, and about 
midnight, a sudden destruction fell upon the town. Every house in the 
path of the storm, which had its doors and windows open was destroyed ; 
those only escaped which were entirely closed, precisely the reverse of what 
happened at Natchez. The lightning was so incessant that all objects were 
constantly visible ; but the sounds of falling houses were inaudible. At 
the distance of eight miles, an observer saw two red and glowing clouds 
approach and meet, when they seemed to descend upon the town. That 
was supposed to be the moment when the crash of houses happened. This 
tornado was but one of the destructive currents of the hurricane, for the 
village of Charlotte, at the distance of sixty miles to the north-west, and 
consequently at right angles to the general course of the hurricane, was 
nearly destroyed. The breadth of the gale was, indeed, estimated at a 
hundred miles.* 

On Sunday, the 28th of May, 1809, a hurricane, more impetuous than has 
since occurred, passed over Cincinnati. I was neither qualified, nor prepared 
with instruments, to make all the observations, required to illustrate its ori- 
gin and movements ; but the following account, published a few years after- 
ward, embraces some well- ascertained facts, that are not destitute of interest : 

" For two or three days previous to that time, the wind was various, with 
a turbid atmosphere. On the morning of the 28th, it veered to the south, 
and blew with violence. During the forenoon, while the lower clouds were 
passing rapidly to the north, the upper were moving with equal velocity to 
the east; indicating a superior current, which traversed the course of the 
south wind at right angles. Before twelve o'clock, both strata of clouds 
were propelled eastwardl y, and soon after, the west wind was perceptible at the 
earth's surface. By three-quarters past one o'clock, the sky was very much 
obscured, and a narrow whirl- wind, or tornado, of great force, swept impet- 
uously across the eastern part of the town. It demolished a few old build- 
ings, threw down the tops of several chimneys, and overturned many fruit 
and shade trees. The people in the center of the town had scarcely time to 
view this alarming operation, before their own houses were shaken to the 
foundations by another gale of equal violence; this was immediately suc- 
ceeded by a third, which traversed the western part of the town, with aug- 
mented fury. By this last, a handsome brick edifice, designed for tuition, 
was blown down, in consequence of having a cupola disproportionate to its 
area; and various minor injuries of property were sustained — but the in- 

*Dr. Kain in Amer. Jour, of Science, Vol. XXXI, page 252. 



620 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

habitants escaped unhurt. A copious shower of rain and hail, with thunder 
and lightning, increased the terrific grandeur of the scene. Each of these 
tornadoes ascended the hill to the north-east of the town, forming a track 
through the forest, which remained visible for more than a year. Several 
veins of a similar kind passed over the adjoining country, both south and 
north, to the distance of a hundred mihs. The same hurricane, as appears 
from the public journals, cscended the Alleghanies during the afternoon, and 
made its exit from the continent about eight or nine o'clock in the evening. 
To the south-west of this place, as far as the state of Tennesse, it seems to 
have occurred nearly at the same hour that it commenced here. Beyond 
that state, I have not been able to trace it. Mr. Henry Bechtle, who was 
on the Mississippi, in latitude thirty-three degrees, felt nothing of it on the 
28th, but experienced, on the preceding day, a brisk southern gale ; and I am 
informed by Governor Sargent that in the vicinity of Natchez, the 28th was 
fair, with moderate southerly breezes, which was the case for many days 
before, and several days after that, on which the storm occurred. 

" From the history of this hurricane, although very imperfect, it appears — 

"1. That it commenced to the windward. 

" 2. That it traveled about eighty miles an hour. 

" 3. That it was not derived from the Gulf of Mexico. 

" 4. That it was formed, about the same time, in the western parts of 
Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee, by the collision of two winds, the south 
and west ; which, when combined, of necessity moved toward some point 
between north and east, with increased velocity and power."* 

In referring to my meteorological register, for 1809, 1 find a few additional 
facts, which seem worthy of being introduced in connection with this brief and 
defective history. First, the haze for two nights before the storm, was such 
as to generate a halo round the moon ; second, notwithstanding this obvious 
condition of the atmosphere, as to vapor, there was no dew on the morning 
of the 28th; third, this happened from the high temperature of that morn- 
ing — 75° Fahrenheit — which was 15° above any other morning of the 
month ; and 20° above the three preceding mornings. This rise of temper- 
ature began with a south wind on the afternoon of the day before, when the 
mercury rose to 83.5 ; fourth, it is noted that windows were blown imvard, 
and nothing is said of an outward blast. Fifth, wherever concentrated 
veins of this hurricane passed from the interior of Kentucky to the interior 
of Ohio, there was hail. A few miles north of Cincinnati there were two 
falls of that meteor. The first consisted of small, smooth, opake globules ; 
the second of irregular lumps, as large as a hen's egg, having the appearance 
of common ice. Sixth, in several places, lying as it were between the tor- 
nado-currents, there was a thunder shower with hail, but scarcely any wind. 

In connection with this hurricane, I may quote from the same work, page 
114, a short account of a limited and not very violent storm, which produced 
on the leaves of plants an effect, almost identical with that described at 
Natchez, by Doctor Tooley. 

* Pict. of Cincinnati. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 621 

" On the afternoon of the 4th of May, 1811, we experienced, from the 
same quarter with the hurricane just described, another of less violence ; 
which was attended with some peculiarities worthy of record. The weather 
had been changeable throughout the earlier part of the day, and in the after- 
noon there was a fall of hail, with but little thunder or rain. The hail- 
stones at this place, although misshapen, were of the ordinary size ; but in 
the western part of the county, some of them were of surprising magnitude, 
and of many angular forms. Several weighed from eight to ten ounces 
each, and measured between fifteen and sixteen inches in circumference. It was 
perfectly calm when they fell, or much mischief would unqestionably have been 
done. The hail storm was followed by a moderate shower of rain, and a powerful 
blast from the south-west, in which many persons at Cincinnati felt currents 
or veins of air, heated to a very unusual degree. On the next day, the 
foliage of various plants was found to be destroyed. It was chiefly the 
leaves which grew to the windward, and were consequently most exposed, 
that suffered. They were neither lacerated nor wilted, but sustained an 
injury, which, upon exposure to the sun the ensuing day, caused them to 
wither. In some cases, only the tip of the leaf perished ; in others, the 
whole was destroyed. Whether this extraordinary effect should be ascribed 
to heat, or to a noxious quality of the wind, is uncertain. I could not per- 
ceive that one species of plant was more affected than another ; and of indi- 
viduals, growing near the same spot, it was common to find only a part 
affected." 

Professor Loomis* has given an account of two tornadoes which occurred 
in the north-eastern part of Ohio. The first passed over the village of 
Stowe, before daylight, on the 20th of October, 1837. The latitude of that 
village is 41° 12', N. — -its elevation above the sea about eleven hundred 
feet. In the evening there was a thunder shower. About three o'clock in 
the morning, a whirl wind formed, and moved rapidly from west to east, for 
three miles, with a breadth varying from forty to eighty rods. It produced 
the usual devastation. The trees on its outer parts had their tops directed 
inward, while those near the center of the track, had them turned more to 
the east. Many things were carried almost perpendicularly upward. 

The second tornado, occurred in the same region, especially affecting the 
township of Mayfield, between four and five P. M., February 4th, 1842. Its 
course was E. N. E., and its length on land twenty-five miles, when it 
reached Lake Erie, and left no further traces of its progress. The sky was 
overcast with a dense canopy of black clouds, moving with great rapidity. 
" The progress of the tornado was marked by a huge column of a dull yel- 
low, or smoky tinge," the lower part of which was dark and opake — the 
upper, semi-transparent. It lightened several times, and one tree was 
struck ; but the quantity of rain and hail which fell, was small. Houses 
were lifted up, and many things carried to a great distance. An elaborate 
examination of their distribution, and of the position of the fallen trees, 

* American Journal of Science. 



622 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

satisfied Professor Loomis, and Professor St. John, of Western Reserve 
College, that a whirl wind really existed in this, as in the other storm. I 
cannot go into their details ; but from the distance of this tornado north of 
the Gulf of Mexico, and its occurrence near mid-winter, a notice of it 
seemed necessary, to show the wide range of distribution which violent tor- 
nadoes have in the Interior Yalley. 

Professor Loomis* has given a tabular view of twenty- one tornadoes, of 
which fourteen were in the Valley ; and has added the following interesting 
generalizations. First, that no season of the year is exempt from them; 
but that they are much commoner in warm than in cold weather. But one 
of the whole happened in winter, and but two in autumn. Of the fourteen 
which occurred in our Valley, one was in February, three in March, one in 
April, six in May, one in June, one in July, and one in October. It will be 
recollected that the Cincinnati tornado occurred in May ; and after speak- 
ing of that which visited Natchez, on the 7th of May, 1840, Professor For- 
shay makes the following remark : "I find, by investigating somewhat, that 
strange coincidences have been happeuing here, in regard to hurricanes ; and 
that we live in a region very much exposed to them. In May, 1823, and 
1824, tornadoes traveled precisely the same track, with an interval, exactly, 
of a year. It is here confidently asserted, that they also occurred on the 
7th day of the month. In 1832. on the same day of the same month, there 
was one at Kingston, fifteen miles from Natchez. The probable concurrence 
of the four storms is very curious. "f 

This concurrence, however, is not more remarkable, than ^the annual re- 
turn, at Cincinnati, on or near the same day, of rainy and stormy weather, 
generally followed by frost — the last of the spring. From 1809 to 1815, 
seven successive years, there was rain in Cincinnati between the second and 
sixth days of May; generally accompanied with thunder and lightning; and 
sometimes with very violent wind. Occasionally, this spell of stormy 
weather, is posponed to the second week of the month. In the table of 
thunder storms, by Doctor Engelmann, we see that the number for May is 
greater than for any other month, except June. From all these facts, we 
perceive that, when the sun, in returning from the south, attains that eleva- 
tion at noon, which belongs to the month of May, its power of exciting at- 
mospheric agitations is very great; and, in reference to some of them, 
continues to increase to the summer solstice. 

A second generalization from Professor Loomis' table, is, that a great 
majority of tornadoes occur in the day time, and especially between noon 
and sunset. A third, that they are always preceded by a high temperature. 
A fourth, that they are invariably accompanied by lightning and rain, and 
frequently with hail. A fifth, that they always move eastwardly, the mean 
of the whole being about twelve degrees north of east. A sixth, that their 
average breadth is about one hundred and twenty rods ; length, fifteen 
miles ; velocity of progress, when violent, about thirty miles an hour ; dura- 

* Espy on Storms. t Ibid., p. 298. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 623 

tion of destructive violence, forty-five seconds. A seventh, that light bodies 
are frequently transported from three to twenty miles. An eighth, that very 
few human lives are lost. A ninth, that leeward roofs are generally taken 
in preference to windward. A tenth, that fowls are frequently picked 
of most of their feathers, and have their bones broken. An eleventh, that 
in passing over ponds or rivers, water is invariably raised in consideroble 
quantity; showing that tornadoes and waterspouts are essentially the same. 



SECTION II. 

CLIMATIC DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS AND ANIMALS. 

I. General Views. — The distribution of plants and animals over the 
surface of a broad continent, with its lakes and rivers, may justly be regar- 
ded as the most unerring indication of its climate ; yet the state of the 
earth's surface is not without its influence. In beginning this investigation, 
it will be advantageous, briefly to enumerate the various kinds of climatic 
and geographical influence. 

Mean temperature determines the limit to the south and north of many 
organized bodies ; but the extremes of winter and summer, exert, perhaps, 
a still greater influence; the duration of the latter, especially, proving favor- 
able or unfavorable to the development of certain species. 

The humidity or dryness of a climate determines the limits of a great 
number of both plants and animals, and often overrules the effects of tem- 
perature. Winds, clouds, and sunshine, doubtless have an influence, but not 
always, perhaps, very appreciable. 

Elevation above the level of the sea, by its influence on temperature and 
humidity may cause a deflection of the line of limitation ; but there is 
reason to suppose that it may act in other, not very obvious modes, in attract- 
ing or repelling both plants and animals. The course of mountain chains, 
has been observed to exert an effect : thus, when they run from north to south, 
their influence is greater than when they range from east to west. 

The soil has a manifest agency in the distribution of organized bodies, es- 
pecially plants ; which may be seen much further south or north, where the 
soil is congenial to them, than where it is not. On a similar principle, the 
presence or absence of their appropriate food, may determine a greater or 
less dissemination of animals. 

The course and the character of the waters, of great rivers, often extend 
or restrain the dissemination of both plants and animals, particularly birds 
and fishes. 

Finally, the art and enterprise of man, carry many plants and animals 
into uncongenial climates, where, by being protected and cherished, they at 
last get acclimated; and, undergoing certain modifications of physiology, 
become permanent denizens. 



624 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Thus the relations of organized beings to soil, climate, and food, present 
a problem often difficult to solve; but always of delightful interest, both to 
the physiologist and pathologist. 

II. Climatic Geography of our Native Plants. — 1. On the western 
side of the Gulf of Mexico, a belt of low land stretches from the peninsula 
of Yucatan, to the delta of the Mississippi, gradually widening, as the Gulf 
coast trends to the north-east, and leaves the Cordilleras. This, within the 
limits of the republic of Mexico, is called the tier r as calientes, or hot cli- 
mates. The southern part of this belt, presents all the grand and luxuriant 
evergreen vegetation, of the tropical regions. This portion of the zone belt 
is closely pressed by the mountains, in the midst of which stands the city of 
Mexico. As we approach the mountains, the vegetation undergoes a change, 
similar to, but much more rapid than, that which occurs in traveling north. 
In the language of that great observer of nature,* " There are few regions 
in the new continent, where the traveler is more struck with the assemblage 
of the most opposite climates. All the western part of the intendancy 
of Vera Cruz, forms the declivity of the Cordilleras of Anahuac. In the 
space of a day, the inhabitants descend from the regions of eternal snow, to the 
plains in the vicinity of the sea, where the most suffocating heat prevails. 
The admirable order with which different tribes of vegetables rise above one 
another by strata, as it were, is no where more perceptible than in ascend- 
ing from the port of Vera Cruz to the table-land of Perote. We see there 
the physiognomy of the country, the aspect of the sky, the form of plants, 
the figures of animals, the manners of the inhabitants, and the kind of cul- 
tivation followed by them, assume a different appearance at every step 
of our progress. 

" As we ascend, nature appears gradually less animated, the beauty of the 
vegetable forms diminishes, the shoots becomes less succulent, and the flow- 
ers less colored. The aspect of the Mexican oak quiets the alarms of travel- 
ers newly landed at Vera Cruz. Its presence demonstrates to him that he 
Las left behind him the zone so justly dreaded by the people of the north, 
under which the yellow fever exercises its ravages in New Spain. This infe- 
rior limit of oaks, warns the colonist who inhabits the central table-land, how 
far he may descend toward the coast, without dread of the mortal disease of 
the vomito. Forests of liquid amber, near Xalapa, announce by the fresh- 
ness of their verdure, that this is the elevation at which the clouds, suspen- 
ded over the ocean, come in contact with the basaltic summits, of the Cordil- 
lera. A little higher, near la Bandarilla, the nutritive fruit of the banana 
tree comes no longer to maturity. In this foggy and cold region, therefore, 
want spurs on the Indian to labor and excites his industry. At the bight 
of San Miguel, pines begin to mingle with the oaks, which are found by the 
traveler as high as the elevated plains of Perote, where he beholds the de- 
lightful aspect of fields sown with wheat. Eight hundred metres higher, the 
coldness of the climate will no longer admit of the vegetation of oaks; and 



* Pol. Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain Vol II, p. 165. — Amer. ed. 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 625 

pines alone there cover the rocks, whose summits enter the zone of eternal 
snow. Thus in a few hours, the naturalist, in this miraculous country, as- 
cends the whole scale of vegetation, from the heliconias and the banana plant, 
whose glossy leaves swell out into extraordinary dimensions, to the stunted 
parenchyma of the resinous trees ! " 

2. Around the northern curve of the Gulf of Mexico, from the Rio del 
Norte to Tampa Bay, we have a native vegetation of a different kind, and 
less luxurious growth, where evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs are 
mingled together. Many of the plants of this zone are limited to the coast, 
from preferring its saline soil and atmosphere, rather than from the necessity 
of a hot climate; but others advance into the Interior Valley; and by the 
limits to which they extend, indicate the climatic influence. I will cite a 
few, chiefly found near the Mississippi, or in the region to its east. 

The long-leaved pine (Pinus australis) overshadows all the dry and sandy 
plains of Florida, and reaches to a certain distance into the interior of Ala- 
bama. Mississippi, and Louisiana. I have not seen it above the thirty-third 
parallel; but as it appears on the Atlantic coast as high as the thirty-se- 
venth,* a change in soil, rather than of climate, arrests its higher extension 
up the Interior Valley. 

The live oak (Quercus virens) which delights in a wet and fertile soil, has 
a partiality for the sea-coast. Along the Mississippi and Alabama Rivers, I 
have not met with it above the latitude of thirty-two and a half or thirty- 
three degrees. 

P The cypress (Cupressus disticha) constitutes the governing tree in all the 
swamps of the northern curve of the Gulf; and ascends its rivers, becoming 
gradually blended with more northern trees. In the thirty-third parallel, it 
becomes scarce; but occasionally shows itself to the thirty- seventh, where 
the Ohio joins the Mississippi. 

The Magnolia grand/flora, abounds in the rich soils which are free from 
inundation ; and is found from the Gulf to the thirty-third degree of lati- 
tude ; but if protected from the winter, while young and tender, it will grow 
into a tree as far north as the thirty- eighth degree of latitude, and, perhaps, 
further. 

The sweet gum (Liquida?nber slyracifiucb) and the pecan (Carya oliva- 
formis) are both southern trees, which abound in Louisiania; but decrease in 
number, become solitary, and are rarely seen above the thirty-ninth parallel. 
These specimens may serve for the tree vegetation ; but I must introduce 
some of a different kind. 

Missletoe ( Viscum verticil latum') abounds on certain trees around the 
Gulf of Mexico ; but is nob, I believe, found to the north, beyond the fortieth 
parallel. 

Cane (Mmgia macro carp a) overspreads the rich and wet lands of the 
lower Mississippi, where it attains the hight of thirty feet. Up that river to 
the thirty-sixth degree, it forms impenetrable brakes beneath the lofty cot- 

* Michaux: Hist, des Arb. For. d L'Am. Sep. Tom. I. 



626 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

ton trees; and extends, with diminishing size, nearly to the thirty-ninth. The 
furthest point at which I have seen it, is Maysville, Kentucky, in N. Lat. 
38° 45'. 

The long moss (Tillandsia usneoides) is hung in somber festoons from the 
limbs of the cypress and many other southern trees, which grow near the 
rivers, or in swamps, quite down to the Gulf of Mexico. On the rivers of 
Alabama, I have not seen it above the latitude of thirty- three degrees north; 
but on the Mississippi, half a degree higher. 

The south differs from the interior in having fewer annual flowering plants, 
in proportion to the number of its flowering shrubs and vines. It also pre- 
sents much less of grassy surface than we find further to the north. 

3. We come now to the middle latitudes. A zone comprised between the 
parallels of thirty- six and forty- two, a mean temperature which ranges from 
fifty-eight degrees down to forty-eight degrees, Fahrenheit, is that which 
embraces the greatest variety of forest trees ; and within which they gen- 
erally attain the loftiest magnitude. The most common and conspicuous 
are, several kinds of oak (Quercus), ash (Fraxinus), walnut (Juglans), 
hickory (Carya), dogwood (Cornus?) elm (Ulmus), buckeye (JEscuhis), the 
honey locust (Glediisia), white flowering locust (Robiaia), hackberry 
(Celtis"), maples (Acer), beech (Fagus), the yellow poplar or tulip tree 
(Lifiorfeadro/i), and the cotton tree (Populus). These trees and their 
associates, are all deciduous. They separate the magnolia grandiflora, 
live oak, pecan, cypress, cane, and long moss of the south, from the 
pines, firs, hemlocks, birches, and certain oaks, of the north. To the south, 
some of them do not advance further than the thirty-third parallel ; others 
are found in hummocks as far as the thirty-second, and others reach the 
Gulf, through the delta of the Mississippi. 

At the eastern extremity of the zone, where it meets the Appalachian 
Mountains, these trees are replaced by several species of pine and oak, with 
other trees which flourish in cool and rocky localities. To the west, it passes 
the Mississippi, and stops at the margin of the desert, with the exception, 
that a few species ascend the rivers of that great region. 

To the north, the forests of the temperate latitudes extend to the further 
coasts of Lake Superior ; and while all the species do not hold out to that 
latitude, others advance far beyond it. 

Observations have not, however, been made in a sufficient number of pla- 
ces, in that inhospitable wilderness, to reveal the limits of all the species. 
The buckeyes (JEsculus) are among the most limited in northern extension. 
I have not seen them beyond the valley of the Cuyahoga, in N. Lat. 41° 15'; 
but Wright enumerates one species as a tree of Michigan,* which shows a 
more northern limit. The white flowering locust (Robinia) has not a high 
northern extension. It is not mentioned in the flora just quoted. The 
same is true of the blue ash (Frqxiyms). On the other hand, the sugar- 
tree (Acer sacchariaum) increases in size and number, after we pass the 

* Geological Reports. 



part n.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 627 

curve of mean temperature of the Valley — which is fifty degrees Fahren- 
heit, and ranges between the forty-first and forty-second parallels. Around 
the Lakes, up to Lake Superior, it is one of the most common trees, ming- 
ling itself, in the fertile soils, with birches, pines, and hemlocks; but Major 
Long does not mention it among the trees observed on Rainy River, between 
the forty-eighth and forty-ninth degrees of latitude. The sycamore (Plata- 
nus) has, perhaps, nearly the same northern limit with the sugar tree. The 
cotton wood (Populus), which grows at the mouth of the Mississippi, was 
seen by Major Long, on Red River, near the forty- eighth parallel. Finally, 
Mr. Drumrnond,* who spent some time at Cumberland House, on the Sas- 
katchawan River, N. Lat. 53° 57', has given a catalogue of the trees ob- 
served around that fur-trading post, in which, of all belonging to the forests 
of the temperate region, he mentions only an ash and an elm ; adding, that 
he supposed he was there, at the highest northern limit of the genera to which 
they belong. The annual mean temperature of that latitude cannot be far 
from thirty-two degrees Fahrenheit, which may be that which limits the ar- 
borescent flora of the middle latitudes ; while a mean temperature of sev- 
enty-two degrees imposes a southern limit; thus giving to the diversified 
forests of the middle latitudes a range of forty degrees of mean temper- 
ature. 

4. The trees which characterize the northern regions, and are found inter- 
mingled with those of the temperate climates, at the junction of these zones, 
from the forty-fourth to the forty-eighth parallels of latitude, are chiefly 
birches (Bf lulus'), the balsam poplar (Populus), arbor vitse or white 
cedar (Thuja), juniper (Juniperus), larch (Larix), red, white, and 
tamarack pine (Pinus), and several kinds of spruce, fir, and hemlock 
(Abies). Most of these are evergreens; and thus, after traversing the zone 
of deciduous trees, we come in the north to forests of evergreens, which we 
had left in the south. The northern arborescent flora, commencing about 
the forty-third parallel, nearly ceases before we reach the polar circle. 
Even below the sixtieth degree of latitude, the number of species is greatly 
reduced, and those which remain are stunted. Dr. Richardson,! near the 
mouth of Nelson's River, about N. Lat. 56°, where, at the depth of a few 
inches, the soil is perpetually frozen, found few other forest trees, than 
spruces, larches, and poplars, all of a reduced size. About Fort Enter- 
prize, N. Lat. 64° 28' he saw stunted spruces and a few birches. In these 
hyperborean regions, however, there is some variety in the decline of vege- 
tation. Along Mackenzie's River, near the Rocky Mountains, trees are found 
in higher latitudes than they grow further east. On the alluvial banks of 
that river, the spruce fir, which Dr. Richardson* regards as the most northern 
tree of the Valley, reaches the latitude of sixty-eight degrees, the canoe birch 
disappearing thirty or forty miles before. Willows are found at the very mouth 
of this river, as willows grow at the mouth of the Mississippi. On the barren 

* Hooker's Botanical Miscellany, Vol. I., p. 180. 

t Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, page 446. 



628 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

grounds, to the east of Mackenzie's River, the tree vegetation was so lim- 
ited, that Captain Back* and his party had to depend mainly on moss for 
fuel. Still, even within the polar circle, there are many small shruhs, which 
afford berries ; and, also, a summer herbaceous vegetation, consisting of a 
limited number of species, which come to maturity by a rapid growth. 

I must refer, for a moment, to the desert beyond the Mississippi. The 
aridity of its climate, and the very unequal distribution of rain throughout 
the year, much more than a difference of temperature, gives to this great 
region its vegetable peculiarities. To these meteorological influences, we 
may ascribe the comparative absence of many forest trees and succulent, 
herbaceous plants, which flourish in corresponding latitudes on the eastern 
side of the Mississippi; and to the same conditions we may refer the 
presence of the numerous artimesias, some of which are suffruticose, and 
constitute the fuel of the Indians; and of all the cactacese, except a single 
species — the common prickly pear — which are found in the Interior Valley. 

Having taken an imperfect and rapid view of the relations between our 
climates, and a few of our native plants, I will proceed to say something of 
those which are cultivated. 

III. Climatic Geography op our Cultivated Plants. — We begin as 
before, within the tropics : 

The banana {Mwsa paradisiaca), constitutes the leading article of culti- 
vation on the tierras calientes of tropical Mexico. I cannot speak of its 
northern limit. 

Coffee has not, as yet, been introduced further north than the island 
of Cuba. 

Sugarcane, which attains its greatest development in the torrid zone, is 
cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi, as high as the thirty- first degree 
of latitude. 

Rice is chiefly planted below the thirtieth, but would succeed in a higher 
latitude. 

Cotton is a profitable crop to the latitude of thirty-six degrees thirty 
minutes, and will sometimes ripen a degree and a half further north. 

Maize, or Indian corn, produces three crops, in the course of the year, 
between the tropics. Its accommodation to climate is greater than that of any 
of the plants which have been mentioned. In the latitude of thirty-nine, it is 
sometimes bitten by early frosts ; but will bear cultivation ten degrees 
further north. On Rainy River, in latitude forty-eight degrees thirty 
minutes, and at Pembina, on Red River, in forty-nine degrees, Major Longf 
ascertained that it had ripened, but the yield was small. At Fort Garry, 
a degree further north than Pembina, I am informed, by Captain Lefroy, 
it will not come to maturity. The mean annual temperature of Pembina 
cannot be far from thirty- eight degrees Fahrenheit ; that of summer, from 
sixty-four degrees. 



* Arctic Land Expedition, page 356. f Second Expedition. 



part n.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 629 

The sweet potato (Convolvulus batiatas), belongs to the south, hut may 
be cultivated in sandy soils to the fortieth or forty-first parallel. 

The Irish potato (Solarium tuberosum), although, perhaps, a native of 
the south, has acquired a northern acclimation. Toward the shores of the 
Gulf of Mexico it is inferior in size, and amylaceous development ; but improves 
in both as we go north, and in the latitude of forty-three or forty-four 
attains its highest perfection. 

Wheat, according to Humboldt, cannot be profitably cultivated below an 
elevation of four thousand feet, in the latitude of 19° N. In the states around 
the Gulf of Mexico, ten or twelve degrees further north, a tolerable yield 
may be obtained, but the flour is inferior. As we advance into higher lati- 
tudes, this cereal improves both in the quantity and quality of its grain, and 
seems to attain its most perfect development in Michigan and western New 
York; where, in the forty-third degree of latitude, the mean temperature is 
about forty-six degrees of Fahrenheit. It has been successfully cultivated, 
however, at Fort Liard, on Mackenzie's River, in the sixtieth degree of 
latitude, as I am informed by Captain Lefroy. Thus it has a wider range 
than maize. 

The orange tree is sometimes destroyed below the thirtieth parallel ; but 
often ripens a sour fruit to the thirty-first, where, however, it is but little 
cultivated. 

The fig produces well up to the thirty- third degree, beyond which it 
requires winter protection. 

The pride of china (Melia azederach), flourishes, as a shade tree, to the 
latitude of thirty-three degrees, and might, perhaps, be introduced to still 
higher. 

The peach, which but partially sheds its leaves in winter, around the Gulf 
of Mexico, ripens its fruit as far north as the forty- third parallel, but affords 
an uncertain crop. 

The apple, on the other hand, attains but little perfection below the thirty- 
third degree but ; improves as we advance northerly, to the limits of existing 
cultivation. 

The citations which have been made, indicate the thirty-third decree of 
latitude as one which constitutes, more than any other, a climatic limitation 
to plants, both indigenous and cultivated. Thus the white flowering locust, 
buckeye, sugar tree, honey locust, blue ash, and apple tree, are rarely seen 
south of that degree ; and the long-leaved pine, live oak, magnolia grandi- 
flora, pride of china, fig ; cypress, and long moss, are as rarely met with above 
that parallel. These facts indicate a sudden change of climate which, how- 
ever, admits of explanation. The Cumberland Mountain, an outlier of the 
Appalachian chain, when it reaches the northern part of Georgia and Ala- 
bama, from the north-east, turns to the west, and traversing the upper part 
of the latter state, sinks to the general level of the country, in the north- 
western corner of the State of Mississippi ; thus forming a rampart of hills, 
many of which are more than a thousand feet in hight, which ranges between 
the thirty-third and thirty-fourth degrees of latitude. On the opposite or 



630 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

western side of the Mississippi, in the same latitudes, are the Ozark Moun- 
tains, which traverse southern Missouri, cross the State of Arkausas, pass 
through the northern part of Louisiana, and lose themselves in the Llano 
estacaclo, or the Rocky Mountains, of which they may be regarded as a 
lateral shoot. Many of the Ozarks have an elevation of fifteen hundred 
feet. Now the distance between these, and the last extremity of the Cum- 
berland Mountain on the eastern side of the Mississippi, does not exceed 
two hundred miles ; and thus the northern curve of the Gulf is backed by a 
parallel range of highlands, through which there are no other openings, than 
those which give passage to the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers. The 
country south of this range, from the western edge of Georgia, to the 
southern boundary of Texas, embracing the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, 
Alabama, and part of Florida, consists of an ampkitheatric series of allu- 
vial, diluvial, tertiary and cretaceous plains, having a gentle, southern 
declivity, which constitutes the tierras calientes of the northern arc of the 
Gulf. It is not until the traveler from higher latitudes, has passed the 
northern boundary of this amphitheater, until he has descended below Mem- 
phis, and the mouth of the Arkansas River, that he realizes, by a change in 
the aspect of vegetation, that he has entered a new climatic region. 

Thermometrical observations have not yet been made, with sufficient 
exactness, to determine the extent of this change of climate ; which, how- 
ever, is made manifest, almost as much by disease as by vegetation. In 
every fertile and well -inhabited portion of the country, to the south of this 
hilly rampart, the diseases have more of a southern character, than to the 
north. Passive congestion largely takes the place of inflammations ; and 
malignant intermittents and remittents occur with greater frequency. Yellow 
fever, which has repeatedly prevailed in almost every town up the Missis- 
sippi, to Vieksburg, in N. Lat. 32° 24', has never, but once, reached Mem- 
phis, in latitude 35°, and has not prevailed at any intervening town. Thus 
its limits, on the whole, have been those of the live oak, cypress, and long 
moss ; and it will not, any more than they, be found among apple orchards, 
wheat fields, and groves of blue ash, sugar maple, and the arborescent 
buckeyes. 

IY. Climatic Distribution of our Animals. — The influence of cli- 
mate on animal life, constitutes the end for which a physician studies the 
meteorology of the country in which he labors. To understand this influ- 
ence, it is not sufficient to consult his thermometer, hygrometer, and other 
instruments of science; but he must also look at the species and habitudes 
of animals which live upon its surface, or in its seas, lakes, rivers, and atmos- 
phere. In doing this, he will find that climate, in addition to its direct, has an 
indirect effect on the distribution of animal forms ; through its influence on 
the growth aid dissemination of plants, which constitute the food of the 
greater number of animals, especially those which are the prey of the 
carnivorous. 

The limits of this work do not permit a full exhibition of the modifica- 
tions of animal form and physiology, which the different climates of the 



part 11/ INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 631 

Valley present ; while, on the other hand, it would be imperfect, without the 
notices which I ana about to introduce. 

Br. John Richardson, in his admirable paper on North American Zoology,* 
has lucidly pointed out the great geographical and hydrographical features 
of the continent, which cooperate with climate, in extending or restricting 
the range, or determining the species of our animals. With these aspects 
the reader is already so well acquainted, from the descriptions of Part I, 
that a bare enumeration of them will be sufficient for our present purpose. 

1. The general course of our mountain chains, is from south to north; 
from which it results, that the quadrupeds of the Valley, by obliquely ascend- 
ing their slopes, may continue their migrations to a much lower latitude, 
than would otherwise be practicable ; while those which inhabit the moun- 
tains are, also, invited into southern latitudes by the same reason. This is 
quite analogous to what we observe of various plants, as the apple, wheat, 
and other cereal grains ; which, passing by the plains that surround the Gulf, 
are found on the terraces and table lands of Mexico, within the tropics. 

2. The course of our great rivers, the Mississippi, the Nelson (including 
Red River of Lake Winnipeg), and Mackenzie's River, the M&t of which 
flows to the south, the two others to the north. These rivers not only 
invite many fishes beyond the latitudes to which they would otherwise have 
been confined ; but, also, promote the migration of certain birds into climates 
which they would not have entered. 

3. The vast grassy plains, which stretch from near the mouth of the Rio 
del Norte, to the mouth of Mackenzie's River, through more than forty 
degrees of latitude, without being interrupted by a single deep and impassa- 
ble gorge, an herbless desert, or a transverse range of mountains, greatly 
favor the wide range of our quadrupeds. 

4. The vast number of lakes which lie above the forty- second parallel of 
latitude, together with the inland sea, called Hudson Bay, favor the northern 
extension of birds of passage ; and, no doubt, increase the number of those 
which would traverse the continent from south to north, if its whole surface 
were as dry as the plains to[ the west of the Mississippi River. | 

In attempting to indicate the climatic distribution of the animals of the Inte- 
rior Valley, I find the stock of materials exceedingly deficient. For its 
northern portions, the observations of Dr. Richardson are sufficiently am- 
ple ; but, for the middle and southern divisions, there is no corresponding 
source of information. Neither the Fauna Americana of the late Dr. 
Harlan, nor the American Natural History, of my lamented friend, and 
former colleague, Dr. G-odman, supplies the facts which are needed; the 
local fauna, attached to our state geological surveys, are but few, and they 
unfinished ; finally, the books of scientific travels, which have been pub- 
lished, relate chiefly to the middle and northern latitudes of the Valley. 

In the meagre notices I am about to give, I shall commence with the 
mammalia. 



Sixth Annual Report of the British Association, page 121 



632 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Of the animals wliicli are classed next to man, a single species of monkey 
was found, on the western side of the Gulf, as far north as the twenty-ninth 
degree of latitude. 

Of the bat tribe, one species ranges from the Arkansas River to the Great 
Slave Lake. I cannot give the range of the other species. 

Of bears we have three species. The black bear (Ursus Americanus), 
is found as a resident of every climate of the Valley, from south to north. 
The grizzly bear (£/". horribilis), inhabits the Rocky Mountains, perhaps 
through their whole extent. The white or polar bear (V. maritimus), 
lives on the ices of the Polar Sea, and the coasts of the adjoining continent. 
This animal is the most northern of all our quadrupeds, having been seen, by 
Captain Parry, as far north as the eighty- second degree of latitude, and 
never coming further south than the fifty- fifth degree, on the coast of 
Labrador. 

The raccoon (Procyon lotor), ranges from the Gulf of Mexico, to the 
sixtieth degree of latitude. 

The badger (Meles Labrador ia), is found on the prairies, up to the fifty- 
fifth parallel. Of its southern limit I cannot speak. 

The common weasel (Mustela erminea), the mink (M. lutreola), and the 
skunk (Mephitis Americana), are found from south to north. 

The otter (Lutra Brasiliensis), inhabits from the Gulf of Mexico to the 
Polar Sea. 

The wolf (Canis lupus of Lin.), resides from Florida to the arctic circle. 
The red fox (C. fulvus), is found in every latitude. The swift fox (C. 
velox), does not live further north than the fifty-fifth parallel. The gray 
fox (C. cinerius), is found from Canada to the south. The arctic fox (C 
lagojms), ranges as far south as the fifty- eighth parallel. 

The cougar or panther (Felix concholor, _L.), inhabits the southern and 
middle latitudes of the Valley, extending north to Upper Canada. 

The opossum (Didelphis Virginiana), ranges through the same latitudes. 

The hewer (Castor fiber), ranges from the latitude of thirty-five or thirty- 
six degrees, to the most northern woodlands. 

The prairie marmot or "prairie dog" (Arctomys ludovicianus), inhabits 
the great plains, in their southern and temperate latitudes. 

The common gray squirrel (Sciurus Carolinensis), is found from the lakes 
to the Gulf of Mexico. 

The common rabbit or hare (Lepus Americanus) is seen from the Gulf of 
Mexico to the limits of the northern woods. 

The mountain goat (Capra Americana) and mountain sheep (Qvis am- 
mon) inhabit the Rocky Mountains throughout their entire range. 

The antelope (Antilope farcifur) ranges on the plains near the Rocky 
Mountains, from the Saskatchewan, in N. Lat. 54°, perhaps to the Rio del 
Norte. 

Our common deer (Cervus Virginianus), is found from the gulf shores to 
those of Lake Superior. The elk (C. Wapiti) ranges as high as the fifty- 
fourth parallel. The moose (C. alces) lives high in the north, and does not 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA- 633 

migrate below the latitude just mentioned. The reindeer (C. tarandus) is 
the most northern of our ruminating quadrupeds — being found in summer on 
the islands of the Polar Sea ; in winter, in the valley of the Saskatchawan, 
about the same latitude with the moose. 

The musk ox (Bos moschatos) inhabits, and is peculiar to, the Barren 
Grounds between Hudson Bay and the Coppermine River. In summer it 
migrates north to Parry's Islands, in latitude seventy-four degrees. 

The bison or buffalo (Bos Americanus) formerly inhabited Florida. It 
extends north to the sixty-second degree of latitude. Is almost confined to 
the prairies, and does not range nearer to Hudson Bay, than six hundred 
miles. 

It appears from these citations, that a large proportion of our quadrupeds 
have a wide climatic range across the continent, the result, no doubt, of the 
unbroken continuity of the Rocky Mountains and the great plains which lie 
to their east. Animals, which might have begun in the temperate latitudes, 
have gradually advanced and become acclimated in more southern or more 
northern climates. The latter, especially, have invited them, and given to 
the cold regions, a fauna, richer in large quadrupeds, than the warm — thus 
reversing the order of our arborescent flora. This truth is made, still more 
obvious, when we refer to the marine mammalia of the south and north. In 
the Gulf of Mexico, there is, I believe, no species larger than the common 
porpoise (Delphinus phocaena), which may be occasionally seen vaulting up 
the passes, or ultimate mouths of the Mississippi; but the Polar Sea, which 
subtends the northern extremity of the Valley, abounds in seals, dolphins, 
walrusses, and whales of the largest size. The first, supplies the chief 
articles of food, clothing, and fuel, to the tribes of Esquimaux, who inhabit 
those desolate regions. Thus, so great is the range of our climates, that at 
one extremity of the Valley, man draws his subsistence and comfort from 
the vegetable kingdom — at the other, from the animal. 

For what relates to the climates sought by the following birds, I am in- 
debted to Doctor Richardson, Mr. Nuttal, and the distinguished American 
ornithologist, Audubon. Most birds are migratory, under the combined In- 
fluence of food and climate. In autumn, there is a movement to the south — 
in spring, to the north. Some species migrate through a few degrees of lati- 
tude only — others quite through the Interior Valley. Those birds which 
do not change their latitude to any great extent, wander from place to place 
in quest of sustenance. It is extremely difficult to ascertain the precise 
limits of migration, which, in fact, may differ in different years, according to 
the well-known annual variations of climate, and the food on which different 
species subsist. 

The wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is essentially a bird of our middle 
latitudes ; being rare near the Gulf of Mexico, but formerly abundant in 
Kentucky, Ohio, and the states lying to their west. It ranges the Missis- 
sippi and Missouri, in the woodlands, as high as Lat. 44° N. 

The purple grakle (Quisculus versicolor) is found, all the year round, in 
Louisiana; in summer, on the shores of the Lakes, and beyond to Lat. 57° N 
41 



634 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 

The turtle dove (Columba Carolinensis) breeds in Louisiana, and in sum- 
mer spreads over the country to the Lakes, in Lat. 42° N. 

The mocking bird (Tardus polyglot tus) is found, throughout the year, in 
Louisiana, and in summer, makes its way as far north as the Lakes, in Lat. 
44°. 

The purple martin (Hirundo purpurea) arrives at New Orleans, from the 
south, in the first week of February, and reaches the banks of the Ohio from 
the 15th of March to the 15th of April, according to the opening of spring; 
advancing, with the hot weather, up to the fifty-seventh degree. 

The humming bird ( Trochilus colubris) appears in Louisiana from the more 
distant south, between the fifteenth of April and the first of May. It finally 
reaches the fifty- seventh parallel. 

The wild pigeon (Columba, migratoria) migrates over a wide range of 
country. In autumn, descending to the tropical regions — in spring, to Lat. 
62° N. 

The wild goose (Anser Canadensis) migrates from the Gulf of Mexico to 
Lat. 68° N. The same is true of the great heron (Ardea herodius) as to 
the south, but it goes no higher north, than Lat. 50°. 

The ox-bird ( Tringa alpina) ranges from the south-western coasts of the 
Gulf of Mexico to Mellville Island, Lat. 74° N. 

The woodcock (Rusticola miner) comes up from the south, and extends its 
migrations to the St. Lawrence. 

The rail (Rallus Cardinus) ranges from the south to the sixty-second 
degree of latitude. 

The coot (Falica Americana) extends its migrations to Lat. 56° N. 

The parakeet (Psittacus Carolinensis) is a bird of the south. The highest 
latitude to which it migrates is about forty- one degrees north, on the Illinois 
River, where I saw it in the month of August. 

The snowbird (Fringilla hy emails) and the snow bunting (Emberiza ni- 
valis) are northern birds, which, in severe winters, make their way far into 
the south. The former ranges batween 55° and 30° N.; the latter between 
Lat. 60° and 36° N. 

The raven (Corvus cor ax) is found from near the Tropic of Cancer to Lat. 
74° N. The crow (C. Americanus) resides throughout the year, in every 
latitude, up to the fifty-fifth degree. 

The kingfisher (Alcedo alcyon) inhabits every latitude, from the tropics to 
the sixty- seventh parallel. 

The quail (Ortyx Virginiana) resides permanently from the Gulf to Lat. 
48° N. 

The blue bird (Sialia Wilsonii) is found, in mild weather, from the tro- 
pics to the forty-eighth parallel. 

The meadow lark (Slurnella ludoviciana) is found from the hottest re- 
gions, up to N. Lat. 53°. 

Of our reptiles and amphibious animals, I must say still less, than of our 
birds. As a general fact, our venomous snakes are chiefly in the south. 
The banks of everv marsh and hummock, around the Gulf of Mexico, are in- 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 635 

fested with them ; while they are not thought of by the traveler, who en- 
camps on the shores of Lake Superior; yet several snakes, chiefly innoxious, 
are found as high as the fifty -fifth parallel. Lizzards reach only the fiftieth; 
but certain frogs and salamanders are found on Mackenzie's Eiver, in the lat- 
itude of sixty-seven degrees. The alligator (A. lucius), which abounds 
along the estuaries around the Gulf of Mexico, ascends the Mississippi, and 
is sometimes found in the Arkansas River,* as high as the thirty-fourth de- 
grees of latitude. Thus, its migration terminates near the line which bounds 
the magnolia grandiflora and the long moss. 

Of the distances to which the fishes of the Grulf and the lower Mississippi, 
make their annual migrations into the interior, I cannot speak. The brook 
trout (Salmo fontinalis) is not found in the south. In traveling up the 
Mississippi, it is not met with, I believe, until we pass the forty-fourth par- 
allel of latitude. Above that parallel, in the country around the mouth of 
St. Peters' Eiver and the Falls of St. Anthony, I am informed by Dr. Shu- 
mard,t it is abundant ; and becomes still more common as we advance higher 
in the north. The elevation of the streams above the sea, where the trout 
of this region begin to make their appearance, is about eight hundred feet. 
In the State of Ohio, according to Doctor Kirtland,J they are found in two 
streams which fall into Lake Erie, from table lands which have an elevation 
of eleven hundred feet, in the latitude of forty- one degrees thirty minutes. 
From these localities eastwardly to the mountains, trout are taken from 
many streams, at an elevation of twelve or thirteen hundred feet. The most 
southern latitude in which, so far as I have been informed, they have yet 
been found, is the thirty-ninth, at an elevation of fourteen or fifteen hundred 
feet, in some of the tributaries of the Monongahela River. 

The Salmo amethystes, or Mackinac trout, and the Corregonus albus, or 
white fish, are found as low as the forty-first parallel in Lake Erie, and, 
thence indefinitely to the north. 

The last animal of which I shall speak, and the only one taken from the 
numerous class of insects, is the musquito (Simulium). Along the lower 
Mississippi and its tributaries, especially below the latitude of thirty- three 
degrees, this notorious little insect lives and multiplies, throughout the 
winter ; but in the middle regions of the Valley, it appears only in summer 
and early autumn. It was once supposed that these regions constituted its 
northern limit; but we now know, that travelers to the sources of the 
Missouri, and to the mouth of Mackenzie's River, find them a great an- 
noyance. If the same species extends from the tropics into the polar circle, 
it affords a striking example of animal accommodation to climate ; but it 
may be that a new species, in the north, is substituted for that of the south. 

A few words must suffice, in this place, for the relations between climate 
and our domestic animals. Both the flesh, and the milk of the cow degener- 
ate, below the latitude of thirty-three degrees ; that is, where the mean an- 

* Flint's Hist, and Geog. Miss. Valley. i U. S. Assist. Geologist. 

t Ohio Geol. Reports. 



636 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES. ETC. 

nual heat is sixty-five degrees, or above. The mule, taken into the same 
region, maintains a constitution unimpaired. The horse, however, undergoes 
an acclimation ; and for the first year, is weak, and has hut little endurance. 
If he live through that period, his health and strength become good. The 
horses bred around the G-ulf, are, in general, small, but hardy. Those which 
run wild on the southern portions of the great desert, are commonly of 
smaller size, than the domesticated. When sheep are taken into the south- 
ern part of the Valley, their wool degenerates. The hog, however, flourishes 
in the south, not less than in the temperate and northern latitudes. 

It remains to speak of the dissemination of the human race through our 
various and opposite climates ; but that will fall more properly into the open- 
ing chapter of Part III, for which we are now prepared ; and I will only re- 
mark, here, that man has accommodated himself more effectually to all our 
climates, than any other member of the animal kingdom ; being a permanent 
inhabitant of the whole, from the southern shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 
where the mean annual temperature is eighty degrees, to the latitude of sev- 
enty degrees north, where it is but five degrees of Fahrenheit. It appears, 
then, that he may become a permanent denizen of any region that will afford 
him sustenance. 



PART THIRD. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL ETIOLOGY. 



CHAPTER I. 

POPULATION. 



SECTION I. 

DIVISION INTO VARIETIES. 

The Interior Valley op North America, embraces four of the five 
varieties, into which naturalists have commonly divided the human race. In 
reference to their numbers, civilization, and interest to the physiologist and 
physician, they stand in the following order : First, the Caucasian; Second, 
the African ; Third, the North- American Indian ; Fourth, the Mongo- 
lian. The three former, existing in contiguous or intermingled masses, 
present opportunities for studying the comparative physiology and diseases 
of different races, which we should not neglect. The last, known under the 
name of Esquimaux, are but a handful, compared with either of the other 
varieties, and live contiguous to but one of them — the Indian. 

The Caucasian races are found in large numbers, within the tropics, 
to the latitude of forty- seven degrees north. Beyond that latitude, 
they are met with but in trading establishments, missionary stations, and 
other small settlements, on the rivers and shores of Hudson Bay, and Davis' 
Straits, up to the fifty-eighth or sixtieth degree. The most populous zone 
is between the thirty-fourth and forty-fourth degrees ; the line of greatest 
length and density of population being near the latitude of thirty-nine de- 
grees. A great majority of the whole reside east of the Mississippi. 

The African, or Negro variety — nearly all of whom are natives of this 
continent, though many were born out of the Valley — have a more southern 
residence. Extending upward from the tropics, they gradually become more 
numerous in proportion to the whites, to the latitude of thirty-two or thirty- 
three degrees ; when they begin to decrease, and above the thirty-ninth degree 
are found chiefly in large cities ; though single families, or small settlements, 
are to be met with, beyond Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, as far north as the 



638 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

latitude of forty-four degrees. Like the whites, fhey are most numer- 
ous on the eastern side of the Mississippi. 

The North- American, or Indian variety, on the other hand, nearly all 
reside west of the Gulf of Mexico and of the Mississippi, up to the forty- 
fourth degree of latitude ; beyond which they are found over the interior of 
the continent generally, but are much more numerous to the west than east. 
After passing the fiftieth parallel, the number diminishes rapidly, and very 
few are found within the Polar Circle. 

The Mongolian variety, of which the Esquimaux are the representatives, 
succeed in the north to the Indian, and are found on the entire polar margin 
of the Valley. 

Intending to make the diseases of the African, Indian, and Esquimaux va- 
rieties, respectively, the subjects of special dissertations, I shall dismiss them, 
until the history of the diseases of the Caucasian races is finished. 



SECTION II. 

CAUCASIAN VARIETY.— HISTORICAL, CHRONOLOGICAL, AND 
GEOGRAPHICAL ANALYSIS. 

I. Curves of Migration from Europe. — Western Europe, either di- 
rectly or indirectly, has given our Valley its Caucasian population. The 
emigrating zone of that continent, extends from the south of Spain, in lati- 
tude thirty-six degrees, to the middle of Sweden and Norway, in the sixtieth 
parallel; and the emigrants from it have settled chiefly between the eigh- 
teenth and forty-eighth degrees. The principal emigration, however, has 
been from the region lying between the forty-fifth and fifty-fifth parallels ; to 
that part of this continent comprehended between the thirty-fifth and forty- 
fifth degrees. Thus, the curve of emigration bends southwardly, and in trav- 
ersing the Atlantic Ocean, has sunk, on an average, ten degrees to the 
south. The different lines of emigration, have, moreover, not often crossed 
each other ; and hence, those who resided furthest north in Europe, now 
reside furthest north in America. The greatest exception to this remark, 
was the emigration of the French to Canada, while the English, from a higher 
latitude, were emigrating to Virginia and the Carolinas. On the other 
hand, the Spaniards, from the southern shores of Europe, settled around the 
Gulf of Mexico ; and the existing emigration from beyond the Baltic, is 
to the regions west of Lake Michigan. Let us now look at these migrations 
in the order of their occurrence. 

II. The French. — The beginning of the settlement of our Valley was in the 
North, and the first immigrants were French. As early as 1506, only fourteen 
years after the discovery of America, they had made a map of the Gulf of St. 
Lawrence, and in 1534, Cartier entered the St. Lawrence river. In 1535, he 
ascended it to the island of Montreal. After a long period of suspended 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 639 

operations, Quebec was founded by Champlain, in 1608. Emigration from 
France was then recommenced, and continued through the St. Lawrence, for 
more than one hundred and fifty years ; that is, till Canada was ceded to Great 
Britain, in 1763. The settlers planted themselves on either bank of the St. 
Lawrence and its tributaries ; and extended along the Lakes, chiefly upon 
their northern shores and intervening straits, to Mackinac and Lake Supe- 
rior; always arranging themselves in open villages. In 1674, Father Mar- 
quette, and M. Joliet, a trader, entered the basin of the Mississippi, by 
Wisconsin River ; and soon afterward their countrymen began settlements, 
which, at length, spread as far south as the latitude of thirty-eight degrees. 
Peoria, Cahokia, and Kaskaskia, in the western part of the State of Illinois ; 
Carondelet, St. Charles, and St. Louis, on the opposite side of the Missis- 
sippi, in the State of Missouri ; Vincennes, in the State of Indiana, and 
Fort Du Quesne — now Pittsburgh — are among the fruits of this early 
enterprise, among the upper and eastern tributaries of the great river. 

A few facts connected with this, the earliest colony of our Valley, belong to 
its medical history. First. The pursuits and modes of life of the immigrants 
and their descendants, have always been remarkably simple. Second. They 
have not dispersed and intermarried, to any great extent, among the immi- 
grants from other parts of Europe. Third. Their long canoe voyages up 
the great lakes and their tributary streams, gradually produced a peculiar 
class of men, generally called Voyageurs, of whom more hereafter. 

At the present time, the chief portion of our northern French population 
is found, as indeed it has always been, in Lower Canada. 

In 1683, De La Salle undertook to descend to the mouth of the [great 
river, discovered by Father Marquette. This he accomplished, and returning 
by the same route, departed for France; where" he promoted asouthern emi- 
gration. Appointed to the command of the first expedition, he missed the 
mouths of the Mississippi, the object of his voyage, and landed, in 1685, on 
the shores of Matagorda Bay, in Texas, where he built Fort St. Louis. In 
1687, he was assassinated by one of his own men, and no permanent settle- 
ment followed. In the same year, Tonti, from Canada, descended the 
Mississippi to Arkansas Biver, on which he established a post. After the 
unsuccessful expedition of La Salle, nothing more was done by sea, until 
1699, when a settlement, under M. D'Iberville, was effected, on Biloxi Bay, 
whence excursions were made into the interior. In 1717, New Orleans was 
founded by the same leader. Colonists continued to arrive, and the Mis- 
sissippi was ascended, until the settlements on the Illinois Biver were 
reached ; and thus a curved zone of French population, extending from the 
estuary of the St. Lawrence to that of the Mississippi, traversed the great 
Valley, through seventeen degrees of latitude ; before any other European 
inhabitants had entered it, except a few Spaniards in the south. In addition 
to their settlements on the Mississippi, the French made others, to a more 
limited extent, on the Arkansas, Bed, and Mobile Bivers ; in all cases con- 
fining themselves to the banks of the streams. A small and often interrupted 
current of immigration, continued until 1769 ; when Louisiana passed into 



640 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book n 

the possession of Spain. Several years before that event, a consider- 
able colony of French migrated from Arcadia — Nova Scotia — and settled 
on that part of the Mississippi, which is called the Arcadian Coast. 

The French of the lower Mississippi, and their descendants, called Creoles, 
like their brethren on the St. Lawrence, lead simple, and, in the main, tem- 
perate lives; their pursuits are chiefly agricultural and commercial; they 
intermarry with the surrounding population rather more than those of 
Canada. 

It would be interesting to trace out the influences of climates so distant, 
and soils so different, as those of Quebec and New Orleans, on people of the 
same national blood ; but my intercourse with them has been too limited to 
justify the attempt. 

III. The Spaniards. — In 1528, the Spaniards, under Narvaez, effected 
a landing in Appalachee Bay, Middle Florida, and made an incursion into 
the interior, coming out to the Gulf of Mexico, at Pensacola Bay, West 
Florida, of which they were the discoverers ; but they left no permanent 
settlement. In 1538, Be Soto effected a landing at Spiritu Santo, now 
Tampa Bay ; and wandered into the interior asf ar as the Mississippi, of which 
he was the discoverer. Passing far west of that river, he returned to be 
buried beneath its waters ; and left no permanent settlement in the country. 
In 1540, Pensacola Bay was again visited by the Spaniards, from Cuba; 
after which, for a long period, West Florida was neglected. Meanwhile, 
however, Spanish settlements, in the character of Roman Catholic, Mis- 
sionary stations, were extended from Mexico, through Texas, to Reel River ; 
of which Nacogdoches and Natchitoches were the most important. 

In 1689, attention was again turned to Pensacola Bay, and a Fort, called 
the Barrancas, was, built near its mouth. This was followed, in 1693, by a 
settlement, where the town of Pensacola now stands. Thus Spanish immi- 
gration into West Florida was begun, and continued until 1763, when the 
whole of Florida was ceded to Great Britain ; an event which was followed 
by the emigration, to Cuba and Louisiana, of a large portion of the inhabi- 
tants. After the lapse of twenty years, it was restored to Spain; when 
these people returned in considerable numbers ; but, on the sale of Florida 
to the United States, in 1822, the greater part of them left it. 

The Spanish immigration to the banks of the Mississippi, and its tribu- 
taries, began with the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, in 1769, as already 
mentioned. The new-comers extended their settlements up the great river to 
the Missouri; but on the retrocession of the country to France, in 1802 ? 
and its sale to the United States, in 1803, most of the Spanish population 
again emigrated to Florida, Cuba, and Mexico. Thus the Spanish Creoles, 
at last, make but a feeble element of our population. In modes of living 
and physiology, they resemble the French, much more than they do the 
Anglo-Americans; and have intermarried with the former more extensively 
than with the latter. If we pass from West Florida and Louisiana, to the 
Valley of the Rio del Norte, we find a larger Spanish population extending 
up to Santa Fe and the Valley of Taos, and westwardly to the Sierra Madre- 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 641 

IV. The British. — The next immigration into our Valley was British, 
and took place, both on its northern and southern borders. Immediately 
after the cession of Canada, in 1763, the English, Scotch, and Irish began 
to enter it by the St. Lawrence, and these streams of immigration have con- 
tinued ever since ; that from Ireland being, in the latter years, much greater 
than both the others. In Canada East, the immigrants from Great Britain 
and Ireland, with their descendants, make a large proportion of the whole 
population ; and, in Canada West, there are few others, except immigrants 
from the United States. They have spread out, in detached trading estab- 
lishments, to the north-west, as far as Lake Winnipeg and Hudson Bay; in 
fact, to the west of both, up to the Rocky Mountains. More enterprising 
and diversified in their pursuits than the Canadians — as the French are 
called — they are, at the same time, more addicted to a full diet and intem- 
perate drinking. 

The British emigration to West Florida, during the twenty years which 
England held that Province, was not very great. Yet Pensacola and Mobile 
were once English towns: and the first notice we have of the medical 
topography and fevers of those localities, is to be found in the well-known 
Essay on the Diseases of Hot Climates, by Dr. Lind, an English naval 
surgeon. After the restoration of Florida to Spain, in 1782, most of the 
British population withdrew. 

Having thus traced out the only direct emigrations from Europe to our 
Valley, which preceded the indirect, or that of Europeans and their 
descendants from the Atlantic states, we are now brought to the latter 
which, as we shall see, make up the mass of its population. 

V. Immigrants from the Atlantic States. -—Before proceeding to 
speak of the peopling of our Valley, by emigrants from the Atlantic States, 
it is proper to give the dates of the settlements of those states, which, in 
the order of time, are as follows : Virginia, 1607 — New York, 1615 - — New 
England, 1629 — Delaware, 1630 — Maryland, 1632 — Pennsylvania, 1643 
— New Jersey, 1650 — North Carolina, 1660 — South Carolina, 1670 — 
Gi-eorgia, 1733. 

The first advances of population to this side of the Appalachian Moun- 
tains, were from the colonies of North Carolina, Virginia, and Pennsylvania, 
into a region extending from the Tennessee River to Lake Erie. Perma- 
nent settlements were begun in East Tennessee, as early as 1761 ; in 
Western Virginia and Pennsylvania soon afterward. The settlement of 
Kentucky, then a part of Virginia, began in 1774; that of Ohio, by immi- 
grants from Massachusetts, in 1788; that of Indiana and Illinois, about 
1795 ; that of Mississippi and Alabama, at a still later period ; that of 
Florida, in 1822; of the states beyond the Mississippi, in 1804; of Wes- 
tern New York, including the coasts of Lakes Erie and Ontario, about 1788 ; 
and that of Texas, by Americans, in 1822. Thus the oldest Europo- Amer- 
ican settlements in the Valley, are those of Eastern and Middle Tennessee, 
North-west Virginia, South-west Pennsylvania, and Kentucky. 

The .najority of the people of Western New York are either from the 



642 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

eastern portions of that state, or from New England ; those of Western 
Pennsylvania, from the middle portions of that state, embracing a large 
proportion of Irish, Scotch, and G-ermans ; those of Western Virginia and 
Kentucky, from the eastern and middle regions of the former, and from 
Maryland ; those of Tennessee, from North Carolina ; those of Alabama 
and Florida, from South Carolina and Georgia; those of Mississippi, 
Louisiana, and Arkansas, from North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and 
Tennessee ; those of Texas, from all the states just named ; those of 
Missouri, from North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia ; those 
of Ohio, from New Jersey, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and other New 
England States, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and Ken- 
tucky ; those of Indiana, from Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania; those of 
Illinois, from Ohio, Kentucky, and New York ; those of Iowa, from Ken- 
tucky, Ohio, Indiana, and New England; those of Michigan and Wisconsin, 
from New York and New England. 

These statements must be received in the most general sense ; for, though 
various regions have a great predominance of people from some of the old 
states, still the intermingling in every part of the Valley has been very 
great. South of the Ohio River, both east and west of the Mississippi, 
the chief elements of this intermixture, are from the slaveholding, Atlantic 
States, south of Pennsylvania ; while north of that river, they are derived 
from the non-slaveholding states, including the one just named. As we 
advance westwardly from the Alleghany Mountains, into the newer states of 
the Valley, the elements of variety display a regular increase ; and thus the 
later the settlement of any portion of the Valley, the more is it com- 
pounded; which is especially true of the non-slaveholding states. It is 
scarcely necessary to add, that these immigrants, together with their descen- 
dants, constitute the greater part of our population, from the Lakes to the 
Grulf cf Mexico. There are, however, many immigrants from Europe, who 
have reached us, and are still arriving, through the Atlantic states, and 
deserve a passing notice. 

VI. Late and present immigrants from Europe. — For the last quarter 
of a century there has been a direct and increasing immigration of northern 
Europeans into the Valley ; the majority of whom have settled north of the 
thirthy-ninth degree of latitude. Nearly all have come from kingdoms 
north-east of France, that is, above the fiftieth degree of latitude. In the 
order of their numbers we may begin with, 

1. The Germans. — They are from various parts of Germany, and out- 
number the immigrants from any other part of Europe. But few of them 
settle in the slave States, with the the exception of Missouri. They are 
most numerous between the Lakes and the Ohio River. While many re- 
main in the larger towns and cities, the majority disperse into the country, 
where they amalgamate readily with the existing population. 

2. The Irish. — In number they stand next to the German immigrants. 
More disposed to inhabit cities than the country, and less offended by sla- 
very, they are found in large numbers in New Orleans and Mobile, not less 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 643 

than in St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, Montreal, 
and Quebec. In the two latter cities, and, generally, north of the Lakes, 
they are much more numerous than the Germans. 

3. The English. They, no doubt, rank next in number, but scattering, 
and bearing a close resemblance to their brethren of the Valley, are soon 
confounded with them. In Canada and the lead-mine regions of Illinois and 
Wisconsin, they are numerous. 

4. The Scotch. Less numerous, perhaps, than the English, and found 
both in town and country. They are chiefly from the Lowlands. More nu- 
merous in Canada than the United States. 

5. The Welsh. More clannish than the last two, they have settled chiefly 
in Cincinnati, and in the south-eastern portions of Ohio ; where many of 
them are employed in its iron mines and coaleries. 

6. The Norwegians. These make a new stream of immigration. Its 
termination is in northern Illinois, Wisconsin, and Iowa, about the forty- 
third degree of latitude. 

7. The Poles. The revolutions of Poland, have dispersed a considerable 
number of the people of that country over the Valley. They are chiefly 
men, and abide in towns and cities. 

8. The Jews. Mostly English, German, and Polish ; they prefer the cities, 
and are found from Quebec to New Orleans. They are, perhaps, more nu- 
merous in Cincinnati than in any other city. 

VII. National Genealogies. — Such are the principal elements of our 
population. We have seen that a vast majority have been derived from the 
Atlantic States ; and it remains to inquire, whence they or their ancestors 
originally emigrated to those States. The answer is, almost entirely from 
Great Britain and Ireland — above all, from England. Emigrants from the 
last, were almost the exclusive settlers of New England ; contributed liber- 
ally to the settlement of New York and New Jersey ; still more largely to 
that of Pennsylvania and Maryland, and composed nearly the whole popula- 
tion of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia. But there were, among the 
early immigrants into the Atlantic colonies, several communities, which de- 
serve to be mentioned. The most numerous were the Low Dutch, in New 
York and New Jersey; Swedes and Germans, in Pennsylvania; and French 
Huguenots, in South Carolina. 

When we trace up these streams of European emigration to their sources 
— distant in point of time and space — we have the following results. First. 
The Irish, Welsh, Highland Scotch, Normans, Low Dutch, and French, land 
us among the Kimmerian or Celtic nations — the earliest known inhabitants 
of western Europe ; and distinguished by different appellations in different 
countries, as the Kelts, Kimbri, Belgse, Erse, Cimbri, Britons, Scots, Caledo- 
nians, and Gauls. Second. The English, Lowland Scotch, French, High 
Dutch, Swiss, Danes, Swedes, and Norwegians, carry us to the Scythian or 
Gothic nations; of which the Saxons, Germans, Angles, Jutes, and Franks, 
were the principal tribes. 

Laborious researches have convinced the ethnogrophers, that both these 



644 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

classes of nomadic barbarians, entered Europe south of the Baltic, from be- 
yond the Euxine or Black Sea; and were, in fact, wanderers from the Cau- 
casian Mountains, and the plains of Asia lying north of them; but that the 
migration of the Celtic, was many centuries before that of the Gothic 
hordes. 

Let us change from analysis to synthesis, and thus obtain a fuller view of 
the composition of our society. The amalgamation of tribes, by which the 
main stock of our population was formed, began in England. During the 
time that island was held by the Romans, the Celtic population must have 
received an infusion of Pelasgic, or southern European blood, not less than 
of civilization. Then came the conquests by the Saxons and Angles, and 
the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon nation — with which, however, the Celtic 
population must have become more or less blended — although many were de- 
stroyed, and many driven into the mountains of Wales. The conquest, and 
long occupation of the country by the Danes, contributed another, though 
kindred element ; as they had descended from the Jutes, a Gothic race. 
Lastly, the Norman conquest introduced another element, which, from its 
magnitude, must have greatly changed the blood and national character of 
the conquered. Thus, we see that the compound term, Anglo-Saxon, is not 
an accurate expression for the present English race; but an arbitrary epithet 
for a compound of Celts, Romans, Angles, Saxons, Jutes or Danes, and Nor- 
mans ; in which the predominating elements are those which have imposed 
their names upon the mass. Emigrants from this mass, peopled the Atlantic 
States ; where they absorbed a portion of Swedish, Low Dutch, French, Ger- 
man, and Irish blood ; then ascended the Alleghany Mountains, spread — and 
are still spreading — over the great Valley, and constitute the basis and bulk 
of our population. 



SECTION III. 

PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 
The modifications of physiology, consequent on the immigration and inter- 
mingling of western Europeans in America, may be considered as prospec- 
tive rather than present. Races do not change their type in a single 
generation, and some preserve it for long and indefinite periods ; though 
placed under conditions which, a priori, might be expected to work out 
rapid changes. In comparing the circumstances which surround the people 
of the Interior Valley of North America, with those which surround their 
European brethren at home, we may refer them to several distinct heads ; 
and, although not able to appreciate the exact influence of either, they must 
be regarded as causes, of which the effects will, in due time, be so far 
developed, as to merit the attention of the practical physician. The causes 
to which I refer, may be included under the following heads : First. — Inter- 
marriage : Second. — Change of climate : Third. — Change of Food : Fourth. 



tart in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 645 

— Change of political, moral, and social condition. Let us consider them 
separately. 

I. Intermarriage. — As western Europe was peopled by nomadic and 
barbarous tribes, of a warlike spirit, civilization found them divided into 
many kingdoms ; between which, until within the last thirty years, that is. 
since the downfall of Napoleon, there was but little intercourse, and, conse- 
quently, but little intermarriage. 

The density of population, has even prevented much intestine change of 
place, by the people of the same kingdom ; who, in its different counties or 
departments, have continued, through a long period of time, to intermarry 
with each other; and thus perpetuate their characteristics, corporeal and 
mental; which perpetuation has been negatively promoted, by the subsistence 
of each nation, for many generations, on the same kind of diet; in climates 
which continued without alteration from time ; under the influence of forms 
of government that underwent no important modification, and with usages 
and manners which varied quite as little. In short, from the remote period, 
when the Celtic nations were conquered by the later Asiatic hordes, chiefly 
known under the names of Goths, Saxons, Germans, and Franks, down to 
the present century, all the circumstances favored the full development of 
well-defined varieties of constitution, in the different kingdoms of that 
continent. 

The history of the settlement of our Valley, as sketched in the preceding 
section, shows how much its people differ from their brethren of the old world, 
and even of the old states of the Union, on the subject of intermarriage. 

1. Our frontiers, from Quebec, round by the Lakes and Hudson Bay, to 
the Gulf of Mexico, beyond the Rio del Norte, present a mixed race of 
whites and Indians ; which is gradually lost, in the population residing imme- 
diately within that boundary. Thus Indian blood is, as it were, absorbed 
by the surface of the new nation. The readiest amalgamation with the 
people of that race, is by the northern French, and the southern Spanish 
Creoles; but the Anglo-American immigrants from the Atlantic States, and 
their descendants have, at all times, when war did not prevent it, shown a 
propensity of the same kind. 

2. Wherever there is a negro population, bond or free, the same coales- 
cence is displayed ; so that in all our towns, from Mobile to Montreal, and 
from Pittsburgh to St. Louis, the streets are more or less thronged with 
mulattoes, quadroons, and other mixed breeds; all pressing upward, that is, 
ambitious of intermarriage with those whiter than themselves ; and thus our 
Caucasian blood is constantly, though slowly, acquiring an African element. 
In the willingness for this commingling, the Spanish Creoles of Florida, Lou- 
isiana, and Mexico stand first ; next come the French Creoles of the Lower 
Mississippi ; then some of the classes of the modern emigrants from Great 
Britain, Ireland, and Germany; lastly, the native Anglo-Americans. 

3. In Canada, intermarriage between the French and British population, 
although limited by the prejudices of race, and the aversion of the con- 
quered toward their conquerors, is by no means uncommon, especially in the 



646 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

towns and cities, and hence the process of assimilation is going on ; in the 
west, as along the middle portions of the Mississippi, marriages of the 
French with Anglo-Americans are so common, that the former element is 
fast disappearing. On the lower Mississippi and the northern coasts of the 
Gulf of Mexico, the same union has been occurring ever since the cession of 
Louisiana ; and, as the ratio is on the increase, a copious infusion of Franco- 
American blood into the Anglo-American, will mark the final absorption of 
the French Creole race. 

4. In the same region, we have long been receiving, directly, or indirectly 
through the French, a tincture of Spanish blood. 

5. Intermarriages by the English and Irish immigrants with the indigenous 
population of the Valley, are familiar events ; and if the language of the 
German immigrants oppose, for a while, the same kind of union, the work 
of amalgamation is only deferred. In other words, they are not destined to 
form distinct and permanent communities any where in our Valley, as they 
once did in Pennsylvania. It will, no doubt, turn out in the same way with 
the Norwegians, now pouring into the regions west of the great Lakes. 

6. Finally, immigrants and their descendants, from all the Atlantic States, 
here intermarry, unrestrained by any kind of prejudice ; for, on reaching the 
Valley, their sectional feelings are soon moderated, and many of their antip- 
athies become extinct. Even in the extreme south, among the immigrants 
from the Carolinas and Georgia, the introduction of New England, New 
York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio blood, is constantly going on. A large pro- 
portion of the emigrants, of both sexes, from those states, are unmarried 
persons — young men who go out as overseers or superintendents of planta- 
tions, clerks, mechanics, watermen, merchants, teachers, physicians, lawyers, 
and divines; and young women who teach, or act as governesses. The mar- 
riages of these classes are not, in general, among themselves, but with the 
children of the resident population; and thus the north mingles with the 
south in the lower parts of the Valley ; while in the upper, the immigration 
of families from Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, brings out the same 
result. 

From all this it follows, that the world has not before witnessed such a 
commingling of races. Those of England and the Atlantic States, the most 
complete of modern times, bear no comparison with ours; and if we ascend 
to the earliest historic period, no case of equal complexity is met with. The 
Roman Empire, it is true, was greatly compounded; it was, however, an 
assemblage of distinct nations, between which there was but little, in many 
cases no, social, nor even commercial intercourse. It was an aggregate ; ours 
is a living compound, as yet in the forming stage. Three out of five varie- 
ties of the human species, with all the important races which belong to 
one — the Caucasian or overruling element — cannot fail in the end to give 
a new physiological and psychological development. 

In their western migrations from the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates, to 
the banks of the Mississippi, and the shores of the Gulf and Lakes, tribes and 
nations have been governed by a law of increasing social amalgamation. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 647 

The head of the Mediterranean Sea presented greater diversity than the 
plains of Chaldea — Greece still greater — Rome went beyond her — the 
population of western Europe is still more compounded — that of our 
Atlantic States, diversified in a degree yet higher — that of our Valley 
beyond all. Thus the union and living coalescence of nations, have been 
in the direct ratio of time and distance, from the birth-place of the species. 
The course has been westward, bending to the north in Europe, but again, as 
we have seen, inclining to the south, to reach America. Dr. Robert M. 
Patterson, of the United States Mint, Philadelphia, has investigated its 
direction in the United States for fifty years. In 1790 the center of popula- 
tion was near Baltimore, Maryland; and in 1840 it was in Morgan county, 
Virginia, both in the same latitude. Thus it appears, that the curve of 
migration for the United States, still runs nearly from east to west. 

But the influence of the latter element is not at an end. The Great 
Central Valley of North America is the last crucible into which 
living materials, in great and diversified streams, can be poured for amalga- 
mation. The double range of mountains which separate it from the Pacific 
Ocean, leave too little space for an empire on the shores of that sea ; and 
the detached communities which may there grow up, will be but derivatives 
from the homogeneous millions, with which time will people the great region 
between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains, which is thus destined to 
present the last and greatest development of society. 

II. Change of Climate. — While we recognize intermarriage as the 
greatest agent in transforming the races of mankind, we should not over- 
look external influences, of which climate must be regarded as one. Nor 
must we reject it because some naturalists, in their attempts to explain too 
much by it, have assigned it an influence too limited. The immense pre- 
dominance of a dark or black skin, eyes, and hair, in the inter-tropical 
regions of Africa and Asia, with the equally uniform prevalence of the two 
latter, in connection with a swarthy complexion in the south of Europe and 
the corresponding latitudes of Asia, while the middle and northern parts of 
the temperate zone present an equal predominance of fair complexions, and 
light hair and eyes, would seem to leave no doubt, as to a general influence 
of climate on those parts of the body ; but to suppose its agency limited to 
these, would be a most unphilosophical restriction, for many other physio- 
logical modifications may escape our observation. 

As we have already seen, the people of western Europe, in emigrating to 
North America, have generally made ten degrees of southern latitude. If 
the mean annual heat of this country, and that, on the same parallels, were 
equal, this would be, as an emigration from Philadelphia or Cincinnati to New 
Orleans ; but, in fact, they live in an average yearly temperature, so much 
the same as that to which they had been used) that but little influence can 
be ascribed to this element. There is, however, a striking difference between 
the summer and winter temperatures of western Europe, and those of the 
Atlantic States and the great Valley of the Interior ; the extremes of the 
American, being far greater than those of the European continent. Sudden 



648 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

and extreme variations of temperature are, moreover, far more common in 
this portion of the new, than in that part of the old, world. Lastly, we 
have a dryer climate, and a more electrical atmosphere. 

To these climatic conditions we are bound to admit a modifying influence ; 
which, if I mistake not, is perceptible in the loss of a ruddy complexion, in a 
diminution of the capillary and cellular tissues of the face, and a consequent 
reduction of the convexity of the cheeks, with an increasing tendency to 
darker hair ; in short, the production or further development of a bilious 
temperament. Without insisting on the accuracy of these special observa- 
tions, I am convinced that whatever tendency exists, is not in the direction 
of the sanguine temperament. 

III. Change op Food. — Asa general fact, the inhabitants of America, 
and especially those of the Interior Valley, live on a fuller diet, than the 
masses of Europe. Their food differs in two respects : first, it is here, far 
more complex ; second, the animal portion is much greater. The wheat of 
England, the oats of Scotland, the potatoes of Ireland, and the rye of 
Germany, are, in this country, represented by wheat, maize, rye, and buck- 
wheat ; and our hot summers permit the cultivation of a great number of 
culinary vegetables, and some fruits, which those countries cannot produce. 
The abundance and comparative cheapness of animal food — beef, mutton, 
and pork — in the great Valley, originates, however, the greatest dietetic dis- 
tinction between the two countries. Of the natural desire for animal food, 
no observing man can entertain a doubt. It is among the earliest prefer- 
ences of infancy ; and the immigrants from Europe, who might have seldom 
tasted it, begin to indemnify themselves for their past privation, as soon as the} r 
arrive among us. Whether slow or fast to adopt other customs, they never 
fail to come into this ; and like the indigenous inhabitants of the Valley, 
very generally eat it three times a day. This inordinate indulgence is often 
injurious, on their first arrival. Thus, Professor Brainerd, of Chicago, has in- 
formed me, that the Norwegian immigrants, on landing at that city, often 
sicken under the combined influence of meat and whisky. As the time is 
indefinitely remote, when the density of our population will limit the supply 
of animal food, it will long continue to enter inordinately into our diet ; and, 
mino-led with a great variety of vegetables, unskillfully cooked, indiscrim- 
inately mixed, imperfectly masticated, and rapidly swallowed, will constitute 
our national feeding. That such fullness and crudeness of diet, through 
successive generations, must work out peculiarities of constitution, and ten- 
dencies to some forms of disease, while it gives protection from others, can 
scarcely be doubted; but these things have not yet been made subjects of 
accurate observation. 

IV. Change of Political, Moral, and Social Condition — In bar- 
barous states of society, the influence of the mind over the body, is very 
small. In civilized communities, it becomes great, and bears a proportion to 
the degree of refinement. As our immigrant ancestors, not less than the 
people arriving from Europe, were civilized; and as the arts, if not the 
science and moral sentiments, which should animate and dignify civiliza- 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 649 

tion, are increasing among us ; we must not overlook the modifying influ- 
ence of moral causes on our national physiology. If these were the same, in 
the old and the new world, no change of constitution would result from a 
change of continent : but they are not. 

1. Transplanted from the depths of a compact population, to one of great 
comparative sparseness, the immigrant has experienced a change, not unlike 
that of the individual who escapes from a crowd, to associate with a small 
and open company. His feelings, of both mind and body,' undergo a modi- 
fication by the change. 

2. He passes from the midst of ancient works of art, to a new country, 
where natural objects, scenery, and events replace the artificial. 

3. Instead of being compressed on every side, and limited to a small spot, 
beyond which he seldom passed, he finds ample space for locomotion, and, 
under the influence of slight motives, makes long journeys or frequent remo- 
vals ; thus, seeing many new objects, and forming new associations. 

4. Leaving a state of society which doomed him to one and the same pur- 
suit through life, he finds himself where freedom and facility of change are 
promoted, and extensively practiced ; where new plans of business and exci- 
ting enterprises call him out, and inspire him to adventurous and novel 
efforts; in which he engages with a fearlessness proportionate to the facility 
with which, in this country, failures, which in an old state of society would 
be ruinous, may be repaired. 

5. While in his native country, his thoughts, in reference to property, 
might never have risen above his daily bread ; but he here sees many ways to 
wealth laid open before him, and has the love of property, with the comforts, 
luxuries, and influence, of which wealth is the instrument, awakened or 
quickened in his heart. 

6. When in his native land, he saw, perhaps, but a single aspect of Chris- 
tianity — one form of public worship, and one variety of worshipers ; but he 
here finds himself surrounded by many. Freedom from legislative restric- 
tions, permits an unrestrained manifestation of his opinions and feelings ; he 
speedily sympathizes in some form of religious worship, and finds himself under 
the influence of more lively religious feelings ; or drawn into the controver- 
sies which inevitably arise, in proportion as the superincumbent weight of an 
ecclesiastical establishment is thrown off. 

7. But above all, in relation to the young, and to men, the immigrant from 
Europe is born into a political existence, in becoming naturalized in Amer- 
ica. There he was governed, here he assists in governing ; there, in feeling, 
he stood in opposition to the government, here, in practice, he seeks either 
to modify or preserve its administration. In ordinary circumstances, he was 
passive and obedient, he is now active and aggressive ; he connects himself 
with a party, harkens to its tocsin, rallies to its standard, listens to exposi- 
tions of its doctrines and objects, yields up his heart to its exhortations, and 
bends his will to its dictation; the servant becomes a civil officer — the pea- 
sant, a party politician. The variety and amount of emotion, the excitement 
of passion, and the activity of thought, developed by this new condition, are 

42 



650 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book I. 



great in proportion to his previous torpor — as vegetation advances more 
luxuriantly after a cold than after an open winter. This is the true reason 
why our immigrant population are so eager to plunge into the party strifes 
which are forever heaving the bosom of our society. 

Such are some of the new, social circumstances, under which the trans- 
planted population of western Europe, live in our great Valley; and the phy- 
siologist cannot doubt, that the mental states, intellectual and emotional, 
generated and permanently sustained by them, will, in successive genera- 
tions, work out changes of innervation ; and cooperate with the physical 
causes which have been discussed, in creating a type of constitution different 
from that of Europe, or any that has gone before it in any country. 



SECTION IV. 

STATISTICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 

For this portion of the physiological history of the Valley, our stock of 
materials is very small. They cannot be collected to any great extent, in 
the ordinary practice of medicine, and no societies, or even individuals, have 
as yet instituted the requisite courses of observation and experiment. I 
will give a few facts, under several different heads, in the hope of prompting 
those who have time and opportunity, to more extended inquiry. 

I. Stature and Weight. — When upon the Northern Lakes, in 1842, I 
was enabled, through the accommodating politeness of the late Major Martin 
Scott, of Fort Mackinac, Captains Lynde and Thompson, of Fort Gratiot, 
and Captain Drain, of Detroit Barracks, to ascertain the stature of three 
hundred and sixteen soldiers of the United States Army, which I have con- 
densed into the following 

TABLE. 



155 
82 
17 
10 

45 

7 



316 
155 
109 

52 



American, 

Irish, 

English, 

Scotch, 

G-ermans, 

Danes and Poles. 



The whole, 
Americans, 
Islanders, 
Continentals, 



MEAN HIGHT. MEAN WT. 



Ft. In. Lns. 

5 7 7 



5 7 8 

5 7 7 

5 8 4 

5 6 4 



Lbs. Oz. Ft. In. Lns. 



148 9 
144 11 
147 2 
146 8 
146 1 
143 7 



1 6 



146 13 
148 9 
145 3 
145 12 



2 
10 
10 
10 



6 2 
6 1 6 
6 2 
5 10 6 



HEAVI- 
EST. 



Lbs. 

189 
192 
183 
167 
176 
165 



192 
189 
192 
176 



PART III. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



651 



The numbers in this table are too small to justify any general conclusions ; 
and it should be recollected, moreover, in reference to weight, that most of 
these persons were not yet of middle age.* 

As these soldiers had reached their full stature, their hight represents 
that of the nations to which they belong, so far as their number goes ; but 
as most of them were between twenty and thirty years of age, they had not 
yet reached their full weight ; and can only serve as representatives of their 
respective nations in early manhood. Nevertheless, as the different groups 
were composed of persons in the same periods of life, they may be compared 
with each other. In bringing each class to the standards or mean terms of 
the whole, we find, in reference to stature, that the Americans are at, or 
rather, within one line below it ; the English, Scotch, and Irish rise above it ; 
and the Germans and other continentals fall below it. In reference to the 
standard of weight, the Americans are above, the rest below it. 

The following statement of the relation between stature and weight, shows 
how much of the latter is due to an inch of the former : 





TABLE. 


The whole, - - 
Americans, - - 
English, - - - 
Irish, - - " - 
Germans, - - 
Scotch, - - - 


- one inch gives 

a u a 
(i a n 

(l (( iC 



34.(50 oz. 

35.17 

34.45 

33.88 
35.41 
34.38 



avd, 



From this table it appears, that the English and Scotch approach within a 
few decimals of the standard of the three hundred and sixteen individuals of 
the preceding table, in the weight which belongs to an inch of their 
stature ; the Irish fall seventy-two hundredths of an ounce, or two per 
cent, below it ; while, on the other hand, the Americans rise fifty-seven 
hundredths, or one-sixth per cent., and the Germans eighty-one hundredths, 
or two-thirds per cent, above it. Thus the Germans are the heaviest of the 
whole, in proportion to their hight, and next to them stand the Americans. 
This difference argues, either greater development of flesh, or a longer trunk 
of body compared with the lower extremities. The ratio between the 
stature and weight of different races, in the corresponding periods of life, 
being ascertained, the weight of any considerable number of individuals of 
that race, might be inferred from a knowledge of their stature, et vice versa. 

In the absence of more conclusive statistics, I may say, that English, 
Scotch, and Irish immigrants, are so near the stature of the native inhabi- 



* If any one make such inquiries, he should be aware, that he should not combine his 
averages with those of the table, and take the mean term of the two sums, unless the 
number of individuals were the same as in the table; for the result would be erroneous. 
He must multiply the number of individuals, composing the class in the table which 
he wishes to enlarge, by the mean hight or weight, and to the product add the aggre- 
gate hight or weight of those he has examined ; when, on dividing the whole amount 
by the whole number of men, he will obtain the desired result. 



652 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

tants of the Valley, as, in that particular, to be identified with them ; that 
the Germans, the Jews, and the French, both of Louisiana and Canada, are 
regarded as smaller. The Norwegians, whom I saw in Illinois and Wis- 
consin, appeared to be taller than the Germans. It is a current opinion 
that, of the natives of the Valley descended from British and Irish ances- 
tors, the largest men are those of western Virginia, and the eastern and 
middle portions of Kentucky and Tennessee; where they breathe a salubrious 
air, abound in sustenance, and take exercise enough to preserve health ; but 
do not perform sufficient labor to carry out of the system, by copious perspi- 
ration and increased pulmonary exhalation, a great amount of solid matter. 

In our towns and cities, many young men, who grow up without much 
exercise or labor, and spend their time chiefly within doors, fail to reach the 
standard size ; but those who follow laborious, mechanical, or miscellaneous 
employments, have a larger development of the system, and, consequently, 
greater bulk. On the whole, however, the people of the country attain a 
greater size than those of our cities. 

Family and individual eccentricities of size are, of course, not uncommon 
among a people so diversified in origin, and advanced in civilization — a state 
which develops greater anatomical and physiological varieties, than the state 
of barbarism. In different parts of the Valley, families of remarkable 
stature are met with ; and occasionally, a single member of a family rises 
above the rest, and overreaches the tallest around him. 

II. Strength. — No experiments on the strength of the native or immi- 
grant races of the Valley, have yet been published. It is a current opinion, 
that as we advance south, from the middle latitudes, it diminishes ; in other 
words, is inversely to the mean temperature. Comparing all the inhabitants 
of one of our towns or cities, with an equal number in the surrounding 
country, the aggregate strength of the latter, would, I have no doubt, be 
found much greater, except in malarial districts. In a country long and 
thickly settled, where the labors of the people consist largely in stirring the 
loose soil with the plow and hoe, in pruning hedges and orchards, training 
vines, gathering in crops, and in the care of domestic animals, this might not 
be the case ; but in a new country, where overshadowing forests are to be 
subdued, shrubs and bushes grubbed up, fields inclosed with heavy rails 
mauled out of the trunks of trees, log houses erected, stone quarried, roads 
opened, bridges built, and canals excavated, the labors are, in kind and de- 
gree, well-fitted to develop large, compact, and powerful muscular systems. 
Such from the beginning of immigration, have been the labors of a majority 
of our people. In the older settled regions, they are less than formerly, but 
in all the new States, they still continue. 

But in latter years, a great number of men have been called to new labors, 
requiring, and therefore, developing, great muscular power. I may briefly 
enumerate some of these : The erection of cities, such as Toronto, Buffalo, 
Chicago, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, and New Orleans; 
the preparation and embarkation of the agricultural staples — flour, corn, pork, 
beef, hemp, tobacco, and cotton — the lumber trade of Canada, of the moun- 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 653 

tains of New York, and of the cypress swamps of Louisiana; the preparation 
of fuel for our five or six hundred steamboats between New Orleans and 
Quebec, and the labors upon those vessels of firemen and deckhands ; lastly, 
the incessant use of the oar or paddle, and the carrying of heavy burdens 
by trappers and voyageurs on the rivers of the north-west. 

Many other classes might be named; but these will serve to show that 
our country abounds in employments, which cannot be prosecuted without 
developing great muscular strength. 



CHAPTER II. 

MODES OF LIVING. 

Several things which properly belong to this head, have already been 
mentioned, when treating of the causes which work out changes of constitu- 
tion in European emigrants, or develop size and strength in our native pop- 
ulation. We now recur to them, and, including many more, consider them 
in reference to the production of disease. Modifications were all that we 
have studied; that which remains for this chapter, is more obviously etiolo- 
gical. 



SECTION I. 

DIET.— SOLID FOOD. 

I. The custom of the laboring classes, of both town and country, through- 
out the Valley, is to eat three meals a day; the first not far from, but gen- 
erally after sun-rise ; the second at or soon after noon ; the third at or not 
long after sun- down. Taking the year throughout, this would give an aver- 
age of six hours between breakfast and dinner, and the same period between 
dinner and supper. Now it appears from experiments,* which the feelings of 
individuals verify, that about five hours are necessary to the digestion of a 
meal of an ordinary kind, the person being in good health; and the estab- 
lished opinion of the profession is, that the stomach should remain empty 
and at rest, for an hour, more or less, after it has decomposed and dis- 
charged its contents. The customary hours of the people would seem to be 
correct. But this is still further evinced by a reference to the time for 

#Dr. Beaumont. 



654 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

sleep. This, to speak as a physiologist, is the night, and the signal for rising 
is the return of day. Now, when the stomach has been empty for some 
hours, it demands the stimulus of food, and many persons feel great incon- 
venience, after rising in the morning, till they take it. Hence it results, 
that early breakfasts are physiological and salutary, because early rising is 
according to the natural laws of our constitution. But these habits, al- 
though consonant with our physiology, are often violated. Many persons 
rise and breakfast late, dine late, and make a slight meal in the evening. 
Others do not dine until near the supper hour of the people, but lunch about 
their dinner hour, making three meals a day, coming back toward the natural 
times, but making the evening meal the principal one. Others again dine at 
two or three o'clock, sup lightly, and make a heartier meal at nine or ten. 
Thousands may be found who enjoy good health under these diversities 
of time ; but they are all departures from the plan of nature, and thousands 
might be found who suffer from them. The late supper has been condemned 
as unhealthy and even dangerous, as to certain constitutions it certainly is. 
But if the individual sit up till the last meal is digested, he will sleep more 
quietly to take a slight repast of digestible food, avoiding all diuretic drinks, 
for diaphoresis should prevail over all other secretions during sleep. 

Among the laboring classes, who follow nature more closely than the oth- 
ers, the three meals of the day do not differ so much in quantity, as among 
the more cultivated and artificial classes. I am persuaded that the former 
are right; and would go still further, and express the opinion that, of the 
three meals, breakfast, and not dinner, should be the principal. After long 
repose, in the cool of the morning, when the feelings of both body and mind 
are tranquil, the stomach can receive with impunity, and digest a large meal 
better, than in the heat of the day ; or in the midst of the labors and corpo- 
real and moral irritations which it may bring forth. A hearty breakfast 
seldom produces oppression and drowsiness, like a hearty dinner ; on the con- 
trary, the hour which follows it is generally one of pleasant and efficient 
excitement; while that which succeeds to a full dinner is characterized by 
dullness, taciturnity, sleep, and very often a considerable degree of feverish- 
ness, from all of which, I may repeat, those who make hearty breakfasts and 
slighter dinners, are exempt. 

The practice of rapid eating is universal among us, that is, prevails every- 
where, though not adopted by every individual. Two objections lie against 
it : first, the food is imperfectly masticated ; second, too much is taken ; for 
a little time is necessary after food is received into the stomach, to enable it 
to remove the feeling of hunger. 

As a general fact, the people of the Valley eat too much. Such an ex- 
cess is the natural effect of living in a country whose greatest natural char- 
acteristic is productiveness of sustenance ; and until the abundance of the 
latter, in proportion to the population, shall diminish, the practice will 
continue. 

II. We come now to the composition of our diet ; and the first observa- 
tion I make is. that the quantity of animal food consumed in the Valley is 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 655 

very great, compared with the vegetable. Indeed, it may be affirmed that 
more is eaten than by any equal number of people in the whole world. With 
a limited number of exceptions, meat is on the table three times a day, and 
as often eaten by the great majority. Even children, in most families, are 
allowed to eat it at every meal. Our meats present quite a variety, but the 
flesh of the ox and hog greatly predominate; the former eaten from the 
shambles much more than from the tub — the latter converted into pickled 
pork, bacon, and sausages. Yeal, on the whole, seems to be a greater favor- 
ite than mutton, which is no where in the Valley consumed in large quanti- 
ties. Poultry is consumed in liberal quantities, and wild gallinaceous birds 
and waterfowl are eaten to a considerable extent. Eggs are used in great 
numbers. It is only on the shores of the Lakes and the Gulf, that fish make 
an important article of diet. In the country, bacon and pork predominate- 
in the larger towns and cities, fresh beef, and other fresh meats, are more 
extensively used. Butter, often of an inferior quality, is used in liberal 
quantities, and the taste of our population is, to eat buttered bread with 
their meat. 

Thus, whatever modification of physiology, or predisposition to disease, 
may be producible by excess of animal food, is experienced by the people of 
the Valley; but I am not prepared to delineate them. The practice of ab- 
staining from animal food, recommended on purely theoretical grounds, and 
at war with the configuration, instincts, and experience of our race, has made 
but little progresss in the Valley, and is not likely to find many advocates. 
If the eifort should diminish the quantity consumed by each individual, it 
will be a public benefit ; but if it should only reduce the aggregate by the 
total abstinence of a few, no good will result to them or the community at 
large. A liberal consumption is not confined to the cool weather and heal- 
thy seasons of the year, but prevails in summer and autumn, not less than 
at times to which it would seem to be better adapted. 

Wheat flour and Indian corn-meal, variously prepared, constitute our 
"bread- stuffs." Fermented wheat bread is far from being universal, and 
hot, unleavened biscuit, with fat, is a favorite article on the breakfast and 
supper table, especially in the southern half of the Valley. They are eaten 
with butter, which is always melted by their heat, and thus prepared, become 
an accompaniment of animal food. It is undoubtedly true, that this national 
compound embarrasses the stomach of the dyspeptic ; but the general aspect 
of the majority of the people would seem to indicate that they find it diges- 
tible and nutritious. In the cities, fermented rolls, without fat, but eaten 
hot, very commonly replace the unleavened biscuit of the country and smal- 
ler towns. The fashion in the Valley is to use the finest bolted flour, but 
bread made from that which contains a portion of the fine bran, is superior 
in everything but whiteness — a quality of no real value. 

The pulp of Indian corn-meal, but slightly susceptible of fermentation, 
is generally baked in small rolls or cakes, and eaten hot. Nearly destitute 
of gluten, it is more pulverulent than hot wheat bread, and does not, by 
mastication, become compact and clammy. It is more aperient than the 



656 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

latter, but persons unaccustomed to it, are apt to experience acidity of tbe 
stomach from its use. Of its nourishing qualities there can be no doubt, as 
it enters extensively into the diet of large portions of our population, espe- 
cially those which attain the greatest development. 

Rye, barley, potatoes, rice, and pulse, are seldom employed in the fabrica- 
tion of bread. Buckwheat is in more general use, and always prepared in 
the same manner — that is, in fermented pancakes, eaten with abundance of 
butter. 

Culinary vegetables are abundant in all parts of the Valley, except in 
certain tracts bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, which are too sterile to pro- 
duce them in any but limited quantities. Different varieties of pulse are 
abundant everywhere. The same is true of cabbage, but the finer varieties 
are not extensively cultivated. The turnip is generally disseminated. The 
sweet potato (convolvulus battata) comes to great perfection in the southern 
zone of the Valley, whence it is exported to the north. But the common 
potato (solatium tuberosum) is scarcely worth cultivating in the south, which 
is supplied from the middle parts of the Valley, and from the north, where 
its quality and quantity are excellent. The tomato (solanum tomato') is of 
recent introduction, and has become a universal favorite, being cultivated and 
consumed from the Gulf to the Lakes. 

A great deal of fruit is consumed. In the direction of the Gulf, oranges, 
chiefly imported, are abundant, and figs and peaches are cultivated and 
abound. The apple, however, has not been much cultivated south of the 
thirty-third degree of latitude, from which to the Lakes, it is abundant, of 
great variety, and of excellent quality ; furnishing large supplies for home 
consumption, and for exportation to the States resting on the Gulf. The 
peach, cherry, and pear, come to good perfection in the middle latitudes, and 
the two latter, with plums in abundance, are found high in the north, form- 
ing considerable articles of consumption. The strawberry is widely dissem- 
inated, and bears luxuriantly. Various kinds of grapes are grown in 
abundance, south of the fortieth degree of latitude. 

It would be tedious to extend this enumeration of our indigenous sources 
of vegetable food. All that I have enumerated are consumed in large quan- 
tities, and show that while we use a great deal of animal food, we also eat a 
great deal of vegetable ; in other words, that our diet is liberal, diversi- 
fied, and nutritious. It differs, therefore from the diet of some nations which 
is deficient, or innutritious, or consists of one or a few articles repeated 
through the year. It would require a very careful comparison to determine 
the physiological effects of these national differences. I shall only say, that 
I suppose a mixed diet, varying at different times, to be most favorable to 
the full corporeal and intellectual development of man : and that repletion 
produces fewer diseases than inanition. 

The culinary arts are but little understood by a great majority of the peo- 
ple of the Valley; who find in quantity and variety, a substitute for qualities 
which depend on skillful cookery. I cannot attempt to enumerate all the 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 657 

vicious modes of cooking that may be supposed to exert an influence on 
health, but will glance at a few. 

1. With the mass of our population, bread of every kind is apt to be 
baked too soon after the flour or meal has been wetted — that is, before there 
has been sufficient maceration. But what is still worse, it is scarcely ever 
baked enough. 

2. Biscuits, as they are called, are baked in close ovens, by which process 
the fat they contain is rendered empyreumatic and indigestible. 

3. When the dough for leavened bread, by excess of panary fermentation, 
has been charged with acetic acid, that product is not in general neutralized 
by the carbonate of potash or soda, but the bread is eaten sour. 

4. Pastry, instead of being flaky and tender, is often tough and hard, 
sometimes almost horny. 

5. Meats are often baked and fried, instead of being roasted or broiled, 
whereby they become impregnated with empyreumatic oil, and not unfre- 
quently charred on the outside. In general, they are overcooked. 

6. Fresh meats, and especially poultry, are commonly cooked too soon 
after death. 

7. Soup is often prepared from parts deficient in gelatine, and abounding 
in fat, which swims upon the surface, and is much more indigestible than 
the meat would have been, if eaten in the solid form. 

8. Eggs are generally boiled so hard as to render them tough, and many 
are eaten fried in fat, to a still greater degree of induration. Fried bacon 
and eggs, eaten with hot unleavened biscuit, containing lard, and then but- 
tered, is a favorite breakfast in many parts of the Valley. 

9. Vegetables, abounding in fecula, such as potatoes, rice, and pulse, 
arc often boiled so little, that all the starch grains are not burst open ; while 
those containing albumen, as cabbage, are boiled until that element is firmly 
coagulated and deposited in the structure of the leaf. 



SECTION II. 

LIQUID DIET, AND TABLE DRINKS. 
I. Milk is abundant, in the northern and middle zones of the Valley ; 
scarcer and poorer in quality, in the southern. That of the cow only is in 
use. I know of no experiments to determine the difference in the compo- 
sition of the milk of the south and the north. The butter and cheese of 
the former are chiefly imported from the latter, or from other parts of the 
United States. In the southern zone, milk is not a standing article o 
food; but, in the middle and northern, great quantities are consumed, 
especially in the country. In no part of the Valley is milk used more 
profusely than in Kentucky and Tennessee, where it enters more largely 
into the diet of men, than of women — the latter consuming more tea- 



658 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Now, it is in these states that the calculous diathesis, among males, 
prevails to a greater extent than in any other portions of the Valley. In 
the southern zone, where milk, from its deficiency and inferiority, is but 
little used, calculous disorders are rare. In the northern zone, where the 
manufacture of butter and cheese for exportation are objects of rural 
economy, it is less used. Is it not possible that, in the states just men- 
tioned, the phosphate of lime, contained in the milk, contributes to produce 
the phosphatic diathesis ? The curd formed in the stomachs of dyspeptics, 
from excess of acid, is often oppressive to them. 

Butter-milk is decidedly nutritious; and, after having been kept, in 
warm weather, until it becomes slightly sour, from the development of lactic 
acid, is a cooling and salubrious drink, which is freely used in some portions 
of the country; but not, on the whole, to the extent, referring to summer 
health, that it merits. 

II. Ice Ckeam. — The consumption of ice cream has been increasing in 
the Valley, for the last quarter of a century ; previously to which its use 
was quite limited. At present, it is used, in summer, in all our cities, from 
the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico; and makes an important part of the 
luxuries provided by the wealthier classes, for their evening parties, 
throughout the year. For a long time, many persons regarded it as danger- 
ous in hot, and absurd in cold weather; but these prejudices are now nearly 
extinct. I have not had occasion to observe any injurious effects from it, 
that might not be traced to two heads : first, swallowing it before the ice 
has dissolved in the mouth, when it sometimes raises an acute pain in the 
pharynx, and gives a sense of coldness and sinking in the stomach; second, 
eating it when the stomach is torpid and inactive from dyspepsia, and the 
individual is inclined, at the time, to sick headache. The composition, not 
less than the coldness, contributes to the injury in this case. Under all 
other circumstances, ice cream may be regarded as equally salubrious and 
pleasant. When its coldness produces bad effects, they are best corrected 
by a diffusible stimulant, such as ammonia, wine, ardent spirit, or a cup of 
hot tea or coffee. 

III. Lemonade is chiefly drunk in our cities, and on steamboats. The 
cooling properties of all the vegetable acids, is an established fact; and 
there can be no doubt that in summer this is a salubrious drink. It is, 
however, generally made too rich, that is, into a pleasantly acid sirup; when 
it exerts but little influence in quenching thirst. Those who, in hot 
weather, are inclined to fever, or oppression of the brain, derive great 
benefit from this beverage, when properly prepared. It is only those who 
labor under non-inflammatory dyspepsia, with liability to attacks of sick 
headache, that are injured by it. The fresh lemon, affording citric acid, 
should always be used in the preparation of lemonade, as the lemon sirup, 
so called, is generally acidulated with sulphuric acid. 

IV. Tea is used in every part of the Valley, but more generally in the 
north than the south. Green tea is preferred to black, though there is an 
increasing use of the latter. It is commonly drunk with milk and sugar. 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 659 

Many of the country people use tea in the morning as well as the evening; 
others in the latter only. In the cities and larger towns, it is confined, by 
the majority, to the evening, or third meal. All the world knows, that the 
various kinds of green tea are stimulating, but do not produce either intox- 
cation, fever, or inflammation ; that their influence is especially felt in the 
animal functions, and by the skin and kidneys, according, in reference to 
the two latter, to the season of the year — being sudorific in hot, and 
diuretic in cold weather. The exciting effects of black tea are much less; 
and it is, therefore, at once, less injurious to health and less used. It is com- 
mon to say, that tea, apart from the milk and sugar mingled with it, affords 
no nourishment; but the analysis of Mulder* shows that it is not destitute 
of nutritive principles, as it contains gum and albumen, in addition to the 
peculiar principle thein. Of all known stimuli, I regard tea as the most 
genial, in reference to the intellectual functions and the moral feelings. Its 
injurious effects come from two causes: first, the excess of hot water with 
which it is prepared, diluting too much the solid contents of the stomach ; 
second, drinking it too strong. In the Yalley, these abuses, especially the 
latter, are far from being uncommon, especially among females. Thus 
abused, tea produces or increases dyspepsia, acidity, sick headache, morbid 
sensibility, hysterical affections, and muscular tremors. A distinguished 
pioneer of the banks of the Ohio, was accustomed, night and morning, 
through life, to drink from eight to twelve cups of green tea. He attained 
to old age, with an unimpaired intellect ; but for many years was affected 
with tremors of the muscles, especially of the arms. His death was from 
cancer of the lip. Did the application of so much hot beverage to his 
mouth, have any effect in awakening that disease? 

Children and young persons should drink their tea weak. The aged are 
often kept from sleeping, by tea of no greater strength than what they had 
been accustomed to drink for many years before. The middle part of life is 
that in which the injurious effects of strong tea are least perceptible. 

To obtain the exciting properties of tea, it is necessary to prepare it in 
close vessels, with boiling water, and to drink it soon after the water is 
poured on. It is not generally understood, that the stimulating quality 
resides chiefly in a volatile oil, and not in the astringent matter which by 
long "drawing" is given out. 

V. Coffee — of which that from Rio Janeiro is in most common use — 
has been gradually banishing tea from our breakfast tables, and is now in 
general use at that meal ; in many families, at supper also. With many of 
the country people, however, who are scarcely ever without tea, coffee is 
regarded rather as an occasional luxury. By them, and, indeed, the 
majority of our people, the preparation of coffee is not well understood. It 
is often badly toasted, kept too long after that process, not properly 
clarified, too much boiled, and then, very commonly weakened with cold, 
instead of boiled milk or cream. The Creole French, from New Orleans to 

* Pareira on Food and Diet. 



660 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i 

Quejbec, use coffee to the exclusion of tea ; and the poorest among them 
understand how to prepare it. This knowledge appears to he, with some of 
them, a test of civilization. Thus, an English traveler,* who spoke the 
French language, in passing through the State of Indiana, called on some 
old Creole families, at Vincennes, settled by the French from Canada, in 
1735, and, in the course of his visit, was offered coffee by an old lady, who, 
in speaking of the Americans, said, " Us sont si betes Us ne savaient pas 
faire le cajz" Many of the French drink coffee on rising in the morning, 
and, also, after dinner ; and the latter is done by a few Americans. 

The composition of coffee, before being toasted, has a resemblance to that 
of tea, which never could have been suspected, seeing that one is a seed, 
and the other a leaf, from plants generically different. Caffein, the peculiar 
principle, is identical with thein. Coffee is, perhaps, more nutritious, and 
certainly more permanent in its stimulating effects, than tea. But its 
influences, on the whole, are less genial. Taken in large quantities, at 
once, it not only produces morbid vigilance, but affects the brain, so as to 
occasion vertigo, and a sort of altered consciousness, or confusion of ideas, 
not amounting to delirium ; which I can compare to nothing so well as the 
feeling when one is lost amid familiar objects, which look strange, and seem 
to have their positions, in reference to the points of the compass, changed. 
I have experienced these feelings myself, after a cup of cafe a la Frangais, 
early in the morning, in New Orleans; and the late Professor Brown, of 
Transylvania University, informed me that, when traveling in North 
Alabama, he was thrown into the same condition, which lasted for nearly 
half a day, by drinking a large quantity of strong coffee, on an empty 
stomach, in the morning. He afterward died of apoplexy. There cannot 
be a doubt that such coffee produces, on the brain and nervous system, a 
more deleterious effect than strong tea. Like that beverage, it excites the 
mental powers and moral feelings. Palpitations of the heart, dyspepsia, 
pain and tightness about the head, muscular tremors, and various morbid 
sensibilities, follow its habitual abuse ; and continue until it is laid aside, or 
proves fatal. Its diaphoretic and diuretic effects are less than those of tea. 
The disorders produced by tea are more common in women than men, who 
use less of it ; but those from coffee are found equally among the two sexes ; 
the greater susceptibility of the female constitution compensating for a more 
limited use of the beverage. 

There is much reason for believing, that an early cup of coffee, in summer 
and autumn, is protective against the fevers of the southern part of the 
Valley. Certain it is, that the French population are less liable to them 
than the Anglo-American; but as they occupy the oldest-settled portions 
of the country, which, cccteris paribus, are least affected, allowance must be 
made for that. In various parts of the Valley, coffee is beginning to 
supersede ardent spirits, as a means of support and protection under fatigue 

* Featherstonhaugh's Excursion. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA- 661 

and great exposure to the elements ; for winch purpose, all who have made 
the experiment, regard it as preferable. 

VI. Chocolate is but little used in the Valley, since the departure of 
its Spanish population from the G-ulf coast. It is justly regarded as more 
nutritious, and less stimulating, than tea or coffee. The discovery in the 
kernels of the cocoa of a peculiar principle, theohromin, nearly identical in 
composition with thein and caffein, is certainly a curious fact, and seems to 
suggest a reason why these three articles, above all others, have become 
general among mankind, as nutritious and pleasant table beverages. The 
chocolate consumed in the Valley generally, is very much adulterated, and 
of an inferior quality. Its use is too occasional and limited, to have 
brought forth results of any kind, on the health or constitutions of 
individuals. In general it is complained of as promoting drowsiness. Its 
taste, even with every adulteration, is acceptable, and, therefore, it is 
generally classed with our luxuries. 



SECTION III. 

WATER. 

I. Thiest, or the desire for water, must not be confounded with the 
desire for stimulants. Its final cause is the due preservation of the volume 
and fluidity of the blood ; and the supply of a solvent and a vehicle, for 
matters which must be conveyed out of the system. The taste and effect of 
different kinds of water, depend on their temperature, and the matters which 
may be dissolved or suspended in them. The Valley of the Mississippi 
presents, in regard to both these sources of variety, nearly all diversities 
that are to be found in all other countries. In a preceding chapter we have 
set them forth, and it now only remains to consider them in connection with 
the preservation of health, and the production of disease. The first 
question is, what are the bad effects of water, resulting from its tempera- 
ture ? I am not aware that, except in summer, cold water produces any 
injurious effects. In the northern and middle zones, where the drinking 
water from springs and wells varies, in temperature, from forty-five degrees 
to sixty degrees, Fahrenheit, persons when heated are, at midsummer, some- 
times injured, and even killed on the spot, by large draughts of water. 
This chiefly happens at deep wells, when great quantities are suddenly drunk 
without any stimulating admixture. In the southern zone, where the tem- 
perature of the springs varies from sixty degrees to seventy degrees, this 
unfavorable effect is seldom experienced. The majority of the people of 
that zone, especially those who reside in the country, drink water of the 
temperature just mentioned; but, in New Orleans, Mobile, and the smaller 
towns near the Gulf coast, ice has become a regular import from New 
England; and, throughout the summer, is made a constant addition to the 



662 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

water drank by multitudes at home, and in all the hotels, and dram shops. 
By this addition the water, which individuals drink in hot weather, is often 
cooled down to fifty degrees, a temperature which frequently proves fatal in 
the higher latitudes. Still, I could not learn that injury or death, from these 
cold draughts, is of frequent occurrence in the towns of the Gulf. Indeed, 
Dr. Fearn assured me that, in Mobile, the introduction of ice had not been 
followed by that effect. If this be a fact, it seems to admit of but one 
explanation, which is, that where these cold waters are kept and drunk in 
houses, either private or public, they are commonly taken with ardent spirit 
or wine, the stimulus of which corrects the effects of a low temperature ; 
while, in the towns so far north as to afford cold pump water, it is drunk by 
laborers in the street, unmingled with a stimulant, and, therefore, sometimes 
proves fatal. 

I proceed now to notice the different kinds of water drunk and used for 
domestic purposes, in the various parts of the Valley, beginning with that 
of rivers. 

II. River Water — In most of the larger towns and cities, as Pitts- 
burgh, Detroit, Cincinnati, St. Louis, and New Orleans, the people drink 
river water. It stands in reservoirs, exposed to the air and sun, until it has 
deposited a part of the earthy matters suspended in it ; but, in floods, 
when the quantity is great, it is sometimes distributed and drunk while it is 
yet turbid. Besides the matters thus suspended, but heavy enough to be 
deposited, there are traces of muriate of soda, and carbonate and sulphate 
of lime, in solution ; and, from the vast amount of dead vegetables and 
animals on their banks, it can scarcely be doubted that they contain, in 
suspension, or solution, or both, a minute quantity of organic matter. 
Still, while some constitutions may never become reconciled to the use of 
river water, I am not in possession of facts to show that it produces or averts 
any serious disease. The water in St. Clair, Detroit, Niagara, and St. 
Lawrence Rivers, is strictly that of the lakes, and approaches nearer to the 
character of rain water than that of our rivers. The water of the Missouri 
and lower Mississippi, again differs, as we have seen, from that of the 
Upper Mississippi, of the Ohio, and of their tributaries, in the great amount 
of suspended materials. Notwithstanding, but rather in consequence, it is 
universally regarded as salubrious, and even, by many persons, alterative and 
medicinal ; especially in chronic ailments of the ' abdominal viscera. To 
produce any effects of this kind, it should, no doubt, be drunk immediately 
from the river, and before it has undergone clarification by deposition, or by 
any artificial process. 

III. Well and Spring Water. — The wells and springs in our sand- 
stone formations, especially the springs, afford a transparent water, which is 
nearly free from mineral impregnation, and is supposed, on that account, to 
be highly favorable to health. As these districts are never very fertile, 
their population is not dense, and I have not been able to collect facts for a 
comparison of the effects of this kind of water, with that which contains a 
greater amount of foreign ingredients. What has been said on the geology 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 663 

of the Valley, will show where the principal sandstone tracts are to he found. 
Although the rocks of this formation afford a pure water, the coal and 
aluminous shales, so often associated with them, not unfrequently impart an 
impregnation of sulphate of lime, iron, or alumin and potash (alum), giving 
them a slight mineral taste, occasionally modified, when no iron is present, 
by sulphuretted hydrogen gas. This kind of water is unacceptable to the 
taste, and not used when others can be obtained. It has been conjectured 
that the use of this water produces goitre ; and some of the localities of 
that disease seem to favor the hypothesis : but I shall reserve the question 
until we come to inquire into the origin of that malady. 

In the great limestone tract, which extends, with few interruptions, 
from Montreal and the southern part of Michigan to the northern part of 
Alabama, including, of course, the eastern half of Indiana, the western part of 
Ohio, the central section of Kentucky, and middle Tennessee, the water of 
both springs and wells is hard ; that is, abounds in salts of lime, chiefly the 
carbonate. Its qualities, however, are not the same throughout the whole 
limestone formation. Between the Ohio River and the lake there are, as 
we have seen, extensive deposits of diluvium on the surface of the rocks, 
and the springs and wells which are found in it, afford water less pure and 
palatable. The same is true of that obtained by sinking wells in the bottom- 
lands of the rivers, or by resorting to springs which burst out from their 
banks. The best kind of hard water is that of springs which issue from the 
fissures and seams of limestone rocks, or is drawn from wells sunk in them. 
Such is the water drunk by the people of the most populous parts of the 
valley of the Ohio Eiver and its tributaries. Their ample development 
and general good health demonstrate, that it is a salubrious beverage. 
Nevertheless, there is much dyspepsia within the specified region, and 
calculous affections appear to prevail more than elsewhere. On the other 
hand, goitre occurs much less frequently than in sandstone, slate, and coal 
districts. 

In the cretaceous and tertiary formations of the south, much of the water 
is impure — some of it excellent. In all cases when it percolates through 
sand only, it is soft, and varies but little from rain water. Mobile and 
Pensacola are supplied by springs of this quality. Further in the interior, 
where argillaceous formations prevail, and a decomposable or rotten limestone, 
cretaceous or tertiary, is found, the water is offensive to the taste, and 
regarded by the people as insalubrious. Here it is, that we find artesian 
wells, and cisterns of rain water. The latter are becoming numerous, and 
their water is preferred to any other within the reach of the inhabitants. 
The cisterns are as deep as shallow wells, and closely covered. They are 
filled from the cold rains of winter, and the water preserves what is regarded 
as a low temperature throughout the summer. This water, purer than that 
of rivers or sandstone formations, constitutes the opposite extreme from that 
supplied by the slate and limestone regions. Still, it contains traces of 
carbonate of lime and muriate of soda, the latter of which is more abundant 
near the sea. It also contains carbonate of ammonia, carbonic acid, and 



664 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

atmospheric air, with excess of oxygen. While in the cistern, it no doubt 
augments the quantity of its carbonic acid by absorption — that gas, from 
its weight, sinking into deep places. 

IV. The quantity of water drunk by us varies much more than the 
quantity of food which we take. If not the solvent of our food, it is indis- 
pensable to the dilution of it into chyle, and to the constitution of the blood, 
of which it makes about seven hundred and eighty-three parts in a thousand; 
it is also a constituent of all the solids of the body, and makes a large pro- 
portion of all the secretions and excretions. Thus it is incessantly received 
into the stomach, whence a portion of it, mingled with the chyme, passes 
the pylorus, while a larger part, absorbed by the gastric veins, makes its 
way directly into the circulation; to permeate the system and pass out 
through the organs and surfaces of excretion. Thus the living body presents 
a ceaseless circulation of water, as necessary to the manifestation *of the 
phenomena of life, as the circulation of the same fluid through the atmos- 
phere, and on the surface of the earth, is to the support of organized nature 
generally. 

Several circumstances or conditions influence the quantity of water which 
we take at different times. 

First. In proportion as it is discharged more copiously through the skin, 
thirst is increased, and we drink more freely. Thus the heat of summer, by 
augmenting perspiration, causes drinking ; which is greater in the southern 
than in the northern part of the Valley ; in summer than in winter ; in a 
dry than a humid atmosphere, as the latter retards exhalation from the skin. 

Second. Exercise, by increasing perspiration, and still more by aug- 
menting exhalation from the lungs, leads us to a more liberal use of water. 

Third. A liberal use of salt, such as a diet of animal food requires, 
excites thirst, and prompts us to drink more freely ; the salutary effect of 
which is, to dilute the solution of muriate of soda, before it enters the blood, 
of which it is a constituent. Animal food, moreover, containing but little 
moisture, requires for its solution a good supply of water ; and, requiring 
it, promotes thirst. 

Fourth. On the other hand, a vegetable diet, embracing but little salt 
and much water, diminishes thirst, because drinking is comparatively 
unnecessary. 

Fifth. Several medicines, by increasing secretion, render drinking 
necessary, and prompt to it by augmenting thirst. Thus saline hydrogogue 
cathartics, diuretics, and diaphoretics, promote drinking. One reason why 
a large dose of opium produces the same effect, is the increase of insensible 
perspiration which it occasions. 

Sixth. Several morbid states of the body promote thirst, for reasons 
which are quite obvious. 

1. In diabetes, when the secretion from the kidneys is profuse, the thirst 
is great. 

2. In diarrhea, which tends to drain the blood vessels, the same desire is 
generated. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 

3. In dropsy, when incessant secretion in the cellular texture is going on, 
there is much thirst. 

4. In dyspepsia, connected with acidity, thirst is generated, that the acid 
may undergo dilution. 

5. In fevers, the heat increases thirst, and by prompting to copious 
draughts, which circulate freely throughout the system, the temperature and 
febrile excitement are lowered. If ice be taken into the stomach, under 
such circumstances, it will not bring down the heat of the body like a great 
quantity of water, although twenty or thirty degrees above the freezing 
point ; because the volume of the former is small, while that of the latter is 
large, and is carried to every part of the body. Should an individual be 
attacked with fever under circumstances which precluded medical assistance, 
he might save his life by taking incessant draughts of water ; which should 
not, however, be so cold as to chill the stomach, and make it necessary to 
limit the quantity. The temperature most favorable to these salutary effects, 
is from sixty to seventy degrees of Fahrenheit. 

The various kinds of water which I have enumerated, have their respective 
tastes; but, as that liquid, when absolutely pure, is tasteless, it follows 
that the particular sapor of each kind, is derived from the matters 
which it holds in solution or suspension. Those who have been long 
accustomed to one kind of water, cease to notice anything except its temper- 
ature ; but immediately recognize a different kind, when it is taken into the 
mouth. In general, the new kind is unpleasant. As this is reciprocal with 
two individuals, who exchange the kinds to which they have been accus- 
tomed, it only proves that in drinking we prefer the water which imparts no 
taste. 

Much is said by the people, on the comparative salubrity of different 
kinds of water. In this dispute, the fact should not be overlooked, that 
nearly every substance dissolved in the water drunk in any part of the 
Valley, is a constituent of healthy blood, or of the solids formed out of that 
fluid. Thus, he who drinks hard water from wells, or from springs which 
burst out in limestone formations, takes in scarcely anything that does not 
make a component part of his food, and that is not a necessary element of 
his blood. Now it can scarcely be admitted, that such substances can be 
injurious to health ; or that it can make any difference whether they are 
received into our systems with our food, or our drink. When any one of 
these ingredients, as iron, sulphur, or common salt, from existing in large 
quantities, imparts its peculiar taste, the water thus impregnated is called 
mineral, and is not much drunk, except for the cure of diseases. Never- 
theless, it is possible, that water not thus rendered repulsive, may sometimes 
be the vehicle in which certain substances, necessary to the constitution of 
the blood, may be introduced in such quantities as to prove injurious; 
concerning which I shall have occasion to inquire when treating of our 
diseases. Meanwhile, this is the place to remark, that when an individual 
has been long accustomed to one kind of water, a change to another is not 
made without temporary inconvenience. The consequence sometimes is, a 
43 



666 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

deranged state of digestion ; but more commonly diarrhea or costiveness — 
generally the former. This, however, proves nothing relative to the absolute 
salubrity of different waters ; as the opposite change, by another individual, 
may be followed by effects equally unpleasant. 

Y. It cannot be doubted, that water sometimes holds in suspension or 
solution, matters positively injurious to health ; but these are special and 
limited cases. Thus, when it has percolated from marshes, it may carry 
with it malaria, dead organic matter, or animalcules, which may or may not 
be injurious to health. An instance of the last was mentioned in speaking 
of the medical topography of Jackson, in the State of Mississippi.* And 
wells, sunk in alluvial grounds, which abound in decaying vegetable remains, 
may afford water impregnated with insalubrious matters. Finally, as it 
circulates through the earth, water may dissolve arsenic, or some of the 
salts of lead, copper, or barytes ; and thus, without disclosing its presence 
by a characteristic taste, act as a slow poison. I am not aware, however, 
that any part of the Valley has yet presented a case of this kind. It is a 
curious and interesting fact, that we so seldom find these and other poisonous 
minerals, dissolved in the water of springs and wells, while carbonate and 
sulphate of lime, sulphate of magnesia, muriate of soda, oxide of iron, and 
sulphur, all constituents of the blood, and all harmless, so far, at least, as 
any immediate effect is concerned, are common ; and often exist, in percept- 
ible quantities, in water used for culinary purposes. 

Many springs and wells, containing a slight impregnation of sulphureted 
hydrogen gas, are used for drinking and culinary purposes. I am not aware, 
that they exert any deleterious influence. Saline water, strongly impreg- 
nated with the same gas, is sent in large quantities, from the Blue Licks, in 
Kentucky, to the States of the south-west, where it is drunk freely in the 
morning ; and it seems to be a salutary beverage. 

VI. Water that flows through leaden pipes, in which it often stands for 
a time, or is kept in cisterns lined or covered with lead, is liable to acquire 
a poisonous quality. This will not happen, if it be free from air, and the 
atmosphere be excluded ; but such cases do not occur in the common 
operations of families and communities. When it contains air, which is 
always the case unless it be driven off by art, the metal will become corroded; 
and a portion, in the form of a salt, will be dissolved in the water. Now 
this occurs, most certainly, where the water is very pure, that is, free from 
all saline substances ; such as that which falls in the form of rain or snow, 
or issues from strata of sand which have no others above them. When 
saline substances, such as muriate of soda (common salt), or sulphate of 
lime (gypsum), are present, the empoisoning of the water is prevented. 
They promote the formation of an insoluble and impermeable film of white 
lead (carbonate), on the surface of the pipe or cistern, and the water remains 
pure. These salts are present in all our river and well water, and in all our 
spring water, except that from beds of sand supplied by rains. Hence there 

* See page 204. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 667 

is little danger from the use of pipes and cisterns of lead, except in connec- 
tion with rain water, or spring water, flowing from rocks or deposits of sand. 
But it has been ascertained, that the presence of carbonic acid in water, 
promotes the formation of so great a quantity of carbonate of lead, that the 
water may become poisonous. This will chiefly be found in wells that are 
but little resorted to, and in cisterns. In the former case, the sulphate of 
lime, the muriate of soda, and other salts, are generally in such great 
quantities, that the danger is small; but in cisterns filled, as is done in the 
south, during winter, for use the ensuing summer, the danger, if there be 
any lead connected with their lining or covering, or with the pump by which 
the water is drawn up, may be considerable ; for, as this water is almost 
free from saline substances, and contains atmospheric air, entangled in its 
fall, and carbonic acid gas, absorbed afterward, all the conditions favorable 
to its speedy action on lead are present. As the the planters of the south 
are multiplying their cisterns, these facts ought to be universally known.* 

VII. I have already stated, that the water collected during the winter 
in these cisterns, is preferred to that which falls in summer, because the peo- 
ple say it is cooler ;f but I do not know that this alledged lower temperature 
is a fact. In the latitude of thirty-one degrees fifty-two minutes, I found 
the heat of one of them, in the month of June, seventy degrees of Fahr- 
enheit, and the rains of that season could scarcely be warmer. It seems 
probable, that the true but unrecognized reason is, that the water which has 
lodged in the cistern for several months, has absorbed carbonic acid gas, 
and thus become lighter and fresher to the taste. The more air a water con- 
tains, all other circumstances being equal, the more acceptable it will prove 
both to the palate and the stomach. Thus the boiled water which, in lime- 
stone regions, some persons drink, is never pleasant, as the atmospheric air 
and the carbonic acid are driven off. The lime, held in solution by the latter 
is deposited ; but, although the water is rendered flat to the taste, it does 
not become entirely soft, as the muriate of soda and sulphate of lime remain 
in solution. 

VIII. Artificial mineral waters, made by forcing carbonic acid gas into 
spring or river water, to which a small quantity of carbonate of soda had 
been previously added, are consumed abundantly, in all our towns and cities. 
They are always drunk at a lower temperature than our spring or well 
water. These beverages, unquestionably salubrious, may offend the stomach : 
First, by being too cold; Second, by distension of the organ, when no por- 
tion of the carbonic acid is thrown up by eructation ; Third, by the sirups 
which are commonly added to render their taste more agreeable. Bad 
consequences from these waters, are most likely to fall on those who labor 
under that form of dyspepsia, which is unaccompanied with inflammation, 
and to them only. Such persons should take them not very cold, using a 
stimulating sirup, and an excess of soda. 

It sometimes happens, in summer, that drinking the largest quantities of 

* Christison on Poisons, Chapter 17. t Page 206. 



668 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

cold water will not allay, but rather increase thirst. Under such circum- 
stances, whisky or brandy will give relief; but tea or coffee is preferable — 
the heat almost instantly removing a sensation which cold seemed to 
augment. 



SECTION IV. 

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES. 

I. Morning Bitters and Mint Juleps. — From the first settlement of 
the Valley, until within fifteen or twenty years, these potations were almost 
universal. They were generally composed of whisky, and were very com- 
monly drunk by all the members of the family, old and young, male and 
female. The custom, originating east of the mountains, and sustained by 
habit, and the love of stimulation, was justified by its alledged advantages as 
a preventive of autumnal fever. Although not yet entirely broken up, it 
has been discontinued by a large majority of its advocates ; and neither 
autumnal fever nor any other disease, has increased in consequence of the 
reform. In any and all cases, where a morning stimulus is necessary to 
fortify the stomach against external influences, it cannot be doubted, that a 
small cup of strong, hot coffee is altogether preferable. 

II. G-ROG. — The practice of drinking whisky or brandy and water, before 
or immediately after dinner, was once general. The whisky or brandy bottle, 
especially the former, was as regularly transferred from the sideboard to the 
dinner table, as the vinegar cruet. But this practice is now nearly obsolete ; 
and if the bottle still find a place on the tables of many of our steamboats 
and hotels, none but those who are strongly prone to intemperance, have the 
courage to touch it. Formerly, men drank before dinner to whet their 
appetites, and after dinner to assist digestion. The fashion, as I have said, 
has passed away, and still they eat heartily and digest well. In this kind of 
drinking, women and children never participated to the same extent, as in 
the dram drinking before breakfast. 

III. Wine. — The consumption of wine has, in latter years, greatly 
decreased. It was once a regular forenoon entertainment, presented to those 
who called, especially ladies, and was served up with cake ; it was also on 
the dinner table, and was held to be an indispensable adjunct of hospitali- 
ty and good cheer, at evening parties of ladies and gentlemen. At present, 
it is rarely seen in the forenoon, is drunk sparingly at dinner parties, and 
often omitted at evening entertainments. In general, the wines drunk in 
most parts of the Valley, have been sherry and Madeira, adulterated and 
rendered highly stimulating with brandy — itself a factitious compound. In 
Louisiana, and other parts of the south, especially among the Creoles — on 
the whole the most temperate part of our population — a great deal of claret 
is consumed. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 669 

The successful cultivation of the vine, in different parts of the Valley, 
above all, in the country around Cincinnati, has originated the manufacture 
of wine — not from various ingredients — but from the unadulterated juice 
of the grape. The experiment has been carried so far, as to justify the 
expectation, that the production and consumption of native wines, will 
become extensive and permanent. In this anticipation, which / carries with 
it another — an abatement in the use of adulterated and artificial wines and 
of distilled spirits — it will be proper to say something of the character of 
the wines, which the soil and climate of the Yalley afford. By Nicholas 
Longworth, Esq., whose efforts to cultivate the grape and manufacture wine, 
have been, without regard to expense, continued with unabating zeal for 
nearly thirty years, I learn, that every attempt to make wine from the grapes 
of the old world, has been a failure ; and that he and all others in the West 
are now limited to two native vines, one called Catawba and the other 
Herbermont. I cannot give their botanical names. From these grapes, and 
chiefly the former, two or three varieties of wines, resembling the German 
hock, and an excellent champagne, are manufactured. It is estimated that, 
within a radius of ten miles from Cincinnati, five hundred acres are planted 
in vineyards, and the cultivation is rapidly increasing on both sides of the 
Ohio river, as far down as Louisville. It will be interesting, at a future 
time, to observe the results of an extensive substitution of these mild and 
simple wines, for the more ardent beverages now in general use. 

IV. Bar Room Drinking. — While family and hospitable drinking have 
thus declined, bar room drinking, in many parts of the Valley, has held its 
own. Ashamed to keep intoxicating drinks in their houses, men resort to 
dram shops, and guzzle draughts of brandy and water, with loaf sugar, mint, 
and ice. Fortunes have been made by many who have kept these establish- 
ments in all our larger cities. The times for this kind of drinking are the 
morning, the forenoon, the afternoon, and the night. Here it is, secured 
from public observation by screens, that a representative from half the 
families of every town in the middle and southern zones of the Valley may 
be found ; here it is, that others pledge themselves to oppose the municipal 
legislation, which would suppress the fountains, at which they continue to 
drink until various diseases are generated and their constitutions destroyed. 

V. Malt Liquors and Cider. — These were formerly in extensive use, 
as table drinks, in the middle and northern parts of the Valley. In latter 
years, their consumption in families has decreased ; but large quantities of 
the former are drunk in the beer houses with which all our towns and cities 
abound. They are the cherished beverages of our German and English 
immigrant population. Cider, formerly manufactured and consumed in large 
quantities by the people of the State of Ohio, is now in less general use. 

VI. Necessity and Effects of Alcoholic Drinks. — This seems to 
be the place for inquiring into the physiological necessity of drinking, and 
its pathological effects on the health and constitution. 

^It cannot, I think, be doubted by any physiologist, that human nature 
requires, for its full corporeal, intellectual, and moral development — its 



670 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

activity and efficiency — something more than the elements that supply the 
waste of the blood, which is perpetually exhausted, of certain principles by 
nutritive secretion and the function of respiration. Hence, there is implanted 
in the physical system, a desire for stimulants, as well as a desire for food and 
water. The question is, whether this want cannot be supplied, and the 
desire gratified, without a resort to alcoholic drinks ? This question may be 
conclusively answered, in either of two ways — the a priori and the a pos- 
teriori, of logicians. If alcoholic drinks had been necessary to the well- 
being of man, they would have been made productions of nature; but they 
are not the productions of nature ; and, therefore, they are not necessary. 
So much for the a priori view of the matter. If we resort to the a posteriori 
argument — if we turn to experience, and that, too, the most extended, 
diversified, and accurate, we find that thousands of individuals attain to 
fall bodily and mental vigor, without the stimulus of alcoholic drinks ; and 
thus, by their coincidence, the two modes of proof establish, beyond the possi- 
bility of a doubt or cavil, that such drinks are unnecessary ; at least, when the 
stimulants which nature has provided, can be obtained. These latter stim- 
ulants are common salt, an element of the blood, not less than a stimulus ; 
the various aromatic and acrid substances, which man has sought out and 
instinctively mingled with his food and drinks, under the name of condi- 
ments ; and, lastly, tea and coffee. These are all the physical stimulants 
which his system demands for its full perfection — all that are necessary to 
satisfy his desires, when kept unperverted. Adapted, by infinite wisdom, to 
man's wants, not less than to his instincts and appetites, he seldom uses 
them to excess; and when he does, their injurious effects bear no assignable 
proportion to those of the artificial substitutes, which his ingenuity has 
manufactured out of sugar, now known to be the only source of alcohol. 

The question here arises, why has man substituted this factitious and 
baneful stimulant, for those which the hand of a beneficent Creator has 
scattered around him? The answer is, because the excitement which it 
raises in him, is of a more intense kind, than that which they produce ; an 
evidence that its use is both unphysiological and pernicious. It may be 
asked, however, whether alcohol may not be taken in such small quantities, 
as to be made a safe and salutary substitute for the natural stimulants ? 
I answer, that, theoretically, it may; but, practically, it cannot; for if the 
natural stimulants be withheld, the desire for this, as soon as its effects are 
experienced, becomes ungovernable, and it is taken to excess. This is the 
case, as we shall hereafter see, with the Indian. All attempts, therefore, 
to replace the natural stimulants by alcohol, without using the latter to 
excess, must necessarily fail. The stimulation which it imparts, moreover, 
is not of the same character, as that raised by the natural agents, and no 
individual would enjoy the sound health of body and efficiency of mind, 
under its exclusive dominion, that he would enjoy under the influence of 
those stimuli, which the bounty of nature offers to him. 

The resort to alcoholic drinks is, then, gratuitous, and the injuries they 
inflict on the human race are not, like those from changes of weather, or 



part hi.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 671 

accidental violence, inevitable, but avoidable. Yet, how can they be 
avoided ? The answer is obvious. By refraining from the use of what, 
according to natural laws, is not required; and adhering to what is 
both demanded and provided. The cause of mischief being obviated, the 
effect would cease. 

It is argued, however, that there art circumstances under which alcoholic 
drinks are specially beneficial. I may grant this ; but it puts their use on 
a new principle, that of hygienic, or, rather, medicinal influence, and limits 
the practice of taking them to the assigned conditions ; for to be effective 
on occasions, they must not be used habitually. But let us inquire into 
these emergencies. First. It has been held, that morning bitters, which, I 
have already said, were formerly in general use in families, tended to 
prevent the autumnal fevers which prevail in all parts of our country. But 
the extensive discontinuance of the practice, without any observed increase 
of those diseases, shows that the theory was erroneous. Second. It is well 
known to the physicians of New Orleans and Mobile, that the victims of 
yellow fever are' chiefly those who drink freely. Alcohol has no pre- 
ventive power, then, over that disease ; nor does it diminish the mortality 
among those who are attacked. Third. It is equally well known, that 
other summer and autumnal epidemics, as cholera morbus and dysentery, 
are not warded off by alcohol, whatever may be its value in the treatment 
of certain cases of those diseases. Fourth. If a moderate use of brandy or 
whisky, had any preventive efficacy in Epidemic Cholera, it was greatest in 
those who had previously drunk least, and only useful when the disease was 
forming in the system. Fifth. It is known to all the medical men of the 
Valley, that drinking has no power to keep off rheumatism, pneumonia, 
pleurisy, bronchitis, and other winter inflammations ; and that those who have 
drunk most, are most likely to die when attacked. Sixth. Exposure to the 
elements, is an assigned condition requiring the use of alcohol. But the evi- 
dence is against its use, especially as compared with food and coffee, under 
cold or wet, and with lemonade or tea, under great heat. Of this we have 
already said something, in speaking of the employments of different classes 
of men; and shall furnish additional proofs, when treating of our diseases. 

Thus it appears, that neither the habitual nor the occasional use of 
alcoholic drinks, is necessary or beneficial; and I come now to show that 
they are pernicious. 

That a man might drink a moderate quantity of distilled spirit, wine, or 
malt liquor daily, and attain to old age, without infirmity, either of body or 
mind, arising from that habit, is undeniable ; for in the Valley, as elsewhere, 
we have such examples. The sound health, serene mind, and advanced 
age, do not, however, come from the drinking ; are only not prevented by it. 
If all drunk under such restrictions, the evils of intemperance would be 
unknown. Unfortunately, but a part of those who drink, thus limit them- 
selves ; the rest go into excesses, that are pernicious to health in proportion 
to their degree, and to the liability of the constitutions of those who 
practice them to become impaired by inordinate indulgence. Now, there 



672 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

must be a physiological reason for this fatal tendency to excess ; and what 
is it ? To answer this inquiry, we must refer to the effects of alcohol on the 
nervous system. These are two-fold — stimulating and narcotic. For the 
sake of the former effects only, is it used as a beverage ; hut they cannot be 
obtained apart from the latter. Slight stimulation, it is true, may be 
followed by a narcotism so slight, as not to affect the consciousness of the 
individual ; but still his nervous system receives a narcotic or stupifying 
impress, conformably to the great law of relation between narcotic sub- 
stances and that system. By repeated indulgence, the nervous suscep- 
tibility loses somewhat of its acuteness, and becomes proportionably 
insensible. Hence the necessity for augmenting the dose, when the object 
of the individual is excitement. But its increase works out a further 
reduction of sensibility, and renders new augmentation necessary. In this 
manner, a signal pathological change is wrought out in that portion, of the 
system ; which not only presides over the rest, but is the seat of all the 
senses, appetites, and desires of the body, and the immediate instrument of 
the mind. Thus, while the individual may not be conscious, on any 
succeeding day, of higher stimulation, from not feeling greater excitement 
than he felt the day before, his nervous system, through alternate 
paroxysms of excitation and stupefaction, is brought into a state of actual 
and peculiar disease ; for which he finds no palliative, but in a new resort to 
the narcotic stimulant which produced it. Thus, the habit of drinking to 
excess, is not like the habit of an awkward movement of the hand or foot, 
of taking the same seat at the table, or of seeking the company of a parti- 
cular person on the return of the same day of the week ; it is not a mere 
acquired peculiarity, within physiological limits ; but — combined with what 
may be called an alcoholic diathesis — an actual, inveterate cachexy. In 
this constitutional disorder, the nervous system is not alone involved; for 
the blood is deteriorated, and all the functions of the body, with the faculties 
and emotions of the mind, are more or less implicated. 

I shall not affirm, that in this condition, the individual is more liable, than 
in sound health, to be seized with prevalent and epidemic diseases ; but 
experience has demonstrated, that when attacked, he is much more liable to 
die. From this diathesis, moreover, several formidable diseases are set up, 
independent of external causes, and advance more or less rapidly to a fatal 
termination. The most serious of them are, dyspepsia, combined with 
chronic gastritis; diarrhea, connected with ulceration of the bowels; 
inflammation of the liver, and jaundice ; dropsy of the extremities, abdomen, 
chest, and pericardium ; sore eyes, atrophy, palpitations of the heart, 
tremors of the limbs, convulsions, palsy, delirium tremens, and suicidal 
monomania. 

Every physician of the Valley, must have met with several of these 
diseases, as the consequence of intemperance in the use of ardent spirits. 
Of the peculiar maladies generated by wine, we know but little, as the 
number of wine bibbers is small. Nor can I speak decidedly of the effects 
produced by malt liquors; which, however, have been observed here, as 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 673 

elsewhere, to be fullness of habit, a kind of hypertrophy of the cellular 
tissue, dropsy, sluggishness, drowsiness, and apoplexy. 

Alcoholic beverages are much more pernicious to the constitutions of the 
young, than of those in middle or advanced life. Very few young men, with 
habits of excessive drinking, reach the meridian of life ; being cut off by 
convulsions, apoplexy, or some disease rendered incurable by their alcoholic 
cachexy. Very few women, except the abandoned, or the lower classes of 
Irish emigrants, fall victims to intemperance; for excessive drinking by 
females, is exceedingly rare in every part of the Valley. I have known but 
one woman to die with delirium tremens, and she was from England. 
Among the hygienic means of averting the habit of excessive drinking, I 
know of none equal to the use of tea. To this we may, in part, attribute the 
escape of our female population from intoxication ; and I have rarely seen 
a young tea- drinker of the male sex, become in later years, the victim of 
alcoholic stimulation. 

We may presume, I think, that the effects of alcoholic stimulation are 
modified by climate, as we know them to be by the temperaments and 
idiosyncrasies of those who drink, and also by the composition of the drinks 
themselves ; but these diversities can be best studied in connection with the 
diseases they produce. In this place, I shall not attempt even an enumera- 
tion of the maladies which alcohol, as a predisposing, exciting, or aggra- 
vating cause, is known to generate or render fatal ; but in the progress of 
this work, they will be pointed out; and it will then appear, that throughout 
the Interior Valley, notwithstanding a decided amelioration in the habits of 
the people, this poison continues to be a prolific source of disease. 



SECTION V. 

TOBACCO. 

The consumption of snuff in the Valley of the Mississippi, except by the 
French of Louisiana and Canada, is quite limited. Coarse snuff is gener- 
ally prefered to fine ; and hence the nasal twang, which results from the 
accumulation of the fine powder in the posterior nares and the sinuses of 
the jface, is not often heard. Snuff is more used by the aged than the 
young, and by men than women. When a dry and not very coarse article 
is taken freely, it may be seen adhering to the pharynx ; and, descending 
into the stomach of the dyspeptic and nervous, it contributes to aggravate 
their disorders. 

In many parts of the south, women and girls have a fashion of rubbing 
their teeth and gums with snuff. They chew the end of a green twig, until 
they mash it into a kind of brush, which they dip into the snuff box, and 
then rub their teeth with it. This operation is known through that region 
under the name of " dipping." The practice, like that of eating slate 



674 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

pencils, chalk, or clay, often spreads through families and female schools ; so 
as to constitute a serious and disgusting evil. No doubt much of the pow- 
der, finding its way into the stomach and lungs, contributes to disorder both, 
and to derange the nervous system generally. 

Smoking prevails to a great extent. In our towns and cities, cigars are used 
almost entirely ; in many, indeed most parts of the country, the pipe main- 
tains its ancient supremacy. If the same one be repeatedly used, it becomes 
foul, with a deleterious empyreumatic oil, which contributes to the energetic 
effect which tobacco exerts on the system ; it would, therefore, be more 
pernicious than cigars, were not the constitutions of the country people 
firmer than those of the city. Our Germans are great smokers, and prefer 
the pipe ; but most of them are hard laborers, with constitutions of little 
susceptibility. In our towns, and older-settled parts of the country, but few 
women smoke ; but in frontier and thinly-peopled places, inhabited by immi- 
grants from the old southern states, the^custom still prevails. 

Cigar smoking in our towns, has been charged with promoting alcoholic 
intemperance. They are undoubtedly associated, but may be the twin 
offspring of idleness, fashion, and conviviality. Still it is true, that young 
men sometimes seek in whisky or brandy, relief from the pernicious effects 
of tobacco ; and it may be useful, therefore, to tell them, that a glass of 
lemonade, or any other acid drink, is a far better corrective. 

Chewing is still more prevalent than smoking. Some individuals follow 
both, but a majority only one. Chewing, I believe, is almost entirely con- 
fined to the male sex. The cheapness of tobacco in every part of the 
Valley, resulting from its extensive cultivation, no doubt, contributes to an 
excessive use. 

Our boys begin the use of tobacco, by chewing or smoking, at an early 
age; many as early as seven years; a large number before puberty; and a 
great majority of all who ever use it, acquire the habit before they are 
twenty-one. But few persons engage in its use after their fortieth year. 
At whatever period the habit may be formed, it generally continues through 
life ; and the earlier it is established, the more inveterate is its character. 
The predisposing cause of this custom is the constitutional desire for bodily 
excitement ; concerning which I need not repeat what was said when treating 
of alcoholic drinks. The most efficient exciting cause is fashion, and 
instinctive imitation of our seniors and companions. The sustaining cause 
is a permanent modification of the nervous system. It is common to hear 
the custom of using tobacco and that of alcoholic drinking, spoken of in 
nearly the same language of reprobation ; but physiology recognizes, along 
with the analogies, several diversities of action and effect. 

Mr st. The first impress of tobacco on the nervous system is far ruder, 
than that of alcoholic drinks. It is characterized by great muscular debility, 
feeble pulse, nausea, vertigo, and tremors. While it stimulates and irritates 
the mouth and throat, it produces general prostration. The constitutional 
effects of alcohol, on the other hand, are those of excitement, followed by 
slight narcotism. Second. Tobacco does not raise excitement in the 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 675 

mental and moral faculties, but the reverse ; while both are transiently 
excited and disordered by alcohol. Third. The abuse of tobacco does 
not generate inflammation of the stomach, liver, or brain — a common effect 
from excess of drinking. Fourth. It does not, like alcohol, lead to 
epilepsy, apoplexy, and palsy. Fifth. It does not produce the dropsical 
effusions which, sooner or later, make their appearance under abuses of 
alcohol. Sixth. It does not originate delirium tremens and suicide. 
Seventh. It does not, like alcoholic stimulation, give fatal effect to other 
remote causes. Eighth. It differs from alcohol in this, that the habit of 
resorting to the latter may be formed after middle life. Ninth. As a fact, 
I may mention, that fewer leave off the use of tobacco than of alcohol ; but 
how much of this is purely physiological, and how much moral, or a result of 
the perception of the evils of the latter, I cannot say. Tenth. After both 
habits have become fixed, the continuance of the use of tobacco seems to 
depend more on the demand of the part on which its makes it impress — 
that of alcohol on the requirements of the whole constitution. 

"We must now turn to the admitted evils to health, resulting from the use 
of tobacco : First. It is most injurious to those of a bilious or nervous 
temperament; less to the sanguine, and least of all to the phlegmatic. 
Second. Its violent effects upon the nervous system, in early life, grow less 
with age and the continuance of the habit ; but, in a great number of per- 
sons, it maintains permanent weakness, and irritation of the nervous system. 
Third. It impairs the functions of the stomach, giving rise to indigestion 
and acidity, with attacks of sick headache. Fourth. It sometimes arrests 
nutrition, and keeps the individual in a state of comparative emaciation, with 
debility of the muscular system. I know a gentleman who chewed tobacco 
through a long life, and was always remarkably lean. When about seventy- 
five years of age, he discontinued its use, and in the course of a year, became 
fleshy, and even rather corpulent, though, in everything else, he lived as 
before. 

The effect of keeping down the flesh, is generally attributed to the drain 
of saliva which it occasions, and this may sometimes be one of the modes in 
which it operates; but its greatest influence is on the nervous system. This 
effect is universal, but not always injurious. Certain constitutions display 
it at all times, but others only become sensible of it when the drug is with- 
held. There then arises a nervous irritability, accompanied by a desire, 
under which the habit is resumed. 

A gentleman who had followed the sea for many years, and practiced 
chewing the whole time, determined, when he became a landsman, to break 
himself of the habit ; but, after abstaining for two years, during which, as 
he assured me, the idea of tobacco was never absent from his mind, he 
resumed it, and his nervous system became pacified. Such facts conform to 
the law, that the difficulty of breaking in upon a physical habit, is inversely 
as the facility of forming it. 

Nothing in the present state of society, justifies the expectation, that 
tobacco will go out of use. Its universal adoption indicates a universal 



676 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

propensity, which it gratifies. When the habit is once formed, the motives 
for breaking it, are generally insufficient to sway the will of the individual ; 
and thus he at last becomes a venerable example to the rising generation. 
Thus the practice is made, as it were, hereditary. Notwithstanding this 
discouraging view of the evil, it should be resisted in every practicable way. 
Commencing in youth, it ought to be met by the discipline appropriate to 
that period of life. Parents should forbid it in their sons, masters in their 
apprentices, and all literary institutions in their pupils. Many would, by 
this course, be kept from forming the habit, until they would pass the period 
in which it is generally established ; and their example would exert an influ- 
ence on the succeeding generation. In this way the evil might be dimin- 
ished, but not eradicated. Meanwhile, it is the duty of medical men, to point 
out the injury which they may observe it to be exerting on individuals, and 
insist on its discontinuance ; or lay such restrictions on its use, as to diminish 
its pernicious effects. One restriction is to lessen gradually the quantity 
consumed; another, to use weaker tobacco ; a third, not to use it when the 
stomach is empty. 



CHAPTER III. 

CLOTHING, LODGINGS, BATHING, HABITATIONS, AND 
SHADE-TREES. 



SECTION I. 

CLOTHING. 

The male population of the Valley, throughout its whole extent, are gen- 
erally well clothed, as far as respects protection from cold. Linen next the 
skin is rare, except in summer, and is then almost limited to the wealthier 
classes. Muslin is in general use. In winter, flannel next the surface of 
the body, is more extensively worn than formerly. Some individuals wear 
it throughout the summer ; but a greater number substitute muslin. Both 
the woolen and the cotton fabrics, tend to preserve the skin from the sudden 
reductions of temperature by the action of wind, when the individual is 
perspiring ; while linen, from its readier conducting power, permits both the 
heat and moisture, to be more rapidly carried off. There are skins, however, 
so irritable, and others so prone to perspiration, that linen is preferable for 
them throughout the year. At all seasons of the year, the flannel, or 
muslin, or raw silk, that is worn next the skin, through the day, should be 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 677 

taken off at night ; and, by being turned inside out, be allowed to exhale the 
secretions of the skin with which it has become impregnated; a practice 
not generally observed, though decidedly salutary. The moccasons of buck- 
skin, so common fifty years ago, havenearly disappeared ; and substantial shoes 
and boots of tanned leather, are now in universal use. They are seldom made 
water-proof, or worn double, except in cities, and there by a small number. 
The former quality, makes the feet damp from their own perspiration, and 
keeps them so — the latter custom, subjects the individual to the danger of 
taking cold, whenever he happens to be exposed, with only a single pair. 
There can be no doubt, that the common method of protection is most 
salubrious. The boys of the country run barefoot for eight months of the 
year, until they are twelve or fourteen years old; a custom well calculated 
to harden their constitutions. 

The dress of the female population of the Valley is not, in general, as 
well adapted to the preservation of health, as that of the male. It abounds 
much more in cotton and silk ; which in winter are often insufficient. The 
practice of wearing flannel next the surface is not so universal, and the want 
of a close adaptation of clothing to their limbs, whereby they are exposed to 
the sudden changes of a variable climate, is no doubt often a source of 
disease. For several years past an amelioration in this respect has been 
going on, and fashion, more governing in female apparel than in any other 
custom of the world, seems likely to render the use of muslin or flannel 
drawers universal. So many obvious considerations unite in favor of this 
addition to female raiment, that the hope may be cherished that, once intro- 
duced, it will become permanent. 

The use of corsets, though not universal, has been very general, but is 
said to be declining. In the country, the exceptions are more numerous than 
in the towns and cities, even among women who labor equally hard. Much 
argument, declamation, and raillery have been directed against this article of 
apparel ; but it has maintained itself in spite of all. The truth is, that the 
inferior muscularity of the trunk of the body in females, and the greater 
amount of cellular, adipose, and glandular matter covering the muscles, 
than in males, seems to suggest the corset as a natural and necessary sup- 
port. A requirement much less urgent, on the part of the other sex, sug- 
gested and maintains in use, the waistband and closely-buttoned vest. The 
true objections to the corset do not involve its use, but its abuse. First. It 
is often put on girls before they have gotten their growth. Second. It is 
not always fitted to the form. Third. In many instances it is worn so 
tight, as to displace the abdominal viscera, restrain the due action of the 
respiratory muscles, and prevent the full inflation of the lungs. These 
abuses have their origin in the tastes of individuals; and do not spring from 
the mechanism of the jacket itself. It is certainly more feasible to correct 
them, than to banish it — easier to raise a public opinion among women 
against tight lacing, than against an article of dress which, properly used, 
they find comfortable, supporting, and in no wise injurious; while it 
enables them to fix and adjust the other parts of their apparel; as the 



678 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i , 

trunk of the body constitutes the point d'appui, of all the movements of the 
head and extremities. 

The shoes of our women, both in town and country, but especially in the 
former, are far from constituting an adequate protection, except in the south, 
or during hot and dry weather. They cover too small a part of the foot, 
and the materials of which they are composed, are generally too thin and 
permeable to water. I am quite convinced, that where one has suffered from 
the manner of using a corset, many have suffered from the form and mate- 
rial of their shoes. Their hosing, also, in the middle and northern parts of 
the Valley, is quite insufficient ; being generally of cotton or silk, when that 
of wool, as a greater non-conductor of heat, is indispensable to the warmth 
of the feet and lower extremities. In the country, woolen stockings are in 
more general use ; but, still, cotton is very often worn under circumstances 
which should forbid its use. 

The fashion of occasionally exposing the neck and upper part of the 
chest, which the same individuals ordinarily protect from the action of cold 
air, is injurious to the health of the lungs; and requires a removal of the 
dress from the top of the shoulders, over which it should be suspended, to 
the deltoid muscles; where it is kept, by a tightness, which materially inter- 
feres with the action of those muscles, and the movements of the arms. 
Thus, while the modesty natural to women is violated by this fashion, it is 
equally repugnant to sound physiology. 

The dress of our children is often liable to objections. What I have to 
say relates to the colder parts of the Valley, and more to cities than the 
country. In the latter, children spend much of their time in the open air, 
and, by common consent, are held to be hardier. In town, they remain more 
in close and heated houses through the cold weather, and when they are 
sent out, are often inadequately clothed. The fashion of exposing their 
arms and the superior parts of their chests during youth, is often injurious. 
Man was not made to have his hands and face clothed, but he was made, to 
have the other parts of the body covered. Animals and birds have a nat- 
ural protection of hair or feathers, and man, in all climates and all states of 
society, has shown an instinct to clothing. These two facts demonstrate, that 
clothing is physiological; and, if so, it should extend to all parts of the 
body which can be covered without interfering with their functions ; and 
the only exceptions are those just mentioned. It is physiologically absurd 
to say, that by exposure, the whole surface of the body would come to bear 
the cold as well as the face, which must of necessity be exposed. Parents, 
then, should not expose their children without protecting what nature 
requires, and her Author intended, should be protected. The practice, 
moreover, of allowing the clothes of little children to fall off their shoulders, 
and be kept up by compression over the shoulder joints, is still more objec- 
tionable in them than in young women, as it interferes with the proper 
development of their arms. The secret of success, in forming the constitu- 
tions of children, as far as clothing is concerned is, First, To cover the whole 
surface of their bodies and their limbs separately. Second. To see that their 



part hi.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 679 

dress is warm in winter. Third. To take care that no part of it com- 
presses them. Thus protected, they should be encouraged to go into the 
open air, frequently and freely, even in the coldest weather. 



SECTION II. 

BATHING. 
Bathing is far from being general in any part of the Valley. On the 
shores of the Gulf, and at the watering places of the interior, there are 
bathing houses, to which a number of people annually resort in summer. 
Those who live near our rivers and the shores of the Northern Lakes, occa- 
sionally bathe. In most of our larger cities, there are bathing establish- 
ments for both sexes, to which individuals, chiefly of the more wealthy 
classes, have recourse ; and, finally, many individuals have family bathing- 
rooms, both hot and cold. Still, an overwhelming majority of our popula- 
tion seldom bathe at all. Of the efficacy of daily bathing, in the preservation 
of sound health and a hardy constitution, there can be no doubt ; and it i3 
much to be regretted, that the practice cannot be made more general. A very 
good and not inconvenient substitute for immersion or showering, may be 
found in sponging or sprinkling" the surface of the body, on rising in the 
morning, all the year round ; or, in the winter, standing at the window and 
taking an air bath, which should not be prolonged after a slight shuddering 
has commenced. In all cases the skin should be well rubbed, immediately 
after the application of the water or the air, with a coarse towel. Our 
large cities, from New Orleans and Mobile, to Pittsburgh and Montreal, ought 
to have public cistern-baths, for the gratuitous accommodation of the poorer 
laboring classes, so many of whom, when sick, are supported at the public 
expense in our alms-houses and hospitals. Whatever tends to preserve 
their health, diminishes the poor taxes, not to refer to higher motives, which 
are obvious, but do not come into the plan of this work. 



SECTION III. 

LODGINGS. 

Many persons in the middle and northern parts of the Valley, sleep, 
through winter, in rooms warmed by stoves or open fireplaces, but a greater 
number lodge without fire. The general opinion is in favor of the latter, as 
far as health is concerned. If fire be used, the open chimney is better than 
the stove, as favoring ventilation. If a stove be used, a screen should be 
interposed between it and the head of the bed, to intercept the radiating 



680 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

heat, and evaporation should be maintained. It is better to burn wood than 
coal in the bed-chamber; for, as the latter is dying away, and the draft up 
the pipe has nearly ceased, a quantity of carbonic oxide is apt to escape, and 
contaminate the air of the room. Thus many persons who s leepin close 
rooms, with stoves supplied with coal, have troubled dreams ; and awake in 
in the morning with headache. The people of the zones, of which I have 
spoken, and, indeed, of almost the whole Valley, are less divided in opinion 
as to their beds, than they are in regard to fire in the bed-rooms. Feather 
beds are almost universal — indeed, are met with nearly down to the Gulf; 
and, in most of the Valley, the people lodge upon them in summer as well 
as winter. Even children, not less than older persons, are often subjected 
to this kind of lodging. In mild weather, feather beds should never be 
used ; and, in winter, those who keep fire in their rooms, and those who live 
in the south, should not sleep on them. A hard bed, of curled hair, straw, 
husks of Indian corn, or long moss, is much to be preferred, as promoting 
the density and strength of the muscles, and hardening the skin. Persons 
who have been lodged on hard beds from their infancy, greatly prefer them. 
What are called "weakly" children should sleep on no others. Mechanical 
pressure is the natural stimulus of the skin and muscles ; and cannot be with- 
held at night, without detracting from their firmness and vigor. The rule 
should be, to resort to feathers only for warmth ; and under all circumstances 
which admit of that, in an adequate degree without them, they should be 
dispensed with. This rule, rigidly observed, would banish them entirely 
from the southern zone of the Valley, and limit them to the winter in the 
middle and northern. 

The extensive, and especially the summer, use of feather beds, in the 
Valley, may be traced back to the practice of our English ancestors ; for 
family customs, not less than nursery tales, are traditional. But, in Great 
Britain, the summers are proverbially cool ; and, hence, what may there be 
very well, may be prejudicial here. It is necessary, however, that we should 
lodge warm. To sleep cold is exceedingly injurious to health ; for it is 
natural, that is physiological, for the perspiration, sensible or insensible, to 
flow freely while we are asleep. Repose, silence, and the absence of mental 
emotion, favor it ; and if it be suppressed by cold, injury to health ensues. 
It is particularly injurious for the surface of the body to be uncovered through 
the night, and especially during the latter part. Hence it is beneficial, in 
summer, to sleep in such night-clothes as will protect all parts of the surface, 
notwithstanding the automatic and instinctive movements which take place 
during sleep. All this is still more necessary for children than for adults. 
In winter, sleeping cold may bring on a catarrh, sick headache, or an attack 
of rheumatism ; in summer, may be the exciting cause of cholera morbus, 
diarrhea, or dysentery; which often commence in the latter part of the night, 
as did epidemic cholera, and for the same reason. All our physicians are 
familiar with the attacks of cholera infantum, which occur at the same 
period of the night ; and I have often seen croup produced in June and 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA- 681 

July, from the same exposure, when children who are more carefully lodged, 
scarcely ever contract it. 

Lodging rooms should, throughout the whole year, be thoroughly aired 
before their inmates retire to them. If a current of wind can be made to 
blow through them, so much the better ; but, in summer or autumn, it is 
right to let down the sash, or otherwise close up the windows, before we go 
to sleep. Two effects result from this : first, tbe exclusion of malaria, 
or the poison which produces autumnal fever; second, the exclusion of 
moisture, which, in the latter part of the night, often chills the body. 
This rule is especially necessary in the south, and along our great water- 
courses, where bad air and fogs so much abound. In very dry localities, and 
far in the north, it is less required. 



SECTION IV. 

HABITATIONS. 
A vast majority of the inhabitants of the Valley live in wooden houses, 
which, even in most of our towns and cities, predominate over those of brick 
and stone. In the south, these houses are very commonly protected from 
the action of the summer sun, by porches and verandahs : while the winters 
are so mild that the inmates do not suffer. In the north, thin walls are an 
inadequate protection from the severe cold of January ; and, in the absence of 
verandahs, from the burning heats of July. In the spring of the year, walls 
of brick or stone are often covered with condensed vapor; the rooms have 
become filled with warm air from without, which seems dry, because it con- 
tains no more vapor than it can keep in solution; but when it comes in 
contact with the cold walls, its temperature is reduced to the dew point ; and, 
with the same absolute quantity of water, it becomes a moist air. The 
proper corrective is a fire, which restores the dryness, by increasing 
the capacity of the air for moisture. An objection to wooden dwel- 
lings is the rotting of their foundations, when, as is too often the case 
they are built without an adequate under-pinning of stone. When 
this decay commences, the family, by night and day, breathe whatever 
gases or malaria may be generated. In some of the villages along our 
alluvial rivers, which occasionally overflow their banks, all the sills and 
sleepers of the houses, although so recently built, are already in a state of 
decay. This is especially the case in the south, where heat and moisture 
abound, and most of the timber used is of a soft and perishable kind. 
Another defect is the absence of cellars, which are seldom met with in the 
country, except under the best houses ; and are omitted in building the 
small and temporary houses, which make up the greater number in our 
towns and cities. Even when cellars are dug, there is a neglect of the 
means of ventilating and drying them. All such foundations are apt to 
become filthy ; and perpetual decay and decomposition go forward throughout 
44 



682 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [booki. 

the summer, even when the atmosphere is dry, thus generating a foul air, 
while the lower stories, or ground floors, are often rendered unhealthy by 
their dampness. A further defect, is the want of the means of airing the 
different apartments, especially those occupied as lodging rooms. A single 
window, with a door opening into a narrow entry — itself, perhaps, not 
admitting of sufficient ventilation — necessarily gives an impure atmosphere. 
Its inmates, from custom, may not detect the foul air ; but the senses of a 
stranger instantly feel its impress; and every physician knows, that its 
chronic action on the constitution is bad. In the newly settled parts of the 
country, this fault in building is carried to its greatest hight. The log 
cabin, resting directly on the ground, and made tight by daubing, generally 
has but one small window, sometimes none ; and yet all the family live and 
lodge in it. Of course, throughout the winter, in the colder parts of the 
Valley, there is no ventilation, except of the space, between the door and 
fireplace. In better and larger houses, having halls, and several rooms, 
there is still another defect, which is, that no provision is made, in most of 
them, for warming the apartments that are not in constant use ; and yet the 
inmates, even small children, with clothing adapted to those which are pro- 
perly heated, wander through the whole, and often sustain injury. This is 
particularly prejudicial to small children, inclined to croup or scrofula, and 
to girls and young women, predisposed to consumption. The plan of 
warming large houses with heated air, recently introduced into some of our 
larger towns, is well calculated to remove this objection; but care should be 
taken, to guard against the dryness of the currents which the furnace sends 
up ; otherwise discomfort, and even injury to health, may result. Plitherto 
our houses, especially in the country — where the practice is likely to be per- 
manent — have been warmed with wood fires, in open chimneys : in the cities, 
close stoves are coming into use ; and, near all the larger rivers, mineral coal is 
superseding wood. This kind of fuel has the advantage of maintaining a more 
equable temperature; but it throws out exhalations, which sometimes 
affect the head and lungs. What maladies may cease or be produced 
by the increasing stone-coal smoke of our larger, and especially our 
manufacturing towns, remains yet to be ascertained. Very lately the 
"air-tight" stove has made its way among us. In this we have the slow 
combustion of wood. While admirably calculated to maintain a uniform 
temperature, it presents two objections : first, it is unfavorable to a change 
of air ; second, it renders the air too dry. The former is not easily 
remedied, because of the small and feeble current created by such slow 
combustion ; and may require openings near the ceiling of the room, for the 
escape of the long-retained and rarified atmosphere, while other apertures 
near the floor, allow a corresponding supply to enter. The latter defect 
may be supplied by evaporating pans, which should always be broad and 
shallow, and not made of metal, nor of earthenware enameled with lead, as 
a decomposition of the water, by the oxydation of the metal, will liberate 
hydrogen gas, which, in passing off, may dissolve a portion of the metal, and 
thus vitiate the atmosphere of the room. Finally, the practice of occasion- 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 683 

ally warming chambers with pans of burning charcoal, is more common than 
is generally supposed; and every now and then, occasions death, by the 
liberation of carbonic oxide, or carbonic acid. 

In every country, the aspect of a house deserves attention, and should be 
determined by a reference to the sun and winds. As far as possible, they 
should shine and blow upon it. In the Valley of the Mississippi, this 
general union is quite practicable; for, as we have seen, its prevailing 
winds are from southern points between south-east and south-west. If, 
then, a dwelling have its front to the south — as is generally the case in the 
Valley — it will be better lighted and ventilated, than if its end should be in 
that direction. 



SECTION V. 

SHADE-TREES. 

Referring to health, how near should shade-trees be planted to a 
dwelling ? Their effect, when so near as to overshadow the roof and walls, 
or the latter only, is no doubt to keep them cool; but they increase the 
dampness, by preventing the drying effect of the sun, after rains and heavy 
dews; and in the south, its most observing physicians and planters, are 
opposed to them, and prefer the verandah ; which, I have no doubt, is a 
correct decision. It is, however, a great advantage to have trees near 
a house, so that they may shade the ground around it, and thus prevent the 
reflection and radiation of heat against its walls. On the northern side, 
they may be planted nearer than on the southern, as they cannot there 
overshadow the building. Trees, in the neighborhood of a dwelling, when 
not too near, not only do good in the manner just pointed out, but they 
protect the family, when they go out for recreation, or the ordinary business 
of the house ; and every one must regret their wanton destruction around 
most of the country houses of the Valley. With the motives for their 
preservation, which good taste and the love of beautiful scenery would 
suggest, this work has no concern; but I find enough, of a purely hygienic 
kind, to justify a protest against the destruction of what nature, in her wise 
economy, has provided, to shield the earth and its inhabitants, its tender 
grass and delicate flowers, from the scorching rays of a summer sun. 

Shade-trees should be cultivated in our towns and cities more extensively 
than they now are; but those which grow to a great hight, should not be 
chosen, because they render the walls and roofs damp. The object is, to 
shade the side-walks. Very broad streets or avenues should have rows of 
larger trees in their centers ; for, at such a distance, they do not produce 
the injury just mentioned, while they keep down the heat of the surface, 
diminish radiation, and protect those who are passing. The towns of the 
south are generally well shaded, either with sheds and awnings, or with 
trees. The Pride of China (Melia azedarach) is the favorite, up to the 



i 



684 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

latitude of thirty-three degrees, above which it does not bear the colder 
winters ; then the resort is to the white-flowering locust (Robinia pseuda- 
cacia), with which, in higher latitudes, are blended the water maple (Acer 
rubrum*), white elm (Vlmus pendula'), catalpa (Bignonia catalpa), and 
sycamore ( Platanus occidentalis ), all of which grow too large for narrow 
streets. But within the last few years, the ailanthus, a foreign tree, has 
been introduced, and become a general favorite. 

The planting and cultivation of trees, on the public squares of our cities, 
has not received the careful attention which their value demands. They 
maintain a cool place, to which resort may be had, by those who suffer from 
excessive heat, either in the streets, or in badly-constructed houses ; and 
should be regarded as among the means of health and comfort for the people 
of every city. 

To conclude, trees should be left standing between ponds or marshes and 
the family residence. There are many evidences that they exert a pro- 
tecting summer and autumnal influence ; especially when the source of disease 
is to the south or west of the town or dwelling. 



CHAPTER IV. 

OCCUPATIONS, PURSUITS, EXERCISE, AND RECREATION. 



SECTION I. 
AGRICULTURAL LABORS. 

I. In the non-slaveholding colonies and states, that is, in Canada, 
western New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minisota, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, 
Ohio, and western Pennsylvania, including the northern half of the popula- 
tion of the Valley, the prevailing occupation of the male sex, is miscella- 
neous agriculture, or farming. Most of their time is, therefore, spent in the 
open air ; where they are exposed, more or less, to rain, morning dews, and 
the noonday suns ; while their joints and muscles are heavily taxed, to the 
bad end of breaking down the health and strength of some j and the good 
end of giving great firmness and endurance to others. 

In these labors, boys often begin to participate, as early as the age of 
seven or eight years ; but girls and women, except among the immigrants from 
Germany, are seldom seen as laborers on the farm. 

II. In the slave states, from the Appalachian Mountains to the Rio del 
Norte, there are, in reference to agricultural labor, two classes of white men : 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 685 

First. Those who own a sufficient number of slaves to perform the required 
work ot the plantation, as it is there called ; and, therefore, do not labor 
with their own hands, but lead lives of superintendence, recreation, or idle- 
ness ; spending, it is true, much of their time in the open air, but often with- 
out adequate provision against all its inclemencies; and without taking 
systematic exercise, for the sake of its hygienic effects. The further we 
go south, the greater is the proportional number of this class. Second. 
Those who either own no slaves, or so few, as to be under the necessity of 
participating in the labors of the field. No portion of the slaveholding 
states is without this class ; but they are most numerous in western Vir- 
ginia, east Tennessee, Kentucky, and Missouri; that is, above the cotton 
zone, in the latitudes which produce wheat, hemp, tobacco, horned cattle, 
horses, and sheep. The hardest and heaviest labors of this class, consists 
in cutting down the forests, and opening the farm. In the south they do 
not work much among sugar and cotton ; but in miscellaneous agriculture — 
they are farmers, not planters, in the discriminating vocabulary of the 
country. It was formerly believed, that white men could not bear the sum- 
mer heat of the field, below the thirty-third degree of latitude ; but this 
opinion is not, at present, strenuously maintained by any one. On the 
contrary, it seems probable, that those men, who, in the south, work regu- 
larly in the field, enjoy better health, and live to a greater age than those 
who lead lives of idleness, with its sinister accompaniments. 

It cannot be doubted, that agricultural labor is favorable to health and 
long life ; notwithstanding its fatigues and exposures. Among the diseases 
to which it gives birth, or generates a predisposition, are rheumatism of the 
joints, lumbago, sciatica, bronchitis, pleurisy, pneumonia and acute fevers; 
the fruits of violent muscular effort, or great exposure to foul weather. 
Dyspepsia is not unknown among this class, but occurs from other causes, 
and in spite of the salutary influences of agricultural life. Nor is consump- 
tion uncommon ; though, apart from hereditary predisposition, it does not 
often occur; and a life of agricultural labor is, perhaps, one of the best 
means for correcting such a predisposition. 

As autumnal fever is a rural disease, those who follow agricultural occu- 
pations are, of course, among its most frequent victims. 



SECTION II. 

COMMERCIAL PURSUITS. 
I. Under this head, I propose to treat of those who are engaged chiefly 
in water transportation. It is impossible to estimate their number. It 
probably exceeds one hundred thousand, and is every day increasing. The 
larger part are meu, before middle life : a great number are boys, and a few, 
perhaps two per cent., are women. On and around the Gulf of Mexico, the 



686 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

labors of this class continue throughout the year; but further north there 
are long periods of suspension. On the lakes, navigation is interrupted 
through four of the cold months ; and, for as many of the hot, but few 
watermen are required to descend the Mississippi to New Orleans. There 
are, in the Valley, four different provinces of commercial operation — the 
Gulf, the rivers, the lakes, and the prairies. 

II. Life upon the Gulf. — New Orleans is the emporium of the 
commercial marine, of the Gulf of Mexico. Of the other ports, the chief 
are Chagres, Vera Cruz, Havana, Tampico, Galveston, Pensacola, and 
Mobile. The voyages between these ports, or between any one of them and 
New Orleans, are never of such duration as to generate any form of disease 
peculiar to the sea. They are made in steamboats, and schooners, or brigs. 
In whatever craft, the sailors and operatives lead exposed lives, while they 
move in an atmosphere, the mean annual temperature of which varies, in 
different latitudes, from seventy to eighty degrees of Fahrnenheit ; while it 
is nearly saturated with vapor. Their exposure to sudden showers is fre- 
quent — to that of a sun of intense power, habitual, for at least ten months out 
of twelve; at night they often lie in the open air; lastly, in certain seasons 
of the year, they are subjected to the chilling influence of the Northers. 
Most of them use ardent spirits daily ; and, while in port, where they spend 
much of their time, many of them dip into dissipation. In addition to this 
class of seamen, there are the sailors and marines of the United States' 
Navy, who cruize in the Gulf, and undergo the same exposures, but are 
more restricted in the use of ardent spirits. A large proportion of all 
the seamen of the Gulf, are natives of more northern latitudes. In esti- 
mating the effects of the life they lead, upon their health and constitution, 
we must deduct the effects of intemperance, with its exposures, while they 
are in port ; and, also, the action on their systems of the deleterious atmos- 
phere of commercial towns, in hot climates; and, having done so, we may 
say, that they are liable to diarrhoea, cholera morbus, dysentery, hepatitis, 
and coup de soleil, in summer ; and to rheumatism and pneumonia in winter. 
While at sea, as on a schooner voyage, from Vera Cruz or Havana to New 
Orleans, they are often invaded by yellow fever; and the same disease some- 
times breaks out in our national vessels, when they have not lately touched 
at any port, Such, however, is but seldom the case with autumnal inter- 
mittents and remittents ; the former of which sometimes cease spontaneously 
during a protracted voyage. 

III. Life upon our Rivers. — 1. In the latter part of the last century, 
and for the first fifteen or twenty years of the present, the commerce of the 
Interior Valley was carried on in flat boats, which floated with the current, 
and in keel boats, and barges, which were, by oars, setting poles, and cordells, 
propelled against it. Flat boats still continue in use, but the others are no 
longer employed. The principal voyages were from the Ohio River to New 
Orleans ; and the watermen who performed them, constituted a peculiar 
class: First. They were, for a long period, exposed to a river atmosphere- 
Second. Their exposure to the weather was incessant. Third. Their die* 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 687 

consisted chiefly of bread and meat. Fourth. They drank whisky to excess. 
Fifth. Those who returned by the river, were compelled to labor in the most 
toilsome manner, and were often in the water. Sixth. Those who traveled 
back by land, performed a journey of a thousand miles, on horseback or on 
foot, encamping at night in the open air. 

In this occupation many died of fevers, contracted from lying through the 
night at the river banks, or at New Orleans ; and rheumatism or pulmonary 
diseases were the lot of others; but the majority were strong and hardy — 
none being more so, than those who performed the long overland journey 
from New Orleans, to the middle portion of the Ohio River, on foot. Since 
the general introduction of steamboats, the flat boat hands no longer return 
by land ; but on the lower decks of those boats, where many of them yield 
to dissipation, and the mortality is, I presume, quite as great as among those 
of former times. 

2. The number of men and boys employed in navigating our numerous 
steamboats, amounts to many thousands. The most exposed and reckless 
are the firemen and deckhands. The diet of the operatives is chiefly bread 
and meat, with coffee in the morning. Their labors are heavy, and require 
to be performed by night, not less than day. They are much exposed to all 
inclemencies of weather, and are often in the water. The firemen pass 
much of their time in a heat of one hundred and twenty degrees, and some 
of it, in a heat of one hundred and fifty degrees, Fahrenheit, as I have 
ascertained by the thermometer, when their pulses rise, in frequency, to one 
hundred and thirty or one hundred and forty in a minute. Both classes are 
in the habit of throwing themselves on the bow of the boat, where they are 
exposed to a wind equal to the velocity of the boat. To counteract the 
effects of these various exposures and irregularities, many of them drink 
freely of ardent spirits ; and the firemen, especially, regard such drinks as 
necessary to the maintenance of that perspiration, which cools their bodies 
after approaching the furnaces, which they feed with fuel. The experience 
of the most observing commanders is, however, that these and every other 
class of steamboat operatives, enjoy better health, and have greater strength 
when they refrain from drinking. As to the diseases to which they are 
most liable, if I may judge from what I have seen in the Louisville Marine 
Hospital, and the Commercial Hospital of Ohio, at Cincinnati, they are 
chiefly diarrhoea, and intermittent fever, with its seguelce, disordered spleen, 
and dropsy. Rheumatism and pulmonary inflammation are, however, not 
uncommon. Finally, a large number are suddenly destroyed by mechanical 
accidents, drowning, or scalding ; and a still larger number are driven from 
employment, to die a lingering death from the diseases produced by intem- 
perance and river exposure. 

The steamboat river-pilots have a peculiar duty to perform, which might be 
expected to affect their eyes unfavorably. For twelve hours out of every 
twenty-four, they are kept in a state of active vision ; at night straining 
their eyes to see objects by a dim light, or through the fog — in the day, 
having them directed upon a watery surface, which often reflects an intense 



688 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

light. Ophthalmia and amaurosis might be supposed to result from such a 
life ; but I am not aware that they have often been produced. 

IV. Life on the Northern Lakes. — Our fresh-water sailors pass 
their active lives in a mean temperature of about forty-five degrees, instead 
of seventy-five degrees like those of the Gulf of Mexico. Their voyages 
are made in schooners, steamboats, and propellers. The number of 
operatives is large — quite equal, perhaps, to the number employed upon 
the Gulf, if we except those coming in European vessels The lake voyages 
are generally short and, therefore, much of the time of the watermen is 
passed in port. They expose themselves less than the sailors of the Gulf, 
and are more temperate in alcoholic indulgences. Most of these moreover, 
are natives of the climates in which they labor. Thus the causes of 
disease to which they are exposed are fewer, and they enjoy better health 
than their brethren of the Gulf of Mexico. The bowel complaints and 
fevers of the Gulf, especially, are much rarer here ; but intermittents some- 
times attack those who frequent the southern shores of Lake Erie ; and all 
are liable to pulmonary inflammation and rheumatism. 

V. Life upon our Canals. — It is a popular opinion that the excava- 
tion of canals, in summer and autumn, is an unhealthy employment; and 
the history of that which leaves the west end of Lake Erie, at Maumee bay, 
for the Ohio River; that of the Erie and Beaver canal, in western Pennsyl- 
vania, and that of the new canal, connecting Lake Ponchartrain with New 
Orleans, seem to give support to this opinion. Indeed, as canals are gen- 
erally excavated through soils — alluvial or diluvial — which abound in 
undecomposed organic matters, the first exposure of them to the sun and 
rains would seem likely to favor the production of a deleterious atmosphere. 
Nevertheless, we must be on our guard against error in this conclusion ; for, 
First, Canals are generally dug through low and flat lands, which are known 
to be productive of autumnal fever; thus there was a marsh along the side 
of the Maumee Canal; and that of New Orleans, was dug through a cypress 
swamp. Second. The operatives are unacclimated Irishmen and Germans, 
chiefly the former; who lodge in temporary shanties, often directly on the 
ground, and indulge largely in whisky-drinking. Thus, if they had spent 
the same seasons of the year, under the same circumstances, without stirring 
up the surface of the earth, they might have suffered in an equal degree. 
But I need not dwell on this point, as it must come up under future heads. 

The effects of canals on the health of the inhabitants living near them, 
have, in several instances been pernicious. A great increase of autumnal 
fever followed on the completion of the Erie and Beaver Canal just men- 
tioned ; especially about the summit level, between Lake Erie and the Ohio 
River, where a basin to afford water was contracted, by throwing dams 
across the outlets of Conneaut Lake. Some of the surrounding neighbor- 
hoods, previously exempt from any fatal prevalence of autumnal fever, were, 
as we have already seen, in treating of the topography of that region, almost 
depopulated. It is a common practice to draw off the water from our canals, 
in the month of June, after the spring navigation is over; and the exposure 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 689 

of their mud bottoms would seem likely to generate fevers ; yet I have not 
been able to learn that such has been the effect, at least, to any great 
extent. A large number of boats run on our canals, and as they continue in 
motion all night, in summer and autumn, as well as in other seasons, through 
regions which frequently abound in marshes, it might be expected that the 
operatives would be often down with fevers ; still, the result of my inquiries 
is, that they are less liable to those diseases, than the people who live on 
the banks of these thoroughfares. 

VI. Life of the Voyageurs. — Lastly. The Voyageurs, who ascend 
our long rivers to the Rocky Mountains, and pass over the Valley, from 
Lake Superior to Hudson Bay, and the lakes and rivers to its west, merit a 
more extended notice than either of the classes enumerated.* 

This class or caste of watermen, consisting chiefly of French, and their 
descendants, began to form soon after that people came upon the continent. 
From the earliest period of settlement in Canada and Louisiana, the atten- 
tion of the immigrants was turned to the Interior of the Valley, which they 
undertook to traverse by its vast lakes and rivers, in canoes, and skiffs at 
length called Mackinac boats; which, of course, were worked by hand, with 
oars or paddles, and often propelled against strong and unrelaxing currents. 
After the conquest of Canada, in 1763, immigrants from Great Britain 
began to mingle with the Canadian Voyageurs ; and, on the cession of Lou- 
isiana, forty years afterward, a new addition was made from the United 
States ; but the greatest reinforcements have been their own ofFspring, by 
Indian women; which, half-breeds or mestizoes, make, according to some 
computations, nearly one-third of the whole. Many of these people spent 
the whole period of their active lives in this service ; to which they became 
strongly attached. The romantic scenery of the lakes and rivers, and the 
picturesque appearance of savages, and wild animals, roaming through deep 
solitudes, invested this new branch of commerce with a charm, which fascinated 
the Canadian imagination, and drew thousands into this peculiar service. 
For a long time, their voyages were performed in canoes and pirogues, of 
birch bark. Gradually the adventurers became familiar with the western 
shores of Lake Superior, ascended the river St. Louis ; and, traversing a 
portage, reached the highest waters of the Mississippi, or spread themselves 
over the distant north-west. Others took their departure from Green Bay, 
and descending the Wisconsin, floated out upon the Mississippi, in a lower 
latitude; while others still, departing from the southern end of Lake 
Michigan, passed down the Illinois, and ascended the Missouri. Their 
evenings were spent in smoking, garrulous talk, and singing. They lodged 
under tents, or beneath their inverted canoes. Many of them spent the 
winter in those desolate regions, unwilling to return without full cargoes of 

* In speaking of them, I do not refer to printed authorities — having had ample 
opportunities of conversing with gentlemen who have been familiar with their habits, of 
whom I may mention Mr. Samuel Abbott and Mr. William Johnson, of Mackinac, 
Mr. Robert Stewart, of Detroit, and Colonel Mitchell, of St. Louis. I have, also, had 
some personal opportunities of seeing them. 



690 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

those furs, which were the objects they sought. At all times, while sitting 
in their canoes, they were exposed to every inclemency of weather, and were 
often under the necessity of wading in shallow water. They mingled much 
with the native tribes, and adopted many of their customs ; intermarried 
with them, and reared up a race of half-breeds, to become, as already 
stated, their associates and successors. 

In the use of alcoholic drinks they were, of necessity, temperate, except 
when in port. Tobacco they never dispensed with. Their diet consisted 
essentially of maize or Indian corn ; the variety called white flint being pre- 
ferred. It was boiled in a ley of wood ashes until the outer integument 
could be rubbed off, and then put in sacks. A quart of this corn, with two 
ounces of tallow, or hard fat, boiled through the night, constituted the ration 
of a Voyageur for the ensuing day. 

Free from care, and alive to the exciting novelties through which they 
passed, no despondency came over them, and the gaiele du cceur, and vivacity 
of the French, never shone with finer radiance, than on the shores of Lake 
Huron, or the rivers which meander through the boundless prairies between 
Lake Superior, Hudson Bay, and the Rocky Mountains. 

I have spoken of the Voyageurs in the past tense; but the race is not 
extinct, though it has lost much of its original, racy character. In latter 
times, steamboats and schooners, by ascending our great rivers, or traversing 
Lake Superior, tend to keep the Voyageurs in the distant wilderness, and 
also to limit their number: so, that they are no longer constant visitors in St. 
Louis, Mackinac, Detroit, Kingston, and Montreal, as in past times. 

The Voyageurs are generally below the ordinary Anglo-American standard 
in hight ; but are muscular and very strong, from being compelled to carry 
heavy burdens, including their canoes, around the shoals and rapids of the 
rivers on which they run. The pack of furs, weighing eighty pounds, rests 
upon the upper part of the back, and a broad strap, passing across the fore- 
head, keeps it in its place. At the portages, as that around the falls of the 
River St. Louis, west of Lake Superior, the common burden for a man is 
two packs, equal to one hundred and sixty pounds, to be carried a mile; 
but, Mr. William Johnson, of Mackinac, assured me, that he saw a half- 
breed, Skauret (for his name deserves to be recorded), carry four — or three 
hundred and twenty pounds, through that distance without laying them down. 
The Voyageurs are not only strong, but healthy. Those on the Missouri 
River sometimes experience ague and fever, from which those further north 
are exempt. They occasionally have rheumatism. Mr. Samuel Abbott, in 
a residence of nearly twenty years at Mackinac, had seen but two cases of 
consumption among the many who had made that island their headquarters ; 
and whether they were examples of true phthisis, or only chronic bronchitis, 
I could not learn. Mr. Johnson, who had spent a year among them, 
observed that under all the exposures of their voyage from Lake Superior 
to Leech Lake, they were healthy ; but when they came to winter in huts, 
and eat fresh meat, they were subject to catarrhal affections. 

Since the cession of Louisiana, in 1803, many American young men have 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 691 

become hunters and trappers, in the region between St. Louis and the 
sources of the Missouri and Yellow Stone, and have been mingled with the 
Voyageiirs, or, of themselves, penetrate to the skirts of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, where they sojourn a great part of their itme. The flesh of the 
buffalo makes a considerable part of their food. 

VII. Santa Fe Traders. — We come, in the last place, to a class of 
traders who transport their goods entirely by land. They leave the Missouri 
River, not far from the mouth of the Kansas, and cross the prairies to Santa 
Fe and Paso del Norte, thence to Chihuahua, and in the northern part of 
Mexico, a distance to the first of seven hundred and seventy miles. The 
transportation is in wagons drawn by oxen, and on mules. The time occupied 
in going out, is generally from two to three months — in returning, less. The 
best seasons for these trips are May and June, and August and September. 
Some of the caravans have with them two hundred men. Their diet is gen- 
erally composed of cakes of flour, bacon, the flesh of the bison, and coffee; 
to which beans and crackers are sometimes added. They often suffer for 
want of water. At night they lodge in or beneath their wagons, or in tents; 
but after passing the one hundred and first or second degree of west lati- 
tude, there is so little dew, that no shelter is necessary at night, except from 
rain, which, however, does not fall very often. The Santa Fe traders gener- 
erally enjoy excellent health. Although their trips are often made at 
seasons of the year, when various parts of the Valley are scourged with 
autumnal fever, they are scarcely ever attacked: an exemption, however, 
which connects itself less with their occupation, than the peculiar region of 
country through which it is carried on.* 



SECTION III. 

MINING AND SMELTING. 

I. Coal Mining. — As our beds of coal lie horizontally, and the more 
superficial are not yet exhausted, our miners are not compelled to descend 
deep into the earth. It sometimes happen that they tunnel a hill, and by 
bursting out on the opposite side from that at which they entered, as at 
Pomeroy, on the Ohio River, establish a current of air through the drift, 
which carries off both vapor and the gases which may be developed. When 
such thorough perforation is not practicable, the drift or horizontal shaft, has 
this advantage over the vertical, that water does not accumulate in the mine, 
to increase the humid atmosphere ; and by sinking tunnels or perpendicular 

*Elisha Stanley, Esq., Booneville, Missouri. Gregg's Commerce of the Prairies. 



692 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

shafts down to the horizontal, at points distant from the outer opening, and 
maintaining fire in them, artificial ventilation is effected. Notwithstanding 
these advantages, I found, when exploring the Pomeroy mines that, in the 
side drifts, the candle sometimes burned with a dim light, indicative, per- 
haps, of the presence of carbonic acid gas. I do not know that an explo- 
sion has as yet occurred in our coaleries. The temperature in which the 
miners work is, of course, that of the earth, and varies but little from sum- 
mer to winter. Most of our mines lie between 37° and 42° of N. Lat., and 
consequently the heat of the earth ranges from sixty degrees to fifty degrees, 
of Fahrenheit's thermometer. That of the Pomeroy mines, in N. Lat. 
39 °5', I found, in the month of July, to be, in different parts, from fifty- 
eight to sixty degrees. 

The miners at Pomeroy, as in our coal drifts generally, work with picks, 
and are often compelled to assume and maintain themselves in very unnatural 
postures. Sometimes they stand erect, then stoop, then sit, then recline on 
the left shoulder. From the degree in which their faces become soiled, it is 
obvious that they detach, and must inhale, a great deal of coal dust. They 
wear woolen shirts. Their dinners, eaten in the mines, consist of bread and 
meat. They breakfast, sup, and lodge at home. In the morning they use 
coffee, and most of them drink beer or whisky. They are chiefly Welsh, 
English, and German immigrants. 

Now, what is the effect on health of this kind of life ? To the eye, these 
men appear as sound and well- developed as other laborers. They informed 
me, that they sweat a great deal, which I suppose is not the case; but } 
from the dampness of the air in which they work, the insensible perspiration 
does not escape freely, but suffers condensation on the skin. Their diges- 
tion is good, but they are prone to constipation and hemorrhoidal affections. 
Dr. Thomas, who had, when I visited this coalery, in 1847, been the phy- 
sician of many of the operatives for three years, told me that he saw a case 
of constipation, which lasted for two weeks. The abdomen of the patient 
was hard and swollen, though not painful ; but after the operation of 
cathartic medicines, considerable pain was developed. In another case, after 
the constipation had lasted a week, the patient died, and a post mortem 
examination disclosed a great accumulation in the coecum, colon, and rectum, 
of dark brown, and dry scybalous matter. The same physician informed 
me that he had seen among them several cases of orchitis, which he ascribed 
to their reclining, while at work, on the left side. While mingling with 
them I heard no one cough ; and the oldest miners, together with one of the 
highly intelligent and reliable proprietors, V. B. Horton, Esq., assured me, 
that consumption is almost unknown. Rheumatism and lumbago are also 
rare ; and they are less liable to autumnal fever, than those who, in the same 
locality, work in the open air. The miners hold the opinion, that their 
employment is a healthy one, and yet they say that but few who follow it 
attain to old age. 

At the Kenawha Salines, the coal diggers, who are chiefly negroes, often 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 693 

become affected with coughs ; and Dr. Street has seen them expectorate a 
blue mucus. 

At Pittsburgh, where coal has been dug for a longer period than in any 
other locality of the Interior Valley, the operatives, as Dr. Bruce informed 
me, are as healthy as those wbo labor above ground; and in ten years he had 
not known a case of consumption among them. 

II. Iron Mining and Smelting. — Much of our iron ore is dug up in 
the manner that stone is quarried, the operatives working in the open air. In 
some places drifts or horizontal shafts are made beneath the surface, and 
the process is like that of coal mining. In 1847, 1 visited the Fair Chance 
Iron Works of F. H. Oliphant, Esq., six miles south of Uniontown, Penn- 
sylvania, one of the oldest establishments in the Valley, at which about one 
hundred and twenty operatives are employed. The men who work in the 
horizontal drifts, some of which are four hundred yards in length, are even 
healthier, as that respectable gentleman informed me, than the men who 
labor in smelting and forging ; those who work in the latter branches, are 
exposed much of the time to an atmosphere varying from ninety-five degrees 
to one hundred and three degrees, and sweat profusely ; which, perhaps, 
counteracts the effects of the ardent spirits, which about a fifth of them 
drink freely. Their appearance confirmed the declaration of Mr. Oliphant, 
that they, not less than those who had preceded them, are a healthy set of 
men. 

The ore is roasted by being thrown into the top of a chimney with char- 
coal. When sufficiently heated, it is broken with a hammer. Fumes, which 
are sulphurous to the smell, and may, perhaps, be slightly impregnated with 
arsenic, issue from the chimney ; and the man whom I found working over 
it, informed me that he sometimes felt a sense of suffocation, and had 
brief umbilical pain, without constipation. He added that he had declined 
in flesh from the time he entered on that occupation. I have not enjoyed 
the opportunity of making inquiries at any other iron works. 

III. Lead Mining and Smelting. — These are chiefly carried on in the 
eastern edge of Missouri and Iowa, the north-west corner of Illinois, and 
the south-west of Wisconsin Territory. The number of miners is unknown. 
They are chiefly English and Anglo-Americans. Their manner of life is 
simple. Bread and meat, with a moderate supply of milk and vegetables, 
constitute their food. Much of the ore is quarried near the surface, especi- 
ally in Missouri, and but few shafts have been sunk to any great depth 
Some of them strike upon veins of water, which require to be pumped out ; 
but, in general, the miners do not spend a great deal of time in deep, dark, 
and humid caverns. They who work on the surface of the ground, are often 
exposed to inclemencies of weather. Most of them drink whisky, though 
the custom is on the wane. 

In a visit to the mining districts of Wisconsin and Illinois, I found the 
general appearance of the miners healthy. From topographical circum- 
stances, they are not very liable to autumnal fever. Governor Dodge, who 
had resided among them for several years, thought rheumatism their most 



694 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

prevalent disease, and next to it, pleurisy. Others had observed a preva- 
lence of chronic hepatitis among the English miners, the apparent effect of 
their greater drinking for the first years after their arrival. They do not 
seem to be effected in any manner by handling the ore. 

Several years ago, when smelting was performed in rude log furnaces, 
colic was common ; but, since the introduction of those of a better construc- 
tion, which carry off the fumes, it has become rare. In visiting one of the 
best, I perceived a peculiar taste in the air ; but its proprietor assured me 
that none of his operatives ever experience attacks of colic or paralysis. 
Those who own these establishments encourage ablution before eating, and 
the use of oleaginous diet. It is a popular opinion that the man who can 
eat the greatest quantity of fat meat, is safest from the diseases produced 
by lead. There is, no doubt, a portion of arsenic volatilized along with the 
carbonate of lead, in these establishments. 



SECTION IV. 

SALT MAKING. 

1. At Syracuse. —I have already {page 404) spoken of the degree in 
which autumnal fever prevails at this place. It remains to say something of 
other diseases. The water is evaporated, both by solar heat and culinary 
fire, and the atmosphere is so impregnated with saline vapor, that all kinds 
of polished cutlery rust with great rapidity. 

Dr. Hoyt, who had resided in Syracuse for fifteen years, when I was there 
in 1847, together with Dr. Daniels, who had lived thirty- two years, and Dr. 
Lovejoy, who had practiced ten years in the adjoining village of Sauna, 
affirmed, with great confidence, that the venous blood of the salt boilers, is 
nearly as florid as the blood of the arteries ; and that the complexion of these 
operatives are ruddier than those of the surrounding population. Dr. Trow- 
bridge, on the other hand, after a residence of four years, had not seen those 
appearances. Dr. Daniels and Dr. Lovejoy declared that phthisis, as origin- 
ating among the kettle tenders, was almost unknown ; that patients, in the 
incipient stages of that disease, had been relieved by visiting the evaporating 
houses and inhaling the warm saline vapor; and that hasmoptysis was often 
cured by it. These observations were in accordance with those of Mr. 
Woodruff, the inspector of salt, who had resided on the spot where Salina is 
now built, for forty-five years; who, moreover, referred to many cures of 
what he called consumption ; but the experience of Dr. Trowbridge was 
adverse to these conclusions. Scrofula, according to Dr. Hoyt and Dr. 
Lovejoy, is a rare disease in this locality, and neither of them had seen a case 
among the salt boilers. Of maladies apparently produced by the saline atmos- 
phere, I could learn but little. Dr. Lovejoy thought the kettle tenders more 
subject to diarrhoea, than other persons. Having had some reason to believe 



part hi.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 695 

that fungus haematodes is more common in saline atmospheres, than else- 
where, my inquiries were turned to that point while in conversation with 
Dr. Hoyt, who told me that, in fifteen years, he had seen twelve cases : which, 
supposing his diagnosis to be correct, was a very remarkable number. 

II. In tile Kenawha Valley. — The condition of the atmosphere, at 
these salt works, and its influence on autumnal fever, has been already given 
at page 264. The furnaces are not inclosed in houses, as at the Onon- 
daga salines, but under sheds. A large proportion of the kettle tenders and 
other operatives are negroes. Their diet is chiefly corn bread and bacon. 
The observations of Dr. Patrick, Dr. Street, and Dr. Putney, who have long 
resided here, are, that its saline and carbonaceous atmosphere, neither presents 
nor occasions any disease in the general population. 

When men first go at this business, they are apt to be affected with 
diarrhoea ; and, in the opinion of Dr. Putney, bowel complaints are more 
common in the Valley generally, than elsewhere. The physicians whom I 
have named, do not believe that the negroes of the furnaces, although from 
the absence of houses they are exposed to greater vicissitudes of tempera- 
ture, are more subject to tubercular cachexy than others; perhaps even 
less. 

Dr. Putney saw a negro, who suffered from asthmatic breathing in the 
coal drifts, cured by being made a kettle tender. Dr. Street has understood, 
that the itch is cured by the same employment. The various eruptive fevers 
and pertussis, prevail here as elsewhere ; and the Epidemic Cholera proved 
fatal to many, in its former as well as its latter invasion. Having had 
several patients with fungus haemotodes from this valley, my inquiries, as at 
Salina, were directed upon that malady, but I did not learn that it is 
especially frequent. Scrofula is here thought to be about as common as 
over the country generally. Scurvy and haemorrhages are not frequent ; 
and no one seems to have noticed the florid color of the venous blood, said 
to be common among the kettle tenders at Syracuse. 



SECTION V. 

MECHANICAL AND CHEMICAL ARTS AND MANUFACTURES. 

I. In many parts of the Interior Valley, most of these are unknown ; 
and the introduction of them into other parts has been too recent to admit 
of a comparative estimate of their influence on health. I have not, more- 
over, found time for those minute and careful inquiries, which are necessary 
to the collection of reliable facts. What I have amassed, will appear when 
treating of the causes of different forms of disease. I will here limit my- 
self to a few general observations. 

II. Many handicraft employments confine those who practice them to the 
house ; and, not being laborious, do not afford sufficient exercise, or they call 



696 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

into action particular portions of the muscular system only. Two sinister 
effects almost invariably follow on this kind of life : First. The individual 
does not breathe enough to depurate his blood of its carbonaceous matter, 
and supply his system with oxygen. Second. He becomes costive, and his 
liver and stomach fall into a state of inactivity, accompanied with dyspepsia, 
hemorrhoids, palpitations of the heart, and sick headache; while those who 
inherit a predisposition to consumption, are apt to experience a fatal 
development of that disease. All this is especially true of young women 
who, as seamstresses, sit ten or twelve hours out of the twenty-four, and in 
the remainder take but little active exercise. In connection with this I may 
remark, that several occupations of both sexes, keep the trunk of the body 
in some constrained posture, unfavorable to the organs of the thorax or 
abdomen. 

III. Other occupations are carried on where the operatives are compelled 
to breathe an atmosphere impregnated with mechanical impurities, such as 
cotton, hemp, flour, and stone-dust, whereby the lungs are irritated, and 
chronic bronchitis is established, or the deposition of tubercular matter 
promoted. 

IY. Those who work in lead, copper, and type-metal, are liable to have 
their nervous and muscular systems empoisoned and paralyzed, by breathing 
an atmosphere impregnated with those metals or their oxides. 

V. In the manufacture of sulphuric and nitric acids, of lucifer 
matches, both sulphurous and phosporous, and generally of what are called 
chemicals, gases are disengaged which are highly irritating to the lungs. 
The number and variety of these manufactures has greatly greatly increased, 
in certain parts of the Valley, within a few years, and may be expected, ere 
long to make themselves felt as etiological causes. Thus, with the multipli- 
cation of the arts of an older state of society, will come new forms of 
disease. 



SECTION VI. 

EXERCISE, RECREATION, AND AMUSEMENT. 

I. If hard labor and exposure generate a few diseases, want of exercise 
and recreation, is the remote cause of a far greater number. There is no 
country where the necessity for a confined and sedentary life exists in a less 
degree, than in our Interior Valley; and, at the same time none, perhaps, in 
which, if we except the British population of Canada, the value of sys- 
tematic exercise is so little appreciated. In every epoch of life, our anatomy 
and physiology demand exercise and recreation. In childhood and youth, 
they are necessary to the growth of the muscular and osseous systems, the 
firmness of the nervous tissue, the efficiency of the organs of sense, and the 
sound and healthy development of the lungs and chest. Notwithstanding 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 697 

these obvious truths our children, both at home and in the school or college, 
are allowed to grow up in bodily listlessness ; and consequently, they suffer 
under numerous infirmities of health and frame, from which, by proper 
physical discipline, they would be protected. The time they do not spend 
in study, is spent in loitering ; as though suspended mental application were 
equivalent to active bodily exertion, in the midst of scenes and objects 
fitted to act on the external senses ; as though leaving the schoolroom for 
the paternal roof, would render free and long-continued exposure to air and 
light unnecessary. Docile or ambitious children, of both sexes, often study 
too intensely ; and, at the same time, take too little exercise. This is a 
worse condition than that of mental and bodily idleness, or of close confine- 
ment without study. From this compound of positive and negative causes, 
come irritations of the brain and spinal cord, headache, epilepsy, chorea, 
hydrocephalus, curvatures of the spine, scrofula, dyspepsia, consumption, and 
death. Parents and teachers ought to know, that a child cannot, without 
injury to health, study a great deal ; unless it be required to take much 
active exercise in the fresh air, and that too in all sorts of weather. 

Throughout the efficient period of adult life, those who pursue sedentary 
employments, as students., shop-keepers, and artisans, of both sexes, take 
little out-door exercise. Their close confinement renders the stomach and 
bowels torpid, and brings on dyspepsia ; softens their muscular systems, 
except such portions as may happen to be exercised by their business ; 
diminishes perspiration and exhalation from the lungs, and thus renders the 
blood impure ; finally, imparts an unhealthy sensibility to their nervous sys- 
tems, giving rise to chorea, hysteria, and hypochondriasis. All this, in a 
less degree, may be the fate of those who, from the possession of wealth, 
follow no occupation, and yet take no systematic exercise. Out of such a 
state of the constitution grow up various diseases ; some of which prove 
fatal, while others make the individual habitually infirm, limit his usefulness, 
and render the duties of his calling burdensome. 

In the slaveholding states, and in our cities generally, women, who are 
not compelled to labor, experience many infirmities, which are the conse- 
quence of bodily indolence and inactivity ; some of which, in the end, prove 
fatal. 

To the aged, exercise is of great value ; but it should be rather passive than 
active. They, however, who have been inured to active exertion through 
life, should not discontinue, but only diminish it in old age ; and when they 
find it irksome or impracticable, should take that which is passive. Its 
advantages are various : First. It tends, in some degree, to keep off the 
constipation, which generally increases with age. Second. It contributes to 
retard the corpulence which so often renders old age burdensome. Third. 
It promotes a more frequent and complete evacuation of the renal secretion, 
and thus prevents the formation of calculi. Fourth. It diminishes venous 
plethora, and lessens the danger of apoplexy. Fifth. It aerates the blood, 
so liable to become highly carbonated and black in the aged, and thus invig- 
orates the nervous system. Sixth, It excites the senses and keeps the indi- 
45 



698 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

vidual in association and sympathy with surrounding nature, and thus 
maintains cheerfulness and serenity of mind, which react beneficially on 
his body. 

Walking, running, athletic games, climbing, riding, and swimming, all in 
the open air, are proper in childhood and youth ; and, instead of being dis- 
couraged, should be promoted and regulated. It is much easier, however, 
for parents to do the former than the latter ; and they too often take the 
course which gives them the least trouble, apparently unconscious of the 
injury that may follow. 

It is much to be regretted that the art of swimming is so little taught and 
practiced, as a part of the education of our children of both sexes. Our 
numerous lakes in the north, our bays, lagoons, estuaries, and crescent lakes 
in the south, and the rivers which intersect the interior in all directions, 
afford facilities of which almost our entire youthful population might avail 
themselves ; and they would do so, if aided by those on whom they depend. 
Swimming exercises the muscles, the senses, the imagination, and the feelings, 
in a way peculiar to itself. It is valuable, moreover, to the skin, as keeping 
it clean, and hardening it against the effects of rain and accidental wetting. 
But parents do not encourage their sons to go into the water, because some 
get drowned. The answer to this is, that more are drowned, in the course of 
Hfe, from ignorance of the art, than perish in acquiring it. And they do 
not teach their daughters to swim, because the requisite arrangements cannot 
be made without some trouble and expense ; which is the true reason why so 
little attention is paid to exercise and physical education of every kind. 
But the physiologist and physician will insist, that the formation of a good 
constitution in his child, is the first duty of every parent ; and, therefore, 
that less should be expended on other things, and more on physical disci- 
pline, without which, solidity and vigor of frame with sound health, cannot 
be attained. 

It is not uncommon to meet with parents who regard dancing as affording 
sufficient exercise, especially for their daughters. But this is a great mistake. 
Dancing is undoubtedly a natural amusement; but the instinct was not 
implanted in us for the purpose of prompting to that exercise, which should 
be the result of other motives ; moreover, as a hygienic method, it is obnoxious 
to several strictures. First. It partakes too largely of the character of an 
amusement to admit of sufficient muscular exertion, without generating a 
love of pleasure ; which, once established, will render all exercise, not pro- 
ductive of immediate enjoyment, tasteless and irksome. Thus, this kind of 
exercise may be said to be self-limited. Second. Children and young 
persons, when prepared for dancing school or dancing parties, are generally 
dressed in a way that is unfavorable to the free action of their limbs ; and, 
what is of far greater moment, of the muscles of respiration. Third. They 
are crowded into an apartment where the air is heated and impure ; and, 
often too, at night, during the very hours when they ought, according to 
their physiology, to be asleep. Fourth. Some, who have frail and delicate 
nervous systems, are injured by the music so long acting upon them. Fifth. 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 699 

They are all liable to be injured by the eating and drinking which too often 
prevail. Dancing, in fact, is much more a means of disciplining the muscles, 
than of giving them vigor. As a mode of exercise in childhood and youth, 
it is insufficient ; and as a method of amusement, in after years, it is 
neglected by those who, physiologically speaking, most require it. 

Walking, riding on horseback, and manual labor, are well suited to early 
and middle life. A daily walk of several miles, by young persons, of both 
sexes, who are not engaged in business, would be of inestimable value to 
their constitutions; yet who among us has seen it practiced? A walk of a 
single mile is regarded as an enterprise to be remembered with self-compla- 
cency ; and if, under necessity, extended to twice that distance, a hardship 
to be recounted for the purpose of exciting sympathy. 

Saddle exercise, especially since new modes of conveying the multitude 
have been introduced, is so much neglected, that many of our young men do 
not understand the management of a horse; while a still smaller number of 
young women are taught to ride, even when time and means are enjoyed 
without limitation. Yet nothing would contribute more to the vigorous and 
graceful development of their frames, than equestrian exercise. 

Our students and literary men might greatly promote their health, and 
strength, and freshness of mind, by devoting their leisure hours to some 
mechanical labor, when placed under circumstances which render other 
modes of exercise inconvenient. Many of them are put to study, or assume 
it, because of their infirmities of body. To adopt such a course indicates 
still greater infirmity of mind. To adopt it, and then neglect corporeal 
exercise, is fatal; and yet such is the prevailing folly of our people, that these 
cases are of daily occurrence. Many attempts to establish manual labor 
academies and colleges, in different parts of the Valley, have been made ; 
but all have failed, or dragged heavily along. The cause is to be found in 
the deeply-rooted aversion of our people to active effort, when pecuniary gain 
is not to be its immediate reward. A young friend of mine, in one of his 
college vacations, devoted himself to carpentry; and, without instruction 
erected a frame tenement — he is now an able professor in one of our 
colleges. 

Traveling is especially adapted to the aged ; and no portion of the earth 
offers such facilities for it, as our widely- extended Interior Valley. A voyage 
from Pittsburgh to the Balize in cool weather, or from Louisiana to the 
Lakes and St. Lawrence in hot weather, or from the banks of the Ohio 
Kiver to the mouth of the Yellow Stone, or the Falls of St. Anthony in 
May or June, would, for the aged of either sex, be a good substitute for the 
imaginary fountain of health and rejuvenescence, in search of which Ponce 
de Leon sought the shores of Florida. I have already indicated several of 
these routes, and many others might have been pointed out. 

II. Amusement may be advantageously associated with exercise, as a 
means of promoting it, and indeed, giving it greater efficiency ; for that 
which is not prompted by any immediate motive, nor accompanied with 
pleasurable emotion, is less beneficial to the body than that which is. 



700 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

Amusements are generally sought out by the idle as a substitute for occu- 
pation, or by the dissipated as administering to their sensual existence. 
To both classes they are unnecessary, and serve no other purpose than to 
confirm them in courses of life incompatible with firm health, vigor of mind, 
and sound moral feeling. Properly estimated, amusements are adapted to 
the physiological condition of the laborious, especially those whose vocations 
impose much mental toil and anxiety of feeling. Under such labors, many 
a constitution of both body and mind, especially in our larger cities, as New 
Orleans, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, is prematurely worn out ; simply because 
the irritation of the nervous system is seldom appeased by the genial influ- 
ence of innocent and cheering amusements. Irascibility, corroding anxiety, 
and a shade of gloom and misanthropy, are the legitimate fruits of over-action 
of body and mind ; and those feelings, reacting injuriously on both, contribute, 
with other causes, to generate various nervous disorders., up to insanity itself. 
The rivalries, cares, and. misfortunes of civilized life, require to be met with 
recreations and amusements, to a certain extent, their true physiological 
antidotes. It is well known, however, that in the Valley this is not the case. 
Hence there is no country in which the drudgery and perplexities of business 
are more pernicious to the constitution. The repugnance of the more 
rational and moral part of the community, to any and all of our fashionable 
amusements, is founded on their abuses. Most of them run into some form 
of dissipation, and become repulsive to persons of pure moral taste ; while 
they often prove injurious to the health and morals of those who become 
devoted to them. This association of sensuality and dissipation, with several 
amusements, keeps the whole in discredit ; and repels large classes of the 
community from participation in any. Public balls have been abandoned by 
thousands who do not regard dancing as wrong, because of the dissipations 
connected with them ; our theaters are shunned by the moral portion of the 
people, on account of their licentiousness and buffoonery ; our nine-pin alleys 
are mere appendages of drinking houses ; our evening parties are scenes of 
midnight gluttony and drinking; our musical soirees are of feeble and limited 
interest, from a prevailing want of relish for melody, and the absence of a 
national ballad music ; we are deficient in galleries of painting, and a taste for 
the fine arts has not yet been generally awakened among us ; our public 
gardens and promenades, few in number, and often in bad order, are gen- 
erally but marts of intoxicating drinks ; finally, to speak of the Anglo-Ame- 
rican people of the Valley, they have but two patriotic festivals in the 
year; from both of which, many of the wise and temperate have been 
repelled, by the outbursts of vulgar dissipation which so often attend their 
celebration. 

It results, from all that has been said, that the wearied student and care- 
worn business man, night after night, retire to bed without having their 
imaginations and feelings diverted from the pursuits of the day, by any scenes 
of innocent gayety; and thus their very dreams prey on their nervous 
systems; prevent the renovation, which sleep, preceded by appropriate 



part in.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 701 

amusements, would naturally produce; and the reinvigoration which is 
required to fit them for the labors of the succeeding day. 



CONCLUSION OF BOOK I. 

Our general etiology is now brought to a close. If the reader has found 
its perusal a work of labor, he will be prepared to estimate the amount 
which has been required to collect, arrange, condense, and give unity to so 
many diversified facts, connected with a country of such vast extent, and 
races of people so various. In doing this, I have introduced nothing 
which I did not consider necessary to a full understanding of the diseases, 
which are to come under our consideration ; for all peculiarities of consti- 
tution, both corporeal and mental, exert a modifying influence on disease. 
In this country these peculiarities are not yet largely developed, but we may 
study their causes, and, as far as possible, infer their effects ; which our 
distant successors will see in their full development. A synthesis of vari- 
eties and races is going on ; and the result, I may here repeat, must be a 
new national constitution — physical and mental — of which the Anglo-Saxon, 
itself a compound, will be the basis and the governing element. The phy- 
sicians of a future day will see, what we cannot now, a prevailing tem- 
perament, a stature, form, complexion, and physiognomy, characteristic of an 
indigenous, but greatly compounded race ; with its own physical, intellectual, 
and moral constitution ; its special liabilities and exemptions from disease ; 
its national idiosyncrasies, and the required peculiarities of hygienic regimen, 
and therapeutic treatment. In the course of this development, what hered- 
itary diatheses may disappear, and what new ones take their places ; what 
new maladies may arise, or old ones cease or become greatly modified, under 
the joint influence of mingled blood, of climate, water, occupations, modes of 
living, customs, and moral, social, and political influences, cannot be specified ; 
but a few predictions may be hazarded : 

1. Autumnal fever will decrease, and typhus and typhoid fevers become 
more prevalent. 

2. Gout will occur oftener than at present. 

3. The diseases produced by the intemperate use of ardent spirits will 
diminish. 

4. Consumption and scrofula will increase. 

5. Apoplexy, palsy, and epilepsy will become more frequent. 

6. Diseases of the liver will become less, and those of the mucous mem- 
brane of the bowels, more prevalent. 

7. Lastly, mental alienation will be more frequent. 

"We are now prepared to enter on the study of particular forms of disease. 
In doing so I shall not adopt the classification presented in any system of 
nosology, nor invent a new one ; and yet I hope to proceed with such a 



702 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES, ETC. [book i. 

degree of method as will be found sufficient to avert confusion. The Second 
Book will be devoted to febrile diseases, under the five following heads : First. 
Autumnal Fever — second, Yellow Fever — third, Typhous Fevers — 
fourth, Eruptive Fevers — fifth, Phlogistic Fevers, or the Phlegmasia. 
The transition from general etiology, to that fever wbich, in its origin, has a 
close connection with soil and climate, is natural ; and the transition from the 
phlegmasise to many other forms of disease, will be found equally natural, 
and hence I have placed them last, although in a system of elementary 
pathology, or nosology, they should stand first 



Book Second 

FEBRILE DISEASES 



PART FIRST. 

AUTUMNAL FEVER. 



CHAPTER I. 

NOMENCLATURE, VARIETIES, AND GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS 
OF AUTUMNAL FEVER, TOGETHER WITH THE TO- 
POGRAPHICAL AND CLIMATIC CONDITIONS 
UNDER WHICH IT PREVAILS. 



SECTION I. 

NOMENCLATURE.— VARIETY — IDENTITY. 

I. Nomenclature. — In different parts of the Interior Valley, the fevers, 
which we are about to study, are known under the names — autumnal, 
bilious, intermittent, remittent, congestive, miasmatic, malarial, marsh, 
malignant, chill-fever, ague, fever and ague, dumb ague, and, lastly the 
Fever. So great a variety of names suggests two facts; first, diversity of 
type; second, wide geographical range of prevalence. I shall use the 
epithet autumnal, as involving no etiological or pathological hypothesis ; and, 
at the same time, including every modification ; but, in speaking of diversi- 
ties, other terms will find their appropriate places. 

II. Variety and Identity. — The varieties of autumnal fever are numer- 
ous, and often seem widely separated. Thus, the difference in phenomena 
between a simple tertian and an inflammatory or a malignant remittent, 
is greater than the difference between measles and scarlatina; in some years 
nearly all the cases that occur are intermittent, in others remittent ; finally, 
although the former seem to be but mild grades of the latter, they often 
prove suddenly fatal ; and, that too, without assuming a remittent type. 
Nevertheless, all the varieties must be regarded as making but a single 
species ; as appears from the following facts : First. They prevail at the 



704 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [bookii. 

same times and in the same places. Second. Under much variety of 
aspect, they possess many deep-seated analogies and identities. Third. They 
frequently change from one type to the other. Thus an intermittent turns 
into a remittent, and the latter, assuming the type of the former, is often 
seen to become, first, a quotidian, then a tertian, and finally, a quartan. A 
simple intermittent may, in the third or fourth paroxysm, take on the char- 
acter of a fatal congestive ; and that which begins with an aspect of malig- 
nity, sometimes emerges into simplicity and mildness. Fourth. Yernal 
agues attack those who in autumn had suffered under remittent fever, not 
less than those who had experienced the intermittent form. Fifth. The 
sequelae of all the varieties are almost identical. Sixth. The same treat- 
ment, with eertaiu modifications, is applicable to the whole. Thus they are 
manifestly the offspring of the same specific, remote cause ; and when no 
particular variety is in view, may be designated by one epithet. 



SECTION II. 

GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS. 

Being an endemic of all hot climates, we need not look to the shores of the 
Gulf of Mexico for a southern limit to our autumnal fever. Its base is, in 
fact, within the tropics ; and prevailing, of course, in Havana and Yera 
Cruz, it is found wherever there are inhabitants, on the northern coasts of 
the Gulf, between those two cities. In ascending all the rivers, which dis- 
charge their waters into the northern arc of that closed sea, from Cape 
Florida round to the Panuco river, it is still met with ; and, sometimes, as 
we shall hereafter see, from the influence of local causes, displays greater 
prevalence and malignity, than it shows further south and on a lower level. 

In every other direction than the south, this endemic has its geographical 
limits. To the east, its barrier is the Appalachian Mountains, into the very 
gorges of which, however, it ascends by the valleys which penetrate their 
flanks. But as that chain is not found south of the thirty-third degree of 
latitude, it has, below that parallel, no eastern limit but the Atlantic Ocean. 
To the south-west the Cordilleras of Mexico, and the southern Rocky 
Mountains, constitute its boundaries; while, in higher latitudes, it ceases on 
the great plains of our western desert, long before we reach those 
Mountains. From what can be collected out of the travels and expeditions 
of Lewis and Clark, Pike, Long, Catlin, Fremont, and Gregg, not less than 
from fur traders and Santa Fe merchants, it is almost unknown at the dis- 
tance of three hundred miles from the western boundary of the states of 
Missouri and Iowa, and above the latitude of 37° N. To the north it does 
not prevail as an epidemic beyond the forty-fourth parallel, and ceases to 
occur even sporadically about the forty- seventh. 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 705 

The observations from which these limits are deduced have been made on 
the resident inhabitants included within them ; on travelers into portions of 
country as yet unsettled; and on the soldiery of the American and British 
posts. From these army returns I have, with all possible care, constructed 
two tables, which may properly be introduced at this place. The American 
returns* purport to be for ten years ; but this is true of a few only ; and 
many of the others vary from each other, in the number of years through 
which they run, whereby the conclusions deducible from them, are entitled to 
less confidence than if an equal number of observations, in the same years, 
had been made at each post. As the number of troops was never the same 
at two different posts, nor during two years at the same, one thousand has, in the 
returns, been assumed as the mean strength of the whole; and the number 
of attacks of Fever, and the actual mean strength, have both been brought 
to that standard. The results offered in the table, then, are not what any 
post did afford, but what any or all would have given, had the actual strength 
been at all times one thousand men. At several of them, it will be perceived, the 
number of attacks exceed the number of men, implying that some individu- 
als experienced several, in the course of the year. The returns are quar- 
terly, but the quarters are those of the calendar year, and therefore, do not 
exactly correspond with the seasons. 

The observing reader will perceive, that this table affords a variety of 
information ; such as the decrease of the Fever in the north — its 
relative prevalence at different posts in the same latitude — the proportionate 
number of intermittent and remittent cases, and the comparative prevalence 
of both, in different seasons of the year. 

* Forry's Statistical Report of the Sickness and Mortality of the Army of the United 
States ; prepared under the direction of Thomas Lawson, M. D., Surgeon General, 
Washington, 1840. 



706 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book II. 



TABLE 

Showing the number of attacks of Autumnal Fever, in the different 
quarters of the year, at twenty-six military posts, between the 
G-ulf of Mexico and Lake Superior — the mean strength being 
1000. Arranged according to their Latitudes. 



Twenty-six Posts. 


Autum- 
nal 
Fever. 


Quarters of the Year. 


Total 
of the 
Year. 


Comp. of 
annual 
ag'gates. 


First. 


Second. 


Third. 


Fourth. 


Key West, N. Lat. 
24° 33', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


70 
11 


52 
00 


6 




51 
00 


179 
11 




Both 


81 


52 


6 


51 


190 


190 


Fort Brooke, N.Lat. 

27° 57', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


80 
13 


190 
24 


308 
28 


182 
24 


760 
89 




Both 


93 


214 


336 


206 


849 


849 


Fort King, N. Lat. 
29° 12', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 

Both" 


120 
6 


200 
41 


460 
90 


414 
56 


1194 
193 




126 


241 


550 


470 


1387 


1387 


Fort Jackson, N. 
Lat. 29° 29', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


82 

4 

~ 86 


148 

9 


816 

128 


367 
46 


1413 

187 


"T60(T 


Both 


157 


944 


413 


1600 


New Orleans Bar- 
racks, N. L. 29° 
57', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


100 
10 


60 
60 


50 

80 


84 
100 


294 
250 




Both 


110 


120 


130 


184 


544 


544 


Fort Wood, N. Lat. 
30° 5', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


170 
3 


137 

55 


339 

218 


125 
16 


771 

292 




Both 


173 


192 


557 


140 


1063 


1063 


Fort Pike, N. Lat. 
30° 10', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


28 
4 


56 
23 


40 

28 


31 

22 " 


155 

77 




Both 


32 


79 


68 


53 


232 


232 


Baton Rouge, N. L. 
30° 36', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


71 

40 


124 
62 


220 
100 
320~ 


107 
100 


522 
302 




Both 


111 


186 


207 


824 


824 


Fort Jesup, N. Lat. 
31° 30', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


26 
6 


46 
12 


123 

33 


44 
12 


239 
63 


302 


Both 


32 


58 


156 


56 


302 


Fort Mitchell, N. 
Lat. 32° 19', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


30 
4 


20 

18 


60 
43 


33 
17 


143 

82 




Both 


34 


38 


103 


50 


225 


225 


Fort Towson, N. 
Lat. 33° 51', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


242 
16 


107 
37 


450 
114 


30 


1068 

197 

1265 


1265 


Both 


258 


144 


564 


299 


Fort Smith, N. Lat. 
35° 22', 


Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 


190 150 
5 


445 
98 


249 
24 


1034 
127 




Both 


190 | 155 


543 | 278 


1161 


1161 



PART I.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



707 



Twenty-six Posts. 



Autum- 
nal 

Fever. 



Fort Gibson, N. 
Lat. 35° 57', 



Lnt r nt 
Rem'nt 

Both" 



Jefferson Barracks, 
N. Lat. 38° 28', 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Fort Leavenworth; 
N. Lat. 39° 20', 



Fort Armstrong, N. 
Lat. 41° 28', 



Fort Dearborn, 
Lat. 41° 51', 



N 



Fort Gratiot, 
Lat. 43°, 



N 



Fort Crawford, 
Lat. 43° 3\ 



N. 



Fort Niagara, 
Lat. 43° 15', 



N 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Quarters of the Year. 



First. 



151 
_12 
T63 



32 
16 



48 



Second. 



211 
19 



250 



63 
17 



80 



100 
1 

ToT 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 

Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 

Both 



Fort Winnebago, N, 
Lat. 43° 31', 



Madison Barracks. 
N. Lat. 43° 50', 



Fort Howard, 
Lat. 44° 40'. 



N 



Fort Snelling, N. 
Lat. 44° 53'. 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 
Both" 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Fort Mackinack, N 
Lat. 45° 51', 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 



Both 



Fort Brady, N. Lat. 
46° 39', 



Int'r'nt 
Rem'nt 
Both i 



15 



10 



46 
1 



47 



13 



13 



22 
18 



40 



24 




24 



151 
3 



154 



70 
30 



100 



65 

2 



67 



286 
10 



Third. 
l9T~ 
161 



Fourth. 



652 



152 

76 



228 



205 
16 



221 



72 
73 



145 



102 
4 



106 



340 
50 



390 



75 
44 



119 



143 
10 



153 



30 
17 



47 



66 

2 



68 



296 



333 
16 



349 



40 

2 



42 



117 

20 



137 




140 
32 



172 



52 
62 



114 



18 
3 



110 
1 



Total 
of the 
Year. 

1193 

242 



1435 



Comp.of 
annual 
ag'gates. 



1435 



322 
153 



475 



099 
30 



629 



475 



629 



181 

126 



307 



240 
11 



251 



307 



251 



111 



67 

7 



74 



57 
20 



77 



13 

7 



21 



98 




98 



11 
6 



17 



12 



37 
4 



41 



16 
_0 
16 



20 



70 

20 



90 



28 
22 



50 



23 
11 



34 



16 

4 



20 



20 

2 

22 



35 

8 



43 



775 
28 



803 



260 
41 



301 



803 



301 



218 
120 



368 



49 
14 



63 



368 



63 



10 

3 

~l3' 

~Ti" 

3 
14" 



16 

4 



20 



227 

28 

"255 



51 
33 



84 



45 
17_ 

62 

76" 

2^ 

"89" 



41 

_3^ 

44 



255 



84 



62 



89 



44 



'08 



THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE 



[book II. 



The British returns* are more limited, for the number of posts are smaller, 
and the range of country and climates less. They do not, moreover, give 
the relative number of cases in different seasons, or at the separate stations, 
and therefore express the prevalence of autumnal fever in Canada, generally, 
not in particular localities. 

TABLE 

Exhibiting the Annual Prevalence of Autumnal Fever among the 
British Troops in Canada. 

Ratio of cases to the mean strength of 1,000. 



LOCALITIES. 


Inter- 
mittent 
Fever. 


Remit- 
tent Fe- 
ver. 


Annual 
aggr'g'te 
of both. 

84 


Canada, between the latitude of 42° and 47°, 
from 1817 to 1836, inclusive — 20 years, - - - - 


79 


5 


Upper Canada, the principal Posts — Kingston, 
East end of Lake Ontario, N. Lat. 44° 8'— To- 
ronto, North side of same Lake, in 44° 33' — Fort 
Greorge, mouth of Niagara River, in 43° 15' — 
Amherstberg (Maiden), West end of Lake Erie, 
in 42° 10'— from 1818 to 1827, inclusive, 


178 


12 


190 


Lower Canada, principal ports on the River 
Richelieu, which connects Lake Champlain with 
the St. Lawrence, latitude from 45° to 46° — 
Montreal, latitude 45° 31', and Quebec, lat- 
i+nflp 4-(H° 4-7' ___=.____--__-_-_ 


26 


1 


27 





This table, by embracing the Peninsula north of Lakes Erie and Ontario, 
together with the banks of the St. Lawrence, down to its estuary, completes 
what the other left unfinished; and enables us to estimate the relative pre- 
valence of autumnal fever, through every parallel of latitude, from the 
mouth of the Mississippi, to that of the St. Lawrence, and from Cape Flo- 
rida, to Gros Cap, at the entrance of Lake Superiror. 

We should be aware, however, that the numbers in the tables do not 
always express, correctly, the cases of fever originating in the localities with 
which they stand in connection. Thus, Maj. Tulloch, the compiler of the 
British Report, informs us that many of the cases of fever returned from 
the posts of Lower Canada, were relapses in patients from the posts of Upper 
Canada ; and in the United States, our troops are often sent to more northern 



* Tulloch's Statistical Reports on the Sickness, Mortality, and Invalidizing among 
the Troops in the United Kingdom, the Mediteranean, and British America: prepared 
from the Records of the Army, Medical Departments, and War Office Returns, by 
command of Her Majesty, London, 1839. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 709 

posts to recover from the fevers of the south; and thus by relapsing, add 
not a little to the number of cases at posts which otherwise might have 
presented but few. 



SECTION III. 

CONDITIONS WHICH IMPOSE GEOGRAPHICAL LIMITS, AND GIVE 
UNEQUAL PREVALENCE TO AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

I. Soil. — Under this term I include all that composes the surface of 
the earth, apart from its waters. The loose upper stratum of our Valley 
consists, as far as its mineral elements are concerned, of the debris of the 
rocks beneath, or of deposits of the debris of other rocks, spread over the 
surface by ancient inundations. There are tracts of country, however, in 
which the rocks themselves appear at the surface. None of these conditions 
favor the production of autumnal fever ; but, on the contrary, it prevails 
least where they are most perfectly developed ; and hence there is no reason 
for referring the disease to emanations from a purely mineral surface. 

The soil, however, may have another element than the mineral — dead 
organic matter, both animal and vegetable ; and this is its general character 
throughout the Valley. The amount of this element is very different in 
different places, for its production depends, first, on the fertility of the 
surface; second, on temperature; and, third, on moisture. Where these 
conditions are all present, the growth of organic matter is redundant ; where 
any one or more of them is wanting, it will be correspondingly limited. 
Thus it is small in quantity in the pine woods of the south (if we except 
the trees themselves), from the sandiness of the surface ; in the desert, 
beyond the Mississippi, from the same cause, and also from the want of 
moisture; in the far north from the want of heat, yet it is abundant 
even beyond the limits to which the Fever extends; on the Appalachian 
Mountains from that deficiency in part, and from their rocky surface. 
Dead organic matter is, also, unequally distributed ; for the rains wash it 
down from the hills, and deposit it in the valleys ; where, adding to their 
fertility, it rapidly augments itself, by promoting more luxuriant crops of 
vegetation. 

Now, it is a safe generalization to affirm that, all other circumstances 
being equal, autumnal fever prevails most where the amount of organic 
matter is greatest, and least where it is least. A diligent study of the 
topographical descriptions of Book J, Part I, will sustain this conclusion, and 
demonstrate that decaying organic matter is one of the conditions necessary 
to the production of autumnal fever. As to the mode in which it cooperates, 
two opinions may be entertained : First. It may supply the material out of 



710 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii 

which a poisonous gas is formed ; and, Second, It may be a nidus or hot-bed 
of animalcules or vegetable germs. In either case, we may presume, that all 
kinds of decomposing organic matter, are not equally favorable to the pro- 
duction of the cause of this fever ; but, although I have sought for facts 
bearing on this question, a sufficient number has not been found to justify 
their presentation here. I hope the subject may attract the attention of 
others. 

The first breaking up of the soil appears, from a variety of observation, 
scattered through our topographical descriptions, to be frequently followed 
by autumnal fever ; and, on the other hand, long- continued cultivation is 
accompanied by diminution of that disease ; the element which contributes 
to its production becoming exhausted. 

II. Living Vegetation. — Forests have been thought to modify the 
conditions which generate autumnal fever. Our medical topography sup- 
plies several facts, which go to show, that those who first penetrate our 
woods, and establish themselves in cabins, closely surrounded by trees, re- 
main comparatively exempt from autumnal fever, till the clearing is extended. 
On the other hand, it is a disease of the country, and especially of newly- 
settled parts ; where the amount of forest is so great, as to maintain a high 
degree of humidity. Our cities and larger towns, it is well-known, seldom 
suffer, and they are to be considered, as in some degree, presenting the very 
opposite condition from our woodlands. Again, trees have been thought to 
arrest the spread, of that gaseous agent, whatever it may be, which is said 
to be the true cause of the Fever; but in what manner they do it, no one 
can tell. It has been conjectured, that their leaves absorb the noxious ex- 
halation ; and also that they mechanically arrest the dissemination of the 
aerial poison. In harmony with the former hypothesis, is that of Dr. Cart- 
wright (see p. 79), in reference to the Jussieua grandiftora, and some other 
aquatic plants, in the delta of the Mississippi ; which, he supposes, absorb 
the agent that produces autumnal fever. I have already expressed the 
opinion, that the facts do not establish that hypothesis ; and must here, in 
conclusion, remark, that living vegetation is so mixed up with other condi- 
tions, necessary to the production of the Fever, that, in the existing stage, 
of observation, its effects cannot be correctly estimated. 

III. Surface Water. — In the maritime parts of Florida, Alabama, 
Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, surface water is abundant, for one side of 
each rests on the gulf, which has many inlets and little bays, the banks of 
which, are inhabited. The rivers, moreover, are numerous, and as they 
approach the gulf, expand into broad estuaries or deltas. The delta of the 
Mississippi, abounds in lakes, lagoons and bayous. As we ascend this, 
and the smaller rivers, wide cypress and liquid-amber swamps, annually re- 
plenished, skirt both sides. The intervening plains, are cut up by smaller 
streams, which have wide alluvions, often subjected to inundations ; and the 
country between them abounds in swamps ; from which even the sandy, pine 
plateaus are not entirely free. This continues to be their condition, till we 
reach the flanks of the Cumberland Mountains, on the east, and those of the 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 711 

Ozark hills, to the west. As we ascend the Mississippi, to the month of 
the Missouri, we find its annual floods leaving small lakes, ponds, swamps, 
and lagoons ; which in the aggregate, are of great extent, and but partially 
drained or dried up, before the next inundation. Now, as we have seen, the 
whole of this region is infested with autumnal fever, beyond any other por- 
tion of the valley. 

In North Alabama, Tennessee, and Kentucky, swamps are almost unknown, 
except along the few rivers, which have wide bottom-lands, most of which, 
moreover, are exempt from inundation. The rivers, however, are sinuous, 
and in summer, sluggish and pondy; and it is in their vicinity, chiefly, that 
autumnal fever prevails. In the states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio, the 
rivers generally flow through wide valleys, many of which, are liable to be 
overflowed. Small lakes, ponds and swamps, are also frequent, in certain 
portions of those states ; and it is precisely these localities, which are most 
infested. To the east of all the states mentioned, as we climb the mountains, 
the surface water is no longer found in basins ; and the streams, generally, 
have a rapid current, down narrow and rocky channels ; and here, autumnal 
fever nearly disappears ; or, when present, is confined to the valley of some 
stagnating stream. Everywhere, west of the states of Arkansas, Missouri, 
and Iowa, surface water is scarce ; the declivity of the plain which stretches 
from the Rocky Mountains, favoring its escape ; while the subjacent sand 
almost absorbs, even considerable rivers. Thus, as we advance into that 
desert, we come at the same time to the limits of surface water, and of au- 
tumnal fever. In the north there is no deficiency, for the whole country is 
essentially lacustrine ; and up to a certain latitude, the Fever prevails. Thus 
the shores of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, with those of the southern ex- 
tremity of Huron and Michigan, are infested, and suffer far more than the 
dryer lands which surround them. But beyond these limits, on the shores of 
the two latter lakes, and on those of Lake Superior, the Fever, as we 
have seen, is never epidemic, although water is abundant; and still further 
north, where small lakes, and their connecting streams, exist in countless 
numbers, the disease is unknown; showing that, while water is essential 
to the production of this Fever, other causes must cooperate to give it 
power. 

Let us inquire into the modus operandi of this agent in the production of 
the disease under consideration. 

1. Under the influence of solar heat it impregnates the air with vapor, 
giving a high dew point ; and, other circumstances being equal, the evapo- 
ration is greatest where the heat is highest. This, of course, is in the 
southern part of the Valley, and there, as we have seen, the Fever prevails 
most. 

2. Surface water not only contributes largely to the production of a luxu- 
riant vegetation, destined annually to perish, but is indispensable to the 
decomposition of what it has aided in producing. Hence, without its agency, 
none of the deleterious gasses, which are supposed to be thus generated, 
could have an existence. But its presence in any or all quantities, will not 



712 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

answer equally well. If there "be too little, the molecular movements of 
fermentation are arrested for want of a solvent — if too much, the atmos- 
phere, indispensable to the process, is excluded ; or the evolved gases are 
absorbed and retained. 

3. Its presence is essential to those chemical actions, in certain soils, 
which are believed, by some writers 3 to generate exhalations that occasion 
the Fever. 

4. It is equally indispensable to the production of both animalcules and 
microscopic plants. 

5. Both evaporation and condensation are known to be accompanied by 
electrical perturbations. 

Thus water is a necessary element, in all the hypotheses which have been 
framed to account for autumnal fever. 

But a contrary and salubrious influence has been ascribed to water ; for 
it is held by many that this fluid absorbs the noxious gas or gases, which 
they believe to produce the Fever, and thus limits its prevalence. According 
to this opinion, the deep waters in the center of a basin, may imbibe and retain 
the noxious gases which the shallow waters of its margins have contributed 
to generate ; and, in support of the hypothesis, it has been affirmed that the 
vicinity of cataracts and rapids is more unhealthy than the banks of the 
rivers in which they occur. The absorbed gases are supposed to be there 
liberated by the agitation of the water. The medical topography of Book I, 
presents several facts bearing on this hypothesis. Thus Wetumpka, at 
the foot of the long rapids of the Coosa river ; Louisville, at the falls of the 
Ohio River ; and Maumee City, at the termination of the rapids of the Mau- 
mee River, are all infested with autumnal fever ; but other towns, on the 
same rivers, are likewise scourged with that disease; and Oswego River, 
which drains the Montezuma swamps of western New York, has at its mouth 
a great number of mills, yet the inhabitants suffer but little from that 
disease. It prevails still less at the Falls of Niagara ; and finally, at Zanes- 
ville, where a natural waterfall has been augmented by artificial means, and 
on the Kentucky River, where there are series of pools and dams, there is 
no special prevalence of the Fever. Thus the facts furnished, by our Valley, 
do not prove that waterfalls eliminate a gas which is the cause of the disease 
under consideration. 

IV. Temperature. — The fact that autumnal fever prevails perpetually 
and virulently, within the tropics, but ceases long before we reach the polar 
circle, demonstrates that a high temperature is one of the conditions neces- 
sary to its production. Should it be ascribed to heat alone ? The answer 
must be in the negative ; for places having the same temperature, but vary- 
ing in other conditions, are very differently affected with autumnal fever. 
Thus the people on Mobile Bay suffer greatly, while those who live on the 
adjoining oak and pine terrace escape ; and the summer heat of the southern 
portions of the great desert is intense, but those who traverse it, and keep 
at a distance from its water courses, pass the season unaffected. It cannot 
be affirmed, that the direct action of a hot atmosphere on the body, does not 



PART I.] 



INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



713 



contribute to the production of the Fever ; for, on the contrary, where it 
prevails as an epidemic, exposure to the noon- day summer sun is often fol- 
lowed by an attack ; but such exposure, in a different locality, will not pro- 
duce it ; and, therefore, we may conclude that in its direct action, heat is 
merely an exciting cause, on which it is not necessary to expatiate in this 
place ; and I will therefore proceed to trace out its indirect effects. 

Our army statistics furnish some instructive facts on this point. The posts 
which lie along the Mississippi, are placed nearly under the same conditions, 
in everything but temperature, which varies according to their latitude. 
They are, therefore, well fitted to indicate the influence of this climatic con- 
dition in the production of the Fever. Its relative prevalence at these posts 
which extend through more than thirteen degrees of latitude, is presented 
in connection with the annual and quarterly mean heat, in the first part of 
the following table, while the second offers a comparison of two posts in the 
region west of the Mississippi, and the third of two on the Lakes. 

TABLE. 





POSTS. 


1 


Oo ~2 

ill 

3 IB 3 

3 a> a 

C w <U 


Is 

s S 
<2 




2 *i 
.3 ,5 

3 £ 
P5 O 


v a 

* S 

3 3 
l<3 




Along the 
Mississippi 
River. 


Baton Rouge, - - - - 
Jefferson Barracks, - - 
Fort Armstrong, - - - 
Fort Crawford, - - - - 
Fort Snelling. 


O ' 

30 36 
38 28 
4132 

43 03 

44 53 


1 ° 

82467.56 
475 56.93 
30750.65 
30147.35 
6245.15 


o 

52.68 
33.98 
25.15 
20.69 
17.29 


o 

68.72 
56.55 
50.82 
48.25 
46.56 


O 

81.48 
76.19 
74.57 
72.38 
71.16 


O 

67.38 
54.38 
52.07 
48.09 
45.59 


W.of 
Miss. 
River 


Fort Gibson, 

Fort Leavenworth, - - 


35 48 
39 23 


1435i61.07|42.50|61.26 
629|52.34l27.60!53.38 


79.17(61.53 
74.00154.39 


I On 
the 

Lakes 


Fort Dearborn, - - - - 
Fort Brady, 


41 50[ 251|46.14[24.31[45.39;67.80j47.09 
46 30J 44i40.62ll8.06l38.17j62.14l44.13 



To show, by a comparison of localities, the exact relation between temper- 
ature and autumnal fever, the conditions of the different places should, in 
all other respects, be alike, which is not often the case; nevertheless, the 
medical topography and hydrography of the posts, compared together in the 
foregoing table, will be found substantially the same, and they show, that 
with the decrease of yearly and summer heat, other conditions continuing 
unchanged, there is an abatement of the Fever. It is, however, with the 
heat of summer, and not that of the year, that autumnal fever is connected ; 
and the question here arises, what summer temperature is necessary to the 
production of the Fever ? This question cannot be rigorously answered : 
for the number of observations hitherto made, in the proper region, is too 
small to justify a positive conclusion; we may, however, assume, that a 
summer temperature of sixty degrees, is necessary to the production of the 
Fever; and that it will not prevail as an epidemic, where the temperature of that 
46 



714 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

season falls below sixty-five: finally, that if the other conditions favoring its 
production are deficient, it will cease before those reductions of temperature 
have been reached. 

According to these conclusions, the Fever will occur in winter, at all places 
where that season has a mean temperature of sixty degrees or upward ; as 
at Vera Cruz, Tampico, Havana, Key West, Tampa Bay, and Fort King, 
as may be seen in the table (p. 487) ; and it is well known that cases do 
occur at those places, in that season ; but at the two latter posts, where the 
winter heat barely rises over sixty, they are few in number. At New Or- 
leans, and generally under the thirtieth parallel, where the mean winter heat 
is as low as fifty, the Fever is suspended. But the seasons are made up of 
months, and we are here brought to consider its connection with their re- 
spective temperatures. 

Up to Tampa Bay, every winter month rises above sixty degrees ; but at 
New Orleans, or the thirtieth parallel, only the nine months from March to 
November, have that temperature; and as we advance to the north, the 
number of months having it constantly decreases. Thus, at St. Louis, it is 
attained by five months only — from May to September, inclusive ; at Fort 
Snelling, by four; at Fort Brady, by three; at Montreal, by four; at Quebec, 
by three. In advancing further north, June and September fall below it; 
and, finally, in the distant north, July and August, or the entire year. Long 
before this reduction is reached by those two months, however, the Fever 
ceases ; and therefore it results, that a continuance for more than two months 
of a heat equal to sixty degrees, is necessary to the development of the 
Fever. Hence we can understand, why it prevails more in October than April, 
although their mean temperatures are nearly the same: in November than 
June, notwithstanding, the latter is much the warmer month, and in Sep- 
tember and August,^ than July — the hottest month of the year. The 
greatest prevalence in every latitude, is indeed, generally some weeks, after 
the hottest month ; showing that the effects of temperature are cumulative. 
It appears from all that has been said, that within the tropics, autumnal 
fever may occur throughout the year ; and that as we move northerly, the 
duration of its prevalence shortens, by its beginning later in spring, and 
terminating earlier in autumn. March and November first escape ; then 
April and May on the one band, and October on the other — lastly June 
and September. 

In contemplating the climatic relations which exist between autumnal 
fever, and certain aspects of vegetation, we find that in the tropical regions 
they are the same throughout the year, and that when we attain the thirty- 
third parallel, which constitutes the northern limit of several southern trees 
and plants, the prevalence of the Fever is for a much shorter period ; that its 
disappearance is nearly at the same curve, at which the miscellaneous vege- 
tation of the middle latitudes, gives place to the terebinthinate trees and 
birches, of the north; finally, that maize or Indian corn, which grows all 
the year round, in the tropical regions, finds the summers too short for the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 715 

ripening of its grain, in nearly the same curve of summer temperature, at 
which autumnal fever is arrested. 

If change of latitude, by diminishing the heat of the atmosphere and that 
of the earth's surface can, as we have just seen, arrest the production of 
autumnal fever, an increase of elevation above the level of the sea, may 
likewise do it. Thus the Fever which scourges the tierra caliente of 
Mexico, near the level of the sea, is almost unknown in and around the city 
of Mexico, at an elevation of seven thousand four hundred and fifty feet, 
although the latitude remains the same. The inhabitants among the 
sources of the Kenawha and Tennessee Rivers, on the Appalachian Moun- 
tains, at a medium elevation of nearly three thousand feet, are almost 
exempt, while those who occupy the valleys, under the same parallels, are 
affected ; and, further north, at half that elevation, where the Alleghany 
and Genessee Rivers have their sources, the disease is almost unknown, 
while on the shores of Lake Ontario, directly north, it prevails. In trav- 
ersing that mountain terrace, which has a mean summer temperature of sixty- 
three degrees, I witnessed a frost, on the night of the second of August 
which destroyed the Indian corn ; but, on descending into the valley of the 
Genessee, which, although a degree further north, is infested with the Fever, 
the fields of maize were uninjured. Finally, the constantly increasing eleva- 
tion of the desert to the west of the Mississippi is, no doubt, one cause of 
the disappearance of the Fever under the same parallels, in which it prevails 
on the banks of that river. 

Having established the paramount influence of high temperature in the 
production of autumnal fever, it remains to inquire into the modes in which 
it may operate. I have already referred to its effect as an exciting cause, 
but this view is too limited, and others must now come under consideration. 

1. The long- continued impress of summer heat upon the surface of the 
body, occasioning copious perspiration, and through the nerves of the skin 
sympathetically affecting the internal organs, more especially*the abdominal, 
may predispose to this form of fever; and the cool nights of early autumn, 
acting on the same surface, may still further derange the economy. That 
such nights, and occasional sudden changes of temperature, are often followed 
by an immediate development of the Fever, is well known. 

2. Heat promotes great evaporation from all moist and watery surfaces, 
thus giving to the atmosphere a high dew point. 

3. It favors the fermentative decomposition of organic matter, and the 
production of new compounds. 

4. It facilitates the multiplication of minute but visible animals, and 
cryptogamic plants, and may be presumed, therefore, to multiply the micro- 
scopic — both animal and vegetable. 

5. It evaporates the superfluous water of ponds, swamps, marshes, and 
lagging streams ; thus bringing them into a condition favorable to the more 
rapid decay of the organic matters which they contain or cover over, and 
thereby promoting the extrication of gases. 

6. It dries the surface of the ground after the rains of spring and sum- 



716 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

mer ; and may (as has been asserted) cause it, in the act of desiccation, to 
send forth deleterious exhalations, different from those generated in deposits 
of decomposing organic matter. 

6. It disturbs the equilibrium of the electricity of the atmosphere ; hence 
summer thunder storms are of almost daily occurrence, on the coasts of the 
Gulf of Mexico ; but on the shores of Lake Superior they are rare. 

Thus solar heat plays an indispensable part, in every hypothesis which has 
been proposed to explain the origin of autumnal fever ; answering equally 
well for the advocates of combined heat and moisture — miasmatic exhala- 
tions — microscopic beings, and atmospheric electricity. 

We have now reviewed all the obvious conditions which seem to concur 
in the production of our autumnal fever, and endeavored to assign the modus 
operandi and influence of each. We have seen the necessity of their con- 
currence, from the fact that the absence of any one puts an end to the prev- 
alence of the Fever. These conditions are dead organic matter, resting on 
or blended with the mineral elements of the soil ; water, not in any, but a 
certain quantity; and temperature, above the sixtieth degree, continuing for 
at least two months. And here we might stop, but for the instinctive pro- 
pensity of the human mind to arrive at the knowledge of a single efficient 
cause; to which, therefore, a chapter must be devoted. 



CHAPTER II. 



SPECULATIONS ON THE EFFICIENT CAUSE OF AUTUMNAL 

FEVEK. 



SECTION I. 

METEORIC HYPOTHESIS. 
It has been suggested, and, indeed, is believed by some physicians, that 
while the three conditions recognized in the last chapter, are present wher- 
ever autumnal fever prevails, but two of them — heat and moisture — exert 
an influence in its production. Under the joint influence of these elements, 
vegetation will of course flourish and decay; but not contribute to 
the production of the Fever. The advocates of this opinion, of course, 
deny the existence of a special poison ; and ascribe the disease to the direct, 
combined action of a hot, humid, and electrical atmosphere. The discussion 
of this hypothesis, necessarily involves, to some extent, the discussion of the 
question of a special agent ; for but the two opinions can be held. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 717 

Fever prevails extensively, is often epidemic, and is not contagious ; it must 
have a cause, and if that cause be not some conjunction of the ordinary 
elements and sensible qualities of the atmosphere, it must be a poison, dis- 
solved or suspended in it. If it should appear, then, that the Fever does not 
depend on the former, we may affirm that it does depend upon the latter. 
I have already shown, that neither heat nor moisture, by itself, can pro- 
duce the Fever, and will now proceed to state certain objections to the hypo- 
thesis that it results from their combined influence. 

1. It is well known, that autumnal fever seldom appears on board of 
vessels which cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, although the air, at the temper- 
ature of eighty, is nearly saturated with vapour. 

2. The inhabitants of Key West, who breathe a similar atmosphere, are 
much less afflicted with the Fever, than those on the Peninsula of Florida, 
several degrees further north. Now, although that little island supports 
considerable vegetation, its swamps are filled with the waters of the Gulf in 
every high tide, and when strong winds prevail.* 

3. The sandy banks of Pensacola Bay, from its entrance, up to the town 
of Pensacola, suffer but little ; while, at the head of the bay, where exten- 
sive alluvial deposits have been made, the Fever has been so constant and 
fatal as to prevent permanent settlements. Yet the temperature and moist- 
ure of both localities are the same, for they are but ten miles apart.f 

4. The pine woods around the Gulf of Mexico, at the distance of only two 
or three miles from from the estuaries of the rivers, are places of retreat 
from the Fever, although there is a sea and land breeze, which tends to 
equalize the humid atmosphere. 

5. The inhabitants of the Balize, suffer less from the Fever than those 
along the rivers of the interior of Louisiana, two or three degrees further 
north ; notwithstanding they are immersed in an atmosphere of great heat 
and vapour. Vegetation is as luxuriant at the Balize as above; but when it 
dies, it falls upon a soil impregnated with sea salt, and is often wetted by 
the waves of the gulf. 

6. In many parts of Kentucky and Tennessee, where the surface is dry 
and ridgy, and the streams narrow and tortuous, the Fever occurs upon the 
former, although the atmospheric humidity is small. 

7. It is well known that a family may settle down in the forest, and culti- 
vating but a small spot, remain free from fever; but when several families 
arrive, and an extensive breaking up of the soil takes place, it immediately 
begins to prevail, although the heat and moisture are not thereby increased. 

8. Dr. Winter gave me the following fact. On Cedar Creek, a tributary 
of Cumberland Biver, a mill dam had been erected about sixteen feet high. 
After twenty-two years, the basin above having become filled up with silt 
and drift, the dam was torn down, and the perpendicular face of the deposit, 
exposed to the action of the sun and air, in the month of August. The 
consequence of this was, that nearly all the men who performed this labor, 

* See p. 47. f See p. 52. 



718 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book u. 

were seized with severe autumnal fever, and one of them died. There was 
no pond above, nor any marsh in the neighborhood ; and the people gener- 
ally were healthy at the time. Here there was no combined agency of heat 
and moisture; and hence the facts afford strong evidence of a developed 
aerial poison. 

9. On Paint Creek, Ohio, a millpond was generally drained the first of June, 
and the rains of that month, washed away the silt and dead plants, and 
animals ; so that the people of the adjoining village of Washington, suffered 
but little from the Fever; the draining was postponed till July, and no rains 
followed to wash out the basin. Then there immediately followed an ep- 
idemic autumnal fever, which prevailed most on the side of the village next 
the pond. More than a fourth of the population suffered an attack, and 
nearly three per cent, of the whole number of inhabitants perished.* 

10. It has frequently happened, that individuals who have lodged for a 
single night in certain localities, have after several days, or even weeks, been 
taken down by the Fever. f More than this, persons, living in places where 
it never originates, have been seized in the spring with intermittents, after 
having in the preceding autumn, traveled where the Fever prevailed. Now 
it is in no degree characteristic of heat and moisture, to produce remote 
effects. A catarrh, a pleurisy, or a rheumatism, comes on soon after ex- 
posure, or not at all. The development of the disease, at a distant time 
from that at which the remote cause was applied, clearly suggests, that the 
cause was something else, than a particular condition of the sensible pro- 
perties of the atmosphere. 

11. At our different salt works, the operatives spend their lives in a hot 
atmosphere saturated with vapour ; and, yet, on the whole, are more exempt 
from fever, than the surrounding population! 

12. Lastly, in some of our manufacturing establishments, the in-door arti- 
sans and operatives, labor in a heated atmosphere supersaturated with 
vapor, but remain free from autumnal fever. 

These facts seem to me conclusive in their bearing against the meteoric 
hypothesis ; except so far as certain atmospheric conditions may act as ex-: 
citing causes ; and we are therefore, thrown upon the alternative — a dele- 
terious agent, diffused in the atmosphere ; the positive existence of which, 
seems to me to be established, by the facts which have been cited. 

Now this agent maybe either one, of two kinds — inorganic or organic — 
and both have a prima facie advantage over the hypothesis we have exam- 
ined, in demanding the concurrence of all the conditions — heat, water, and 
dead vegetable and animal forms — which have been shown to be always 
present, wherever autumnal fever prevails ; while the last is left out of ac- 
count by the meteoric hypothesis. We must first inquire into the origin 
and nature of the inorganic poison. % 

* See p. 294. f See p. 370. $ See pp. 264 and 404. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 719 

SECTION II. 

MALARIAL HYPOTHESIS. 
I. It is unnecessary to inquire into the nature of the gases, which may 
be exhaled from an earthy surface, consisting of nothing but the fragments 
and powder of the subjacent rocks, and the different salts, or oxides, formed 
by their decomposition, under the influence of heat, water, and atmospheric 
air ; for no such surface exists in our Valley. Whenever the rocky strata 
are thus exposed, they begin to crumble ; and the pulverulent layer then 
immediately becomes the nidus of some kind of plant; thus, lichens 
overspread the hardest rocks, and, by their death and decay, add to the 
thin layer of mineral matter, an organic element, at once vegetable and 
animal in its composition. In this way, the spot becomes prepared for a 
vegetation of a higher order, which, in turn, augments the amount of 
organic matter; while the rock beneath, by continued disintegration, 
continues to contribute new mineral substances. Thus it is, that the loose 
upper crust of the earth is accumulated ; and the nearer we come to the 
actual surface, the greater, in proportion, are organic elements, or those 
fixed compounds which are formed by its decomposition. The soil thus 
formed may vary exceedingly in its depth ; for where the rock has under- 
gone rapid disintegration, or the debris have favored a luxuriant vegetation, 
the soil will be much deeper, than in opposite circumstances ; but there is 
still another source of inequality. The soils thus formed are not fixed, and 
consequently are liable to be drifted about by currents of water. In 
ancient times, great portions of the Valley, on the north side of the Ohio 
River, were deeply covered with this kind of drift or diluvium ; and down 
to the present time, every considerable rain or dissolving snow, but 
especially the former, washes a portion of the soil, with its superincumbent 
dead plants and animals, into the valleys, where they are speedily deposited. 
But the soil of every inhabitable part of the Valley has, at all times, 
resting on its surface, a layer of dead and decomposing organic matter; 
which, is abundant in proportion to its fertility, and its favorable exposure 
to rains and the heat of the sun — that is, to those conditions which cherish 
the growth of animals and vegetables. 

Now, in the study of medical topography, with reference to autumnal 
fever, our attention has been generally directed to this layer only ; and as 
there may be some physicians who even doubt the existence of those 
organized and decaying forms, in the soil beneath, supposing that they 
suffer decomposition when they disappear from the surface, it may be well 
to say something more on this subject. 

The soil, of which the analyses are given at pages 75, 76, and 293, all 
contain organic matters, which, in one, more than equal all the inorganic 
substances. One of the specimens examined was silt, taken from a point 
ten feet below the surface, in New Orleans; and Professor Riddel found, 
that nearly one fourth consisted of " organized matters, such as the sporules 
or germs of algae, animalcules, and their ova;" and at the depth of sixteen 



720 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book n, 

feet, in sinking the gas tanks of that city (p. 76), wood was found, which 
had the texture of cheese, when the spade passed through it. The length of 
time required for the Mississippi to deposit the sixteen feet of superincum- 
bent silt, must have been indefinitely long. Again : In parts of Ohio, where 
there is a deep diluvial or post- diluvial deposit, when wells are dug, plants 
unknown in the neighborhood often appear upon the earth which has been 
thrown out, and doubtless spring from seeds, which had lain buried for an 
immense length of time. Still further : Where the upper crust is composed 
of sand, but produces the kinds of vegetation that can grow on such a sur- 
face, the decaying organic matter is washed into the ground by rains. 
Thus it is that the manure or mold, that is spread on the white sands of the 
gardens of the navy yard at Pensacola Bay, rapidly disappears. In this 
way, a spot which seems destitute of dead organic matter, may have an 
admixture of that element below the surface. From these facts, we are 
warranted in reaffirming, that the soil and subsoil, of all parts of the Interior 
Valley, contain organic matter, in every stage of decomposition. 

II. We come now to consider the dead and decaying organic matter 
deposited on the surface. This does not consist of vegetable forms merely, 
as we too often suppose, but likewise of animal. An inspection with the 
naked eye, and still more with the microscope, reveals to us that innumera- 
ble insects, and other minute animals, live and perish among vegetables. 
Many tribes, moreover, find their sustenance and abode in the decaying 
remains of plants. Still further, the surface and superficial parts of the 
ground teem with small quadrupeds, reptiles, and worms ; while the trunk 
of every fallen tree, in a certain stage of its decay, abounds in various kinds 
of grubs or larvse. From the moldering remains of trees and other vege- 
tables, moreover, spring mushrooms, algae, lichens, and other cryptogamic 
plants, which abound in nitrogen beyond the higher order of vegetables, and 
have, in fact, nearly the same chemical elements with animals. Finally, 
wherever there are pools, or swamps, or running streams, there are fishes, 
moluscse, and crustaceae, which multiply and perish, and whose bodies then 
float and dissolve, or sink to the bottom, or are thrown upon the shores, and 
mingled with the remains of land animals and plants. Thus, a vegeto- 
animal layer overspreads the surface of the country ; and under the com- 
bined influence of water, heat, and air, when the two former are in the right 
proportions, is constantly undergoing decomposition, and originating new 
chemical compounds. 

III. But the organic covering of the surface is, by no means, of the 
same nature in every locality. We cannot tell what kind of plants and 
animals, in past ages, left their remains on what now makes our subsoil ; 
but the existing forms are subjects of observation, and, in the investigation 
which occupies us, should not be entirely overlooked. 

1. The trees, in what are called the pine woods of the south, are chiefly 
resinous, and abound in hydrogen. Vegetable matters having such a com- 
position are little disposed to pass into fermentation, but are decomposed by 
the slow combustion of several of their principles, by the oxygen of the 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 721 

atmosphere ; and if the efficient cause of autumnal fever be a gas, formed 
during the fermentative decomposition of organic matter, we have here one 
explanation of the comparative absence of that fever in those woods. 

2. The graminece, equisetacea and, indeed, all kinds of grasses, contain in 
their culms and blades a great quantity of silicate of potash, and in their 
seed much phosphate of magnesia and lime. They undergo decomposition 
very slowly, and the results cannot be the same as those of plants widely 
differing from them in composition. In describing the medical topography 
of the Balize (page 90), the extensive and luxuriant growth of the Phrag- 
mites communis, Typha lalifolia, and Scirpus lacustris, was mentioned ; and I 
have already conjectured that their falling, when dead, into brackish water, 
may modify their mode of decomposition; but we may also believe that their 
composition exerts an influence; and that, on the hypothesis that the Fever 
is the offspring of the decomposition of organic matter, one cause of its 
milder prevalence, at the final termination of the Mississippi, than along the 
same river above, may be the peculiar composition of its reigning vegetation. 
Again: the vegetation on the grand prairies, beyond the Mississippi, is 
chiefly gramineous, and to this, on the same hypothesis, we might, perhaps, 
consistently attribute some portion of their exemption from the Fever. 

3. The oak tree abounds in tanno-gallic acid, and is often the governing 
tree in considerable tracts of forest ; which, I think, are less infested with 
the Fever than localities having a diversified, arborescent vegetation. At all 
events the exuvice of such a forest might be expected to afford the elements 
for gaseous exhalations of a different sort from those of pine, or of trees not 
abounding in that acid. 

4. The leguminosce, including all kinds of pulse, as peas, beans, and 
lentils, contain very little potash, silica, or the earthy phosphates, while they 
abound in nitrogen, and must, therefore, while under decomposition, yield 
gases of a very different kind from the graminece. 

5. The extensive natural family of plants called the cruciferce, embracing 
the radish, mustard, turnip, and cabbage, contain sulphur and nitrogenized 
ingredients, fitting them to give out, in decomposition, gases varying from 
the last. 

6. Not to pursue the subject any further, the fungi, boleti, and other cryp- 
togamic plants, which abound in dark and shaded woods, have a composition 
almost animal, and cannot, in their spontaneous decay, afford results of the 
same kind with plants of a widely different composition.* 

IV. The facts which have been cited teach us that there is, mingled with 
the soil or resting upon it, a great amount and endless variety of organic 
matter, both animal and vegetable, to the decomposition of which, and to 
the resulting new compounds, the malarialists look for the efficient cause of 
autumnal fever. In doing this, a special stress may, with great propriety, be 
laid on a few unquestionable facts. 

* Liebig: Chem. applied to Agricul. and Phys. 



722 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

1. That, all other circumstances being equal, the Fever prevails most where 
the organic matter is most abundant, in or resting on the soil. 

2. That where the surface is not moist enough to favor the decomposition 
of organic matter, the Fever has but little prevalence. 

3. That a temperature of sixty degrees of Fahrenheit, or above, is necessary 
to fermentation and putrefaction, and that the Fever ceases, in going north, 
when we reach a summer temperature below that degree. 

4. That particular localities have experienced the Fever, in an epidemic 
form, when a surface abounding in organic matter has been newly exposed 
to the action of the summer sun. 

5. That under long cultivation, which exhausts the organic matter of the 
soil, and prevents its accumulation on the surface, the Fever almost ceases to 
appear. 

V. These facts undeniably establish a connection between a certain con- 
dition of the surface and autumnal fever ; but they do not prove the exis- 
tence of malaria, or a gas, which is the efficient cause of the Fever, and to 
this point we must now give attention. 

1. The observed aeriform products of this decomposition are carbonic acid, 
carbonic oxide, carbureted hydrogen, sulphureted hydrogen, and carbonate 
of ammonia. Now, there is not a single fact going to show that either of 
these gases can produce autumnal fever. On the contrary, as the result of 
experience, it may be safely affirmed, that they do not ; for the effects which 
follow on exposure to them are of a different kind. But it can be said that, 
in the endless variety of new compounds, which nature may 1 form out of the 
ultimate elements of plants and animals, there may be many which have 
not yet been detected, and that some one of these is the efficient cause of the 
Fever, and this cannot be denied. But we must not forget that it is an 
assertion without proof — a mere suggested hypothesis — a proposition to 
be proved. 

2. It is well known to us all, that there are sickly and healthy seasons at 
the same place, and sometimes over large portions of our Valley, while the 
amount of organic matter remains unchanged ; and, as yet, it has not been 
shown that this can be explained by a reference to varying degrees of heat 
and moisture, though the subject has not received sufficient attention to show 
that it cannot. 

3. The Fever occasionally appears in limited localities, from which it is in 
general entirely absent ; the surface meanwhile remaining, to all observation, 
precisely the same. 

4. All the known gases are either simple bodies, as hydrogen and chlorine, 
or binary compounds of two simple elements, as carbonic acid, ammonia, and 
carbureted hydrogen, and their principles are united in definite proportions, 
giving to each a uniform and peculiar character. If we may depend on 
analogy, the assumed undiscovered gas, called malaria, must be of the same 
character; and, therefore, at all times and places be productive of the same 
effects. Now, although autumnal fever is a disease of intrinsic uniformity, 
it shows modifications which have not been explained by the assignment of 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 723 

modifying causes ; and without such causes, its diversities constitute an objec- 
tion to the existence of a single agent of an unchangeable character. 

On the whole, therefore, I must repeat, that while the conditions under 
which our autumnal fever appears, are sufficiently clear to observation, the 
existence of a special gaseous agent, resulting from them, remains to be 
proved. 



SECTION III. 

VEGETO-ANIMALCULAR HYPOTHESIS. 

I have united two words to express an hypothesis which ascribes 
autumnal fever to living organic forms, too small to be seen with the naked 
eye ; and which may belong either to the vegetable or animal kingdom, or 
partake of the characters of both. 

In the year 1832, I published in the Western Medical and Physical 
Journal, of which I was the editor, a series of papers on Epidemic Cholera, 
which were afterward collected and enlarged into a small volume ; * in which 
an attempt was made to show, that the mode in which that disease spreads, 
was more fully explained by the animalcular hypothesis than any other 
which had been proposed. The brief investigation then given to the sub- 
ject, reinspired my respect for the opinion long before expressed, that 
autumnal fever, and many other forms of disease, might be of animalcular 
origin; and the discoveries since made by the Ehrenberg school, have 
seemed to render that doctrine still more probable. But I have neither had 
time nor means for experimental or bibliographical inquiry; and do not 
propose to dwell very long upon the subject in this place. 

As applied to Epidemic Cholera, I regard the hypothesis of animalcules 
as more plausible than that of vegetable germs; but in reference to 
autumnal fever, either may be assumed ; and in support of the assumption, 
I proceed to make the following observations: 

1. The microscope has revealed the existence of a countless variety of 
organic forms, which surround and penetrate the bodies of larger animals 
and plants, whether living, or dead and decaying, inhabit all waters, salt 
and fresh, and swarm in the atmosphere; buoyed up and moving by their 
own organs, or sustained by their levity, and wafted about by currents of 
air. The difficulty of detecting them in the atmosphere is greater than in 
water, or when attached to solid substances ; but to my own mind, it seems 
probable that they exist in the aerial ocean in greater multitudes than else- 
where. For, first, minute particles of matter, organic and inorganic, are 
at all times floating in that ocean, and may serve as their food or resting 
places; and, second, as .the surface of a body becomes greater, in com- 

* A Practical Treatise on the History, Prevalence, and Treatment of Epidemic 
Cholera. By Daniel Drake, M. D. Cincinnati: 1832. Pp.180. 



724 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

parison with its weight, the more it is reduced in size, it follows that living, 
organic forms, both animal and vegetable, may be of such size, as to float 
permanently in the air. The power of reproduction, possessed by these 
microscopic creatures, is still more wonderful than their minuteness. It 
exceeds, indefinitely, all examples presented by the visible organic kingdom ; 
where, however, we see the government of the same law, for, in both plants 
and animals, the small multiply more rapidly than the large. In contem- 
plating the invisible living world, in which the visible is, as it were, 
immersed, the mind becomes bewildered, as in meditating on the infinite, 
and requires to fall back upon obvious facts. Now one of these facts is, 
that whole rock formations, of great thickness and extent, have been found, 
under the microscope, to be composed entirely of the silicious shells or 
coverings of animalcules. In such beings, the increase seems to be merely 
by secretion from, or division of the parent body. 

2. Among visible plants and animals, there are species that form no 
poison, and others which secrete that, which applied to, or inserted in our 
bodies, produces a deleterious effect, which is generally of a definite kind. 
Thus, the venom of the rattlesnake produces a disease of definite form; 
cantharides another; certain fish are poisonous when eaten; wasps and 
bees instill a venom; and the smallest visible gnat, as that which inhabits 
the forests of the middle latitudes, and that which is known under the name 
of sand fly on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, inflames the skin ; while the 
juice of stramonium, the exhalations of the rhus toxicodendron, and the 
fungus which grows beneath its shade, excite peculiar diseases. It seems 
justifiable to ascribe, by analogy, to microscopic animals and plants, the 
same diversity of properties which we find in larger beings, differing from 
them, as we may presume, in nothing but size and complexity of organi- 
zation. We may suppose, then, that while many species of this minute 
creation are harmless, there are others, which can exert upon our systems a 
pernicious influence. This, moreover, is in accordance with what we know 
of gases, some of which, as nitrogen, are inert, while others are deleterious. 
Under this head, moreover, we must not forget the fact, that nearly all the 
animals and plants which secrete a poisonous fluid, grow in the southern 
regions, and we may, analogically, suppose that the microscopic beings in 
those regions are more pernicious than those of higher latitudes. Now it is 
in the warmer portions of our Valley, that autumnal fever has its greatest 
prevalence. 

3. We know that water is essential to the support of those animal and 
vegetable forms which are matters of observation by the unassisted eye ; 
and may conclude, therefore, that it is equally necessary for the tribes 
which are invisible. Indeed, it is known of many, as the rotifer a, that if 
deprived of moisture, they seem to die, but may be revived many years 
afterward by the application of water. Now we have seen that, in the 
western part of the Valley, where great aridity prevails, the Fever is almost 
unknown ; while it prevails with greatest frequency and violence, other 
conditions being the same, where there is adequate humidity. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 725 

4. A high temperature is favorable to the development of animal and 
vegetable life. In the southern parts of the Valley, animal forms, especially 
of the lower order, are greatly multiplied, and vegetation is luxuriant. If 
this be true of the visible, why may we not conclude that it is equally true 
of the invisible. Now, it is precisely in those regions, that the Fever, other 
circumstances being equal, displays its greatest prevalence and malignity. 
When we look to the north, we find that, after reaching the parallel which 
has an isotheral curve of sixty degrees Fahrenheit, the amount of visible 
organic life is much diminished, and continues rapidly to decrease ; we may 
therefore presume, that the same is true of microscopic plants and animals. 
But we have already seen, that where the summer temperature falls below 
sixty degrees Fahrenheit, autumnal fever is unknown. 

5. In the visible organic world, we find animals subsisting on plants, or 
on other animals that have fed on vegetables. Again: the decomposing 
remains of one generation of plants, favors the growth of another ; and thus 
the soil gradualty acquires the ability to bring forth a more luxuriant crop. 
Organic matter is, then, the proper, though not sole nutriment of organized 
beings. Such being the law, we may presume that, cateris paribus, where 
dead organic matter is most abundant, microscopic tribes will be most mul- 
tiplied. It is a familiar fact, that such matter abounds, through almost 
every stage of its decomposition, in visible beings, which subsist upon it. 
Thus flesh has the larvse of the green and many other flies; rotten wood its 
grubs ; vinegar, as the result of decomposition, its eels — sometimes visible 
to the naked eye; cheese its visible and invisible inhabitants; and bread its 
mold, a cryptogamic plant. Finally, all vegetable infusions, when exposed 
to the air, have their infusoria. It is impossible, then, to doubt, that 
myriads of microscopic beings swarm around, and enter the interstices of all 
dead organic matter; and thus we have reason for believing, that they 
prevail most, where such matter is most abundant ; and it is in the same 
localities, other circumstances being equal, that we find the greatest 
prevalence of the Fever. 

6. By the vegeto-animalcular hypothesis, we can explain the concentrated 
prevalence of the Fever in certain places, as rationally as by the malarial 
hypothesis. Thus, its virulent reign at the head of Pensacola Bay, where 
there are extensive deposits of river alluvion, may be referred to the multi- 
plication of animalcules or germs, where they find abundance of nutrimentf; 
and in the case of the exposure of the face of a deep stratum of silt by 
the removal of a mill-dam on Cedar Creek (p. 717), we have only to suppose, 
that they immediately began to multiply upon the denuded surface. 

7. It has, often, been observed, that the Fever has suddenly increased 
after rain; and this might have arisen from the resuscitation of organic 
forms rendered torpid by previous drought. 

8. It may be, that cold produces a state of suspended animation in these 
as in many larger animals, and in numerous plants; and that the first warm 
weather of spring revives and sets them to multiplying ; when they generate, 
what are called vernal intermittents (or at least, a part of such cases) ; the 



726 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

origin of which cannot be rationally ascribed to malaria developed at that 
time. 

9. Microscopic observation and analogy render it probable, that in the 
invisible, as well as the visible province of the organic kingdom, there are 
distinct species, "which constitute, by their union, natural families or orders. 
We know that in each natural assemblage of the larger plants and animals, 
the species resemble each other in many internal qualities, as well as in their 
forms. Thus, an astringent principle pervades the various kinds of oak; 
a resinous principle the linear evergreens; an aromatic oil, the peppermint, 
and other didynamous herbs ; a poisonous principle, the different species of 
rhus; and that a narcotic principle pervades a large assemblage of plants. 
We know, also, that these various active principles in each group, are in 
general analogous, but not identical; whether we examine them by their 
sensible properties, with chemical reagents, or observe their effects upon 
the living body. Now, may it not be, that two distinct species of the same 
natural order of microscopic beings, may produce autumnal fever ? May 
not one be the cause of intermittents — the other of remittents? may not 
both act on the system at the same time ? and may we not thus explain di- 
versities, which are inexplicable on the malarial hypothesis 1 Every practi- 
cal physician knows, that while the juice of a variety of plants will produce 
the pathological condition called narcotism, the symptoms of that state, when 
induced by different agents, differ as widely from each other, as the symp- 
toms of the different forms of autumnal fever. 

10. In discussing the meteoric hypothesis, it was said, that the patho- 
logical effects of a certain condition of the principles of the atmosphere, are 
always immediate ; and it might have been remarked, when treating of the 
malarial hypothesis, that as far as we know, the effects of gases are likewise 
immediate ; but we are certain that autumnal fever often begins many days, 
and even weeks or months, after an exposure to its remote cause. Now 
we know, as a general fact, that many animal poisons do not develop 
their effects, till after the lapse of a greater or less length of time, Thus, 
two weeks may elapse before small pox will appear, after exposure; and two 
years have passed away, before hydrophobia has followed on the bite of a 
mad dog. On this point, then, the vegeto- animal cular hypothesis, has an 
advantage over both the others. 

11. It has been already stated, that autumnal fever prevails very une- 
qually in different years; and that, in the same locality, it may, in one 
autumn, be malignant and epidemic, and in another, mild and sporadic. 
This can. perhaps, be better explained on the hypothesis we are now discus- 
sing, than on either of the others; for we know, that throughout the visible 
organic domain, reproduction is by no means uniform. A year of great 
abundance, may be followed by one unproductive, in the vegetable king- 
dom ; and in the animal, one summer and autumn will be infested by insects 
far beyond another. It has often happened, that musquitoes have been 
absent, from the banks of the middle portion of the Ohio river, for a year, 
and in the next appeared in immense numbers. We have but to suppose 



part r.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 727 

insect forms of a parallel size, to live under corresponding laws, and the hy- 
pothesis now before us, offers an explanation of sickly and healthy seasons. 

12. It is well known that the long-continued cultivation of the soil, and 
the building of towns and cities, diminishes the prevalence of the Fever. 
Now this cultivation implies the drying up of a great deal of surface water ; 
the burning up of the natural vegetation, and the gradual decomposition of 
that which has been mingled with the soil. Summer crops, as those of wheat 
and hay, are also removed, and not suffered like the natural herbage to accu- 
mulate on the surface ; and those of autumn are either removed, or in the 
course of tbe winter consumed, to prepare the fields for new planting. 
Thus the food of microscopic beings is destroyed, and their reproduction 
arrested. 

13. We are familiar with the fact that many persons never sicken with 
autumnal fever, while others around them will have repeated attacks. This 
is ascribed to difference of susceptibility, and of exposure to exciting causes. 
Such ascription is no doubt correct; but the vegeto-animalcular hypothesis 
offers, from analogy, an additional explanation. It is well known that cer- 
tain visible insects prey on some individuals much more than others — seem 
to be attracted by one and repelled by another — and we have but to grant 
to the invisible the same tastes and instincts, to understand that some 
persons may always draw swarms around them, while others escape their 
depredations. 

14. People who inhabit houses built on the hills adjoining valleys, are said 
to suffer more than those who reside below. Now every breeze may waft and 
lodge in such habitations the microscopic beings which multiply in the rich 
and humid valley-soil. It has also been observed, that a grove of forest 
trees between an inhabited house, and what is called a sickly spot, gives com- 
parative immunity from the Fever ; and may not the leaves of such trees as 
successfully arrest animalcules, or vegetable germs, as they can absorb a gas 
not designed for their nourishment ? 

From what has been said, it appears obviously, I think, that the etiological 
history of autumnal fever, can be more successfully explained by the veo-eto- 
animalcular hypothesis, than the malarial. But both, in the present state of 
our knowledge, must stand as mere hypotheses. Neither can claim the rank 
of a theory ; nor will it be entitled to the confidence of the profession until 
many additional facts are brought to its support.* 

IV. Value of tiie Discovery of the efficient cause of Autumnal 
Fever. — I cannot, a priori, attach much practical importance to a discovery 
of the efficient cause of autumnal fever ; and have devoted several pages to 
its discussion, from deference to my brethren, much more than from my own 
conviction, of the value of the discovery to which so many minds are directed. 

*When this article was about to be sent to the press, a friend handed me Professor 
Mitchell's Lectures on the " Cnjptogamous origin of Malarious and Epidemic Fevers," 
which I had not before seen. The array of facts made by the learned author, seems 
almost irresistible; and, from his distinguished reputation, it will, no doubt, lead many 
others into new courses of observation and experiment. 



728 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

Did we know the particular meteoric condition, the gas, or the organized 
microscopic species which produces the Fever, we should not probably be 
able to defend ourselves against it, by any precautions, but those which 
experience has already established ; nor should we be able to destroy the 
efficient cause, without annihilating the conditions under which it is generated. 
Those conditions are already well known. The individual exposed to them 
is liable to an attack — he who keeps away remains exempt. The people of 
the country escape the vesicular eruption produced by the rhus toxicodendron 
or the rhus vernix, by keeping beyond the sphere of exhalation. They 
know nothing of the nature of the poisonous emanation, and yet their means 
of protection are as perfect, as those of the chemist would be, who might 
analyze the poison and give it an appropriate name. Nor is it probable 
that the discovery of the efficient cause would throw any light upon the 
treatment. It was not a knowledge of its cause that taught us the cold 
treatment of small pox ; — ■ we know the cause of hydrophobia and yet 
cannot cure it; — we do not know the cause of goitre, but have discovered 
that iodine is an efficient remedy. 

Ignorant, however, as we are of any definite, efficient cause for autumnal 
fever, I am a full believer in its existence, and shall speak of it as a specific 
agent, known only by its effects on the living body. These effects constitute 
the disease we have been studying in its etiology ; and are now to contem- 
plate in its symptomatology, pathology, and thsrapeutics. In proceeding to 
do this, the first inquiry naturally is, into the manner in which the assumed 
agent makes its impress on the system. In doing this, I wish it understood, 
that if I should, at any time, use the word malaria, it is merely to designate 
the remote cause, whatever it may be. 



CHAPTER III. 



MODE OF ACTION AND FIRST EFFECTS OF THE REMOTE 

CAUSE OF AUTUMNAL FEYER. 



SECTION I. 
APPLICATION OF THE POISON. 
Assuming the existence of a poison concealed in the atmosphere, we are 
led to inquire on what surfaces it makes its primary impression. 

I, Action on the Skin. — Several known gases act with such energy on 
the cutaneous surface, that when they are applied, for some time, they pro- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 729 

duce decided effects.* But can this be affirmed of the cause of autumnal 
fever ? Does it modify the vital properties, and pervert the functions of the 
skin ; and, through sympathy, the organism generally ? Does it penetrate 
that integument and mingle with the blood ? There are facts which seem to 
favor an affirmative answer, to at least one of these questions. First. Ex- 
posure of the surface of the body to the night air, in early autumn, is often 
followed by an attack of the Fever. Seco?id. The functions of the skin, 
both perspiratory and calorific, are signally impaired in the forming stages of 
the Fever. In opposition to the first of these facts, it is well known that a 
hearty meal, a debauch with wine or whisky, the action of a hot sun, or the 
violent operation of a cathartic, when the Fever is epidemic, may invite an 
attack ; and the exposure of the body at night, may, like them, be only an 
exciting cause. In opposition to the second I may say, that the other 
functions of the body are impaired, as early and extensively, as those of the 
skin. Proof is wanting, then, that the remote cause acts upon or penetrates 
the skin, to the production of this fever, though the opposite cannot, in the 
present state of our knowledge, be established. 

II. Action on the Stomach and Bowels. — The remote cause has 
been supposed to exert its primary influence on the gastro-intestinal mucous 
membrane, or to enter the circulation through that surface. The facts in 
support of this opinion are : First. The early derangement of the functions 
of the stomach, liver, and bowels, evinced by loss of appetite, nausea, 
increased or suppressed secretion of bile, and constipation, or diarrhoea. 
Second. The actual development, in many cases, of gastro-enteritis. Third. 
The alleged necessity of admitting the latter condition, as requisite to the 
production of the Fever. 

But these facts are inconclusive, and the objections to the hypothesis many. 
In the first place, as I have said of the lesion of the functions of the skin, 
those of the digestive organs have no priority over lesions of other functions. 
Muscular langor, impaired perspiration, diminished heat, heaviness of the 
head, reduced activity of the mind, and pain in the back, or several of these 
symptoms, are as early in their appearance as the disorders of the digestive 
organs — sometimes earlier ; for every physician has met with cases, in the 
forming stage of the Fever, in which lie found it necessary to prohibit the 
patient from eating. In the second place, both the symptoms and the 
required treatment of numerous cases, show that gastro-enteritis is not 
present. Indeed, splenitis is oftener present than mucous inflammation, and 
hepatitis is by no means uncommon ; but the cause of the Fever cannot 
reach either of those organs without penetrating others. And if they can 
become inflamed, without being directly acted on by the poison, the existence 
of gastro-enteritis is no evidence, that it has made its first impression on the 
stomach and duodenum. In the third place, the influence of a hearty meal 
(in cases in which the appetite has not been destroyed), in exciting the 
Fever, and even developing gastritis, does not prove that the cause had 

* Edwards on Physical Agents. Muller's Physiology. Christison on Poisons. 

47 



730 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii 

acted on the stomach ; for if the organism at large had felt its influence 
through whatever channel, and the stomach had then been irritated by a 
meal, which it could not digest, the sympathetic relations between it and 
the whole system might, at once, arouse inflammation in the former, and 
fever in the latter. In addition to these objections it may, in the fourth 
place, be asked how an agent so subtle, as to have hitherto escaped detection, 
can find its way into the stomach, in such quantities as to prove injurious, 
either by its action on the mucous membrane or its passage into the blood ? 
It could only reach there, by being mingled with our food and water ; which, 
for aught we know to the contrary, may be the case, but I know not of a 
single fact in support of this opinion. 

III. Action on the Lungs. — If the cause of autumnal fever be mingled 
with the atmosphere, it must be received into the lungs; for universal expe- 
rience shows that it is not one of those gases which provoke a closure of the 
glottis, and thereby occasion its own exclusion. Does it, then, make its 
primary, morbific impression on the pulmonary mucous membrane? In sup- 
port of the affirmative of this question, it may be stated, First. That the 
area of that membrane is sufficient to admit of an extensive contact of the 
aerial poison. Second. That its susceptibility to the action of gases is far 
greater, than that of the skin or gastro- enteric membrane; and, therefore, 
as compared with them, it is more likely to be the surface on which aeriform 
poisons make their primary impression. It may be objected to this hypoth- 
esis, however, that the function of respiration is less impaired in the early 
stages of this fever, than most of the other great functions, and that 
bronchitis is but seldom developed. The former is entitled to consideration, 
but the latter is not, inasmuch as all morbific agents do not necessarily excite 
inflammation in the parts upon which they act ; and, it has not yet been 
shown, that the cause of autumnal fever is one of those which do. Never- 
theless, I cannot regard the opinion that autumnal fever has a pulmonary 
origin, as anything more than a hypothesis. As nitrogen, oxygen, and some 
other gases have been found to enter the circulation through the skin, it is 
possible that the cause of this fever may be introduced in the same way. 
Should it be introduced into the stomach and bowels, it might thence enter 
the blood, as there is reason to believe that certain gases do.* But passing 
by these surfaces, as altogether subordinate, we may turn to the pulmonary, 
as that through which most gases pass into the circulation. Of the reality 
of this absorption, no physiologist can entertain a doubt. In fact, it seems 
to be almost as much a function of the pulmonary membrane, to absorb cer- 
tain gases and odors, as it is of the gastro-enteric, to absorb liquids. Thus 
Dr. Edwardsf has demonstrated the absorption of oxygen, azot, hydrogen, 
and aqueous vapor, bv the lungs. Others have confirmed his observations, and 
rendered the absorption of other gases highly probable ; finally, all the world 
is familiar with the fact, that a great variety of odorous exhalations are like- 
wise absorbed — often rapidly and copiously. Such being the penetrability 

*Christison, page 698. fEdwards on Phys. Agents. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 731 

of the pulmonary membrane, there is no anatomical or physiological objec- 
tion to the theory, of the passage of the efficient cause of autumnal fever, 
through that tissue into the blood; still this does not prove that it is 
absorbed — only that it may be. But are there no proofs of the fact ? I 
know of none, which do more than render it probable. First. We have 
seen, that there is no evidence, that the morbific impression of this cause is 
made on the skin or mucous membranes with which it is in contact ; and yet 
its action on the system is a reality, hence we may conclude that it penetrates 
through some surface to the blood. Second. As various gases, vapors, and 
odors, penetrate the thin parietes of the vessels of the pulmonary membrane, 
we may conclude, from analogy, that the efficient cause of this fever may do 
the same. Third. Dr. Stevens has shown that, in the endemic fevers of the 
"West Indies, the blood suffers deterioration before the phenomena of fever 
have manifested themselves in the functions of the solids. Fourth. The 
universality of functional lesion, and, in most cases 3 its equality among the 
different organs, in other words, the involvement of the constitution would 
seem to indicate, that the remote cause has acted throughout the whole 
organism at the same time. Fifth. A prominent and most dangerous condition 
in autumnal fever, is the impaired state of the calorific function, found in its 
highest degree in algid intermittents. As the blood, evidently, plays an im- 
portant part in this function, may we not conclude that in these remarkable 
cases, it has undergone a change in its composition or constitution, which 
unfits it for the development of caloric ? "Whatever may be the agency 
the nervous system in this function, it is undeniable that the blood is im r 
diately and deeply concerned ; and, highly probable, that its ager 
according to chemical principles. Should it then be altered in its c 
uents, or their mode of union, an alteration in its calorific agency i 
inevitable. It must not be forgotten, however, that in the stage 
reaction there is increased heat. Nevertheless, there are cases 
during that stage, the extremities continue cold. Sixth. An a 
favor of this hypothesis may, perhaps, be found in the well-know 7 
suppression of perspiration, by lodging in the open air, tends 
disease, and that a copious perspiration, effected by art in the f 
often arrests it. While the function of perspiration continue? 
son absorbed by the lungs may pass off through the skin ; bi 
in that exit, may, by its accumulation, prova mischievous, 
already begun to do harm, a copious sweat may relieve t 
an amount, that fever may be averted. Seventh. Nea 
these views, and tending to the same point, is the fact i 
nights continue warm, the disease does not become e 
as they become so cool as to check the functions of t3 
its capillary circulation, and surrounding it with a 
the liberation, by the reduction of temperature, of 
was insensible at a higher degree of atmospheric h 
epidemic character. 



732 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

SECTION II. 

MODE OF ACTION. 
Supposing the agent which produces the Fever introduced into the "blood 
through the lungs, what may he its mode of action ? Experiments by 
various physiologists and chemists * have shown, that in reference to their 
effects upon the living "body when inspired, the known gases may be divided 
into the inert, the irritant, and the narcotic. Of the first class, are azot 
and hydrogen, which prove injurious entirely or chiefly by excluding atmos- 
pheric air. To the second class belong nitric oxide gas, nitrous acid vapor, 
muriatic acid gas, chlorine, sulphurous acid, and ammonia; all of which 
irritate in a sensible manner, or inflame the aerial passages, and some of 
which, in a very dilute state, if inhaled for a considerable time, prove 
narcotic. In the third group are comprehended sulphureted hydrogen, 
carbureted hydrogen, carbonic acid, carbonic oxide, nitrous oxide, cyanogen, 
oxygen, ether, and chloroform, in which the narcotic greatly predominates 
over the irritating property. 

Judging by its first effects, as found in the early stages of autumnal 

fever, to which of these classes should we refer the cause of that fever? 

Not to the inert, which destroy life simply by excluding the atmosphere, for 

it causes no such exclusion ; not to the exclusively irritant, for, as we have 

seen, they inflame the respiratory membrane; not to the entirely narcotic, 

"or somnolency is not a prominent symj)tom of the early stage of that fever. 

elying on its effects, to guide us in an estimate of its character, we may 

that the efficient cause of this fever is a peculiar poison, of a sedative 

irritating quality, somewhat like the narcotico-irritating gases, or 

solid and fluid bodies, which, in large doses, destroy life suddenly, 

-;ing power, and in smaller portions, weaken while they pervert the 

Assuming this, let us inquire concerning its action, first on the 

secondly on the solids. 

erence to the blood, we can only regard this agent as something 

d mingled with it : a foreign substance united with the water, 

saline and animal ingredients are dissolved or suspended. Of 

hese, or the manner in which they are produced, we are pro- 

t. Still, as the introduction of a foreign ingredient, into a 

ded, cannot be made without disturbing the equilibrium of 

changing its isometric character, we are bound to admit a 

ion of that fluid, if the absorption be a reality. From 

Nations between the blood and the containing solids, from 

edition is established, the action of the former upon the 

nt from what it is in health ; and the change, however 

sease. The influence of such a blood on the nervous 

gans of seeretion, not less than on the heart and 

•om what that influence is, when the blood is in a 



* Christison, p. 689. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 733 

normal condition, the functions performed by those great structures, are 
necessarily altered; and here may he the origin, in part, of the first 
symptoms of the fevers we are considering. 

2. But the agent which has passed into the blood, may retain its integ- 
rity, and produce effects peculiar to itself, by acting on the parts with 
which it is brought into contact. These are the entire internal surface of 
the arteries, veins, and heart. That this surface is of vast extent, we are 
taught by anatomy ; and that its arterial portion, at least, is exquisitely 
alive to the impress of foreign matter, has been equally demonstrated by 
experimental physiology. That the heart is endowed with a high degree of 
irritability, was shown long since by Haller ; and that it possesses nerves, 
has been proved by Scarpa. That the smaller arteries and capillaries are 
likewise endowed with nerves, has been demonstrated by Lucae;* that they 
are the seats of the liveliest sensibility, is obvious to every observer ; and 
that the nervous system exercises over their circulatory and secretory func- 
tions, a constant and decided influence, has been established by the 
experiments of Sir Wilson Philip and others; if, indeed, it has not forced 
itself upon the attention of every observing physician, in the modifications 
of secretion and calorification, which result from varying states of the inner- 
vation. Such is the surface with which the absorbed and undecomposed 
poison is brought in contact. A surface not protected, like the skin, with 
cuticle ; not limited to a group of organs, and defended with mucus, like 
the pulmonary or gastro-intestinal membrane; but undefended; more exten- 
sive than the whole of those taken together; found in every organ of the 
body, and most developed in those which perform the most vital functions. 

3. If we concede to the cause of autumnal fever, a peculiar narcotico- 
irritating quality, its necessary effects, in such a mode of application, will be 
those which constitute the first stage of that fever — reduction of vital 
energy, obtuseness of sensibility, suspended or perverted secretion, and 
diminished calorification ; and from an equal necessity, they will be felt in all 
parts of the body, because the agent which produces them travels with the 
circulation. We may assure ourselves, that its first effects will not be 
increase, but depression of excitement, by referring to the constitutional 
influence of foreign matters, liquid or gaseous, when introduced into one of 
the serous membranes (as the peritoneum, for example), which are always 
those of depression as well as irritation. If we suppose such matters to be 
simultaneously introduced into all the serous sacks of the body, we should 
expect immediate reduction of the vital powers, and early death; though we 
can conceive of the quantity being so small, that the system would react, 
and fever and inflammation ensue. I can see no logical objection to this 
analogy. 

4. If we combine these effects, with those supposed to be produced by 
the altered state of the blood, and with the whole, those which must necessa- 
rily and immediately result to that fluid, from the reactive influence of the 



*Beclard's Anat. Gen. 



734 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book h. 

diseased solids, we have before us the pathological state which constitutes 
the first effect of the remote cause, and the first stage of the Fever; 
a state which the hypothesis (for it cannot be regarded as an established 
theory) seems adequately to explain ; and, by explaining, to commend itself 
to our consideration and confidence. Having now accomplished the object 
proposed in this chapter, let us proceed to inquire into the development of 
the Fever. 



CHAPTER IV. 

VARIETIES AND DEVELOPMENT OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 



SECTION I. 
VARIETIES. 

The first effects, or morbid impressions, produced by the remote cause of 
our autumnal fever, are so nearly the same, whatever may be the subsequent 
type, that in many, indeed, in most cases, that type cannot be seen through 
them. In their incipient stages, the different forms of this fever are not, in 
general, to be distinguished; but as they advance, a difference in type man- 
ifests itself; and as a first division we separate them into intermittents and 
remittents. 

I. Intermittents. — The intermittents of our Valley, are generally quo- 
tidian or tertian, oftener, I think, the latter than the former. Now and then 
a double tertian challenges the acumen of the physician, in distinguishing it 
by the hours of recurrence, or the violence of the alternate paroxysms, from 
a quotidian. An original quartan I have never seen ; but quotidians occa- 
sionally assume that character. Whatever may be its type, as to periodicity, 
our intermittent fever presents several varieties or modifications, founded on 
pathological causes, or conditions. 

1. It may be mild, simple, accompanied by a perfect intermission ; and if 
not combatted by art, may, still, not prove dangerous ; though it may con- 
tinue to the impairment of the constitution, which is true of both quotidians 
and tertians. 

2. It may exhibit a deep or protracted cold stage, with imperfect reaction ; 
and in the first, second, or some subsequent paroxysm, prove fatal ; and this 
also may be true of that which recurs daily, or every other day. These are 
the malignant or congestive cases; the former epithet for which, should be 
preferred, as not involving a hypothesis, or directing the attention of the 
physician upon a single pathological condition. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 735 

3. It may assume an inflammatory character, with a diminished cold, and 
a prolonged hot stage, running at length into a remitting type. 

II. Remittents. — 1. These are generally characterized, in their varieties, 
"by the same language as intermittents. Many of them are simple, and 
without much active treatment, after running a course of eight or ten days, 
terminate in health, or in simple intermittents. This is oftener the case in 
the middle than the southern latitudes. 

2. Other cases, from the beginning, or in their progress, display a deci- 
dedly phlogistic character, with signs of inflammation in some organ, and a 
tendency to a continued type. 

3. In various localities, especially to the south, a form of this fever has 
received the name of congestive or malignant. It appears to differ from the 
malignant intermittent, in the absence of a regular apyrexia; from the 
simple remittent, in the mixed up, ataxic, and threatening character of its 
symptoms ; and from the inflammatory remittent, in the signs of great pros- 
tration, and the absence of an open inflammatory aspect. Cases of this kind 
are much rarer than cases of malignant intermittent. 

4. The first two varieties of remittent fever often terminate in intermit- 
tent. That the last does not so frequently, may be ascribed to the amount 
and activity of treatment which is necessary to the recovery of the patient. 

5. Intermittents left to themselves, rarely cease till they have continued 
for a long and indefinite time. But they may be made to cease at any pe- 
riod of their duration. It is not necessary to defer the means of their arrest, 
till a number of paroxysms have returned, as some physicians have ima- 
gined. Remittents of a simple character, on the contrary, as I have already 
intimated, will cease of themselves ; and cannot so certainly be cut short in 
their early stages, as intermittents. I have not, however, seen, or been able 
to collect, evidence of critical days in this fever. Its duration, very 
commonly, is a week or more, rarely a fortnight, except when complicated 
with manifest inflammation of some organ, or when they manifest a typhous 
character. 

6. Why is it, that the cause, whose effects we are considering, produces 
fevers of a periodical type? I know not that any answer can be given to 
this question. It is the specific effect of the remote cause. It results 
from the relations between that agent and the living system on which it acts. 
When we can tell how the variolous poison produces cutaneous pustules, the 
morbillous a rash, and mercury a salivation, we may be able to tell, why 
autumnal fever is essentially periodical, and not before. 

7. Nor is it plain, why the same remote cause will occasion an intermittent 
in one, and a remittent in another; why one shall have a quotidian, 
another a double tertian, and another a tertian ; or, why several shall have 
simple, and one a malignant intermittent, when all inhabit the same locality. 
Perhaps, however, varieties of constitution and exciting causes, with unknown 
modifications of the remote cause, may be looked to, for a solution of this 
difficult problem. On the last, my late colleague, the learned Professor 



736 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

Caldwell,* has laid a degree of stress, which might arrest our attention, if 
the cause of these fevers, in any of their varieties, had been discovered; 
and, if they did not all prevail at the same time, in the same places. 

It might be presumed that the statistics of these varieties of fever would 
throw light on this subject. The table at p. 706 presents the relative pro- 
portions of intermittents and remittents at twenty- six military posts. If 
these be divided into southern, middle, and northern groups, we find that for 
the southern, the remittents make twenty-one per eent.; the middle fourteen 
per cent., and the northern twenty per cent. Thus, it does not appear, that 
temperature exerts an influence on the relative number of intermittent and 
remittent cases. But may not humidity? Let us consult the table on this 
point. Six posts around the Gulf of Mexico, give for remittents twenty per 
cent. ; and seven on the Lake shore, give thirteen per cent. ; while eight 
along, or west of the Mississippi, where the atmosphere is dryest, give only 
ten per cent. From these numbers it would appear, that humidity increases 
the proportion of remittents. But can we adopt this conclusion? I think 
not; for ordinary observation has shown that remittents are even more 
common than intermittents, on dry ridges, while in deep valleys and other 
humid localities, intermittents prevail. It must be, then, that while the 
army reports may be correct as to the aggregate, they are not to be relied 
on, for the relative number of intermitting and remitting cases. The mean 
of the twenty-six posts is about eighteen per cent, of remittent fever; but 
from several yearly reports, kindly communicated to me by Dr. Silas Ames, 
of Montgomery, on the high bluffs of Alabama Biver, in N. L. 32°, the pro- 
portion of remittent cases is about forty-three per cent, of the whole, occur- 
ring in his practice. Since these statements were prepared for the press, 
I have met with a transcript of the records of the Charity Hospital, New 
Orleans, for seven years, by Dr. Fenner,t which presents the proportion of 
remittents, at but ten per cent, of the whole ! Such discrepancies show how 
little reliance can be placed on the attempted classification of autumnal fever 
into intermittent and remittent. 



SECTION II. 

DEVELOPMENT AND PATHOLOGICAL CHARACTER. 
Having studied the modus agendi of the remote cause of autumnal fever, 
and enumerated the varieties of type under which it appears, we are pre- 
pared to inquire how they are developed. In doing this, we shall regard 
them as constituting, essentially, one pathological state ; and in studying its 
modifications, we shall become acquainted with the causes, of some of the 
modifications presented in its symptoms, and the varieties of treatment which 
they render necessary. 



* Prize Dissertation on Malaria. t N, 0. Med. and Surg. Jour., July, 1848. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 737 

I. Of the Forming or Cold Stage. — This commences with the initial 
morbid impression, which we have already considered; and, in simple or 
inflammatory cases, terminates with the access of the hot stage, to be repro- 
duced, on the next or some subsequent day. This paroxysmal character, 
not less than the symptoms which characterize this stage, shows, that the 
function of innervation is deeply involved and embarrassed. We may, in 
fact, admit, that it is the first affected. The state of the circulation, equally 
indicates that the forces which maintain it, are reduced. The heart is en- 
feebled, and the cooperative action of the vessels, however it may be exerted, 
has failed in a corresponding degree. Hence the blood no longer flows in 
normal quantities, through the more exterior or peripheral portions of the 
body, but retreats to, or rather remains in, the organs of the cranium, chest, 
abdomen, and pelvis. Under this condition of the two great functions of 
innervation and circulation, the secretions become still further impaired, 
than at the beginning. The perspiration is suspended ; and, in many cases, 
the exhalation from the lungs is reduced, because the respiration is brought 
down ; and the blood seems not to favor the extrication of what is exhaled 
in health. The urinary secretion is, also, reduced in quantity ; and the 
bowels are not in the soluble condition which indicates a due secretion of the 
liquor intestinalis. But of all the secretions, that of the liver is most af- 
fected, or at least the signs of biliary derangement are greatest. A yellow 
tinge of the urine, skin, and eyes, is often among the earliest of the morbid 
appearances. In many cases, especially the more simple, the liver pours 
out torrents of bile ; which, in part, ascend through the pylorus, raise a 
bitter taste in the mouth, and impart yellowness to the otherwise white fur 
upon the tongue. In other cases, the secretion of bile is nearly, and, in 
many of the more violent cases, entirely suspended ; or what is thrown out 
by the gland is of a vitiated quality. It was this disturbed condition of 
the hepatic function, that procured for autumnal fever the name of bilious, 
and has so often suggested its treatment. How are we to account for the 
constancy and prominence of these symptoms in this form of fever? Shall 
we say, that a plethoric state of the portal viscera is their proximate cause ? 
In many other fevers, we have an equal concentration of blood, in the inter- 
nal parts, without an equal increase or perversion of the hepatic functions; 
nevertheless, we may admit turgescence as one of the pathological causes of 
increased or even suspended secretion of bile ; according to the degree of 
engorgement and the reduction of energy and activity in the solids. But 
something must be sought beyond this. We may admit, that from the sym- 
pathy between the skin and liver,* the great heat of the preceding summer 
has raised the liver into high and deranged functional action. We may, 
also, conjecture, that the action of the remote cause, wherever it may impress 
itself first, is, from its nature, determined upon the liver ; as the virus which 
produces scarlatina or erysipelas, determines its action upon the skin, or the 

* Johnson on Tropical Diseases. 



738 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book i. 

mucous membranes of the throat. We may assume, that if the remote cause 
Tbe received into the Mood, the constitution — vis conservatrix — makes an 
effort to convey it out of the system, through the liver, as phosphorus passes 
out in the state of phosphorus acid from the lungs, when injected into a 
vein;* sulphur through the skin, and various saline substances, through the 
kidneys. In all these cases, the foreign matter excites the organ upon which 
it directs itself or is directed, into increased secretory action ; and in like 
manner the cause of the Fever, in circulating with the blood, may be concen- 
trated on the liver, and promote the secretion of bile. Finally, we may per- 
haps admit as a possibility, that this foreign material contributes to the de- 
velopment in the blood, of the elements of the bile; which it is the function 
of the liver to combine and excrete. But, casting aside every attempted ex- 
planation, we must receive, as an established fact, that, even in the first stage 
of every variety of autumnal fever, the biliary function is signally deranged- 
Another equally characteristic feature of the Fever, is the derangement of 
the calorific function. This extends not only to the actual heat of the patient, 
but to the sense which takes cognizance of temperature. The calorific 
function, in many cases, seems, in the more external parts of the body, to be 
almost annihilated. Potential stimulants will not reexciteit; and the ex- 
ternal application of heat, is actually less efficient in warming the limbs of 
the patient, than in warming an equal bulk of dead and dry matter ; because 
the exhalation that is constantly going on from the moist tissues, which seem 
t o be brought into a condition which favors the escape of vapor, cools them 
In many of these cases, the patient does not shiver, nor complain of cold, 
because the functions of his nervous system are too deeply smitten, to admit 
of their action on the muscles, or of his taking cognizance of the loss of 
caloric. In others, of less violence, the muscles are affected, and he shakes, 
complaining at the same time of the sensation of coldness. Finally, I have 
seen cases, in which these symptoms were present, while the heat of the 
surface was not below, or was even above the standard of health. Such 
anomalies show, that both the califacient function, and the sensibility to 
caloric, are in a disordered condition. It would perhaps, be in vain to in- 
quire, why this function is so preeminently affected in this fever ; especially, 
in many of its intermittent forms. The fact, like that of periodicity, would 
seem, in the present state of our knowledge, to be ultimate. We must refer 
it to the remote cause, and await its explanation in the progress of the 
science. 

Let us now turn our attention to the dangers, and the causes of death in 
this stage of the disease. 

As already intimated, the cases in which a sense of coldness, with a rigor 
or a shake, is most developed are, in general, least dangerous. The very 
existence of the feeling and the muscular contraction, shows that the vital 
properties have been less scathed, than in cases in which those phenomena 
do not appear. Reaction soon manifests itself in such cases, and a stage of 



* Nysten, Die. de Sciences Medicales. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 739 

open, perhaps, violent excitement follows, to be succeeded either by a remis- 
sion or intermission, and then to be renewed. But in more dangerous cases, a 
different series of events is encountered. 

1. The vital powers may be so reduced that the patient will die, as indi- 
viduals die under the influence of prussic acid, or some other poison of a 
like kind. His susceptibility to the various sustainers of life is annihilated, 
and he sinks. Or if, according to the laws of relation between this aerial 
poison and the living system, a reaction take place, it is feeble and partial, 
and he perishes in the access of the next paroxysm. 

2. During the time that the forces which maintain the circulation are thus 
depressed, the blood may stagnate in the brain, or accumulate in the lungs, 
the heart, or the portal circle, in such quantities as to suspend the action 
of some of these great organs, and by its apoplexy, occasion the death of 
the whole. 

3. The blood itself, under the combined influence of an absorbed poison, 
the retained elements of the excretions, defective aeration, and the reactive 
influence of the morbid solids ; may become unfit for the support of the great 
functions which depend upon it, and death be the necessary consequence. 

But these various pathological conditions, are not to be regarded as having 
a separate existence, for they are combined, and although one of them may 
predominate in one case, and some others in another, according to idiosyn- 
crasies, predispositions, and the influence of accidental causes, they may all, 
in certain cases, contribute to the same fatal termination. 

II. Of the hot Stage, or stage of excessive Excitement. — Natu- 
rally, that is according to the laws of relation between the remote cause and 
the living system, if the patient should not die, in the stage which has just 
been described, it is succeeded by that now under consideration, of which it 
is the pathological cause. The morbid action has taken a turn — the vital 
forces have risen from their depression, and excitement is reproduced ; but 
it is morbid. To what cause are we to ascribe this change ? 

1. It is a physiological law, that after depression there shall be elevation. 
From mere lapse of time, if not too strongly depressed, the organs recover 
their vigor, and begin to react. Yarious functions are restored ; but they 
are morbid, in proportion as the cause which depressed them was foreign in its 
nature from the agents which maintain life. To this tendency — this spon- 
taneous revival of irritability and sensibility — we may ascribe, in part at 
least, the revival of excitement, and the production of the hot stage. If 
the constitution be vigorous, this revival is more likely to take place — if 
previously feeble, it may be sunk below the point of spontaneous reaction. 

2. When the blood is not too much vitiated, its centripetal accumulation 
may provoke the heart into reaction. 

3 We may, perhaps, admit, with Sir Wilson Philip, that the retained 
sanguineous excretions may, sometimes, irritate the heart into reaction; but 
this would probably only happen in the milder cases, in which that fluid had 
not become deeply altered. 

4. Should the vital properties of any internal organ have suffered less 



740 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

than the rest, the hyperemia, into which it is thrown, may at an early period 
establish inflammation in it, the very commencement of which would tend to 
raise the excitement of the system. 

5. Lastly, the external and internal stimulations, to which we subject 
our patients, contribute to the same result. 

But in whatever way it is brought about, when death does not happen in 
the stage of depression, high excitement ensues, and other phenomena, 
indicating new pathological conditions, offer themselves to our notice. 

1. The blunted sensibilities of the patient become morbidly acute — pain 
occurs in parts not previously affected, or becoming sharp where before it 
was dull. 

2. The heart, in most cases, acts with unwonted force, and the blood is 
thrown toward the periphery of the body ; but circulates with a rapidity which 
brings it speedily back upon the viscera. 

3. The calorific function is not only restored, but becomes excessive, and 
the intolerance of heat is augmented. 

4. The liver acts with uncommon energy, and the secretion and excretion 
of bile are correspondingly great ; at the same time the bilious hue may become 
deeper than before, indicating either return of bile into the blood from the 
liver, or extraordinary development of its elements in that fluid. 

5. After the lapse of a few hours, in the intermittents, and of a longer 
portion of a day, in the remittent form, this excitement abates, and an inter- 
mission or remission is declared by the tranquillity of the patient, the abate- 
ment of force and frequency of his pulse, and the occurrence of more or 
less perspiration. 

6. It may happen, however, that when the stage of excitement comes on, 
some organ or organs, will remain in a state of hypersemia, and pass 
into inflammation. These are, generally, the viscera of the abdomen, chiefly 
the spleen, liver, and gastro-enteric mucous membrane. 

a. Splenitis is so common an accident in our autumnal fever, especially 
our inflammatory intermittents, as to suggest that we can nowhere look for 
the true anatomical character of that fever more successfully than in the spleen. 
Why it should be so great a sufferer cannot, perhaps, be told, except that it 
becomes greatly engorged in the forming stage of the Fever. 

b. Next to the spleen, or equally with it, the liver is liable to fall into 
inflammation upon the access of the hot stage ; but this is more especially 
the case in the remittent type. 

c. The mucous membrane of the stomach and duodenum, with that of the 
common gall duct, are liable to pass into the same condition. 

Thus, all the subdiaphragmatic viscera, except the pancreas, are subject to 
inflammation in this fever. Sometimes, however, from idiosyncrasy, or the 
cooperative action of certain causes, inflammation arises in other parts. Thus 
an inflammation of the brain or its envelops may happen ; and when the Fever 
makes its attack, late in autumn, the combined action of vicissitudes of 
temperature and that of the specific cause, developed at an earlier period, 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 741 

may determine the inflammation upon the lungs or pleura. Wherever the 
inflammation may be seated, it complicates the case, and creates a new kind 
of danger. Although it may abate with the subsidence of the hot stage, it 
does not cease. The affected organ shows signs of suffering during the 
apyrexia, which it renders imperfect. The succeeding exascerbation may be 
prolonged by it, and an intermittent may thus be converted into a remittent ; 
while the latter not unfrequently, as already said, passes nearly into a con- 
tinued type, from the same pathological cause. But the most dreaded com- 
bination of this kind, which we meet with in the Yalley, is that in which an 
inflammation of an organ is associated with such depression of the general 
forces of the system, that but a feeble reaction occurs. That this is a 
reality, both the symptoms and post-mortem appearances have shown. 
Such inflammations are never very acute. The organ is greatly engorged ; 
but the actions which constitute inflammation are feeble ; and, after death, 
appearances which indicate congestion or passive hypereemia, are more con- 
spicuous than the vestiges of true inflammation. Between these cases and mere 
congestion of the organ, there is often but a shade of anatomical difference. 
Having considered the origin and mode of invasion of the remote cause of 
autumnal fever, the nature of the morbid impression, and the consequences 
of that impression in the production of the cold and hot stages of the various 
forms, we have continued our generalization to its legitimate limits, and must 
now, by analysis, resolve what we have treated as one pathological state, into 
several ; that the peculiarities of each may be presented. In doing this, we 
shall recur to the varieties enumerated in a preceding chapter. 



CHAPTER V. 

INTERMITTENT FEVER — SIMPLE AND INFLAMMATORY. 

Much time has been devoted, by the nosologists, to the division of 
intermittents according to their periodicity. Regarding such classifications 
as of little practical value, I shall pass them by, and adopt that which seems 
best fitted to suggest the variety of treatment, which in this country they 
require. This classification, as already made, is into simple, inflammatory, 
and malignant ; which terms do not represent three different diseases, but 
grades or modifications of one, which often presents intermediate shades, 
that obscure the lines of distinction. I shall commence with the first. 



742 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ft. 

SECTION I. 

SIMPLE INTERMITTENS— HISTORY AND PATHOLOGY. 

I. History. — It is quite unnecessary to give an elementary description 
of this variety. From south to north, its symptoms, progress, required 
treatment, and sequelse, have been found substantially the same, and quite 
identical with those of all other times and countries. Persons of every age 
are liable to it ; the young rather more than the old ; and even infants at 
the breast are by no means exempt. I have not seen, but have heard of one 
congenital case. Its attacks are generally preceded by an exciting cause; 
such as irregularities in diet, or a debauch ; above all, getting wet and cold, 
or sleeping exposed to the night air. A long ride through the dews of 
night, or under the hot sun, of an early autumnal day, will alike excite it. 

II. Pathology. — I shall not dwell on the pathology of simple intermit- 
tent fever. My firm belief in the existence of a specific, remote cause, has 
been already expressed. The simplest morbid condition, which results from 
the action of that cause, is the variety of autumnal fever now under 
consideration. To its cause it bears a relation, not unlike that of small 
pox, scarlatina, or epidemic cholera, to the agent which produces that 
malady. A stage of reduced and perverted excitement, ending in a chill, 
with shivering of the muscular system, is followed by a reactionary fever, 
which ends in a perspiration, to be succeeded by a state of comparative 
health ; the whole concluded within twenty-four hours. The disease may, 
in one sense, be said to have run its course, when the first paroxysm 
terminates ; and to be, therefore, essentially an ephemera. In this respect, 
it might be compared with epilepsy, which has its forming stage (often very 
short), its convulsive stage, and its sleeping stage; immediately after which, 
the patient begins to enjoy his usual health. But, unlike the epileptic fit, the 
paroxysm or fit of fever returns, every day, or every other day, or at more 
distant intervals. In many cases, this repetition, which at the beginning was 
daily, comes to be every other day, or every seventh day, or every fifteenth ; 
each paroxysm being shorter than the last. But as each has added to the 
disturbance of the constitution, when the disposition to recurrence has 
ceased, certain consequences may remain. First, an anemic condition of 
the blood ; second, enlargement of the spleen ; third, anasarca ; fourth, 
neuralgia. During the time the paroxysms are thus recurring at stated 
periods, it may be reproduced at irregular intervals, by exposure to cold and 
moisture. When suffered to recur until it ceases spontaneously, the patient 
not unfrequently remains ever afterward free from the malady; although 
continuing exposed to the action of the remote cause. But whether treated 
or not with medicines, he may experience future attacks of neuralgia, with a 
quotidian or tertian recurrence. 

Simple intermittent fever, never proves fatal but by the lesions which the 
long-continued repetitions of its paroxysms occasions. The most important 
of these have been enumerated. Such being the case, we know nothing of 
a particular anatomical character, invariably present in its early stages. We 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 743 

know of no organ affected in advance of all the rest, and radiating a morbid 
action throughout the whole. We see a disturbance of the whole, in which 
some may suffer more deeply than others ; but with them, not before them. 
We see a deep implication of the nervous system, from the first to the last 
paroxysm, with that kind of involvement of the sanguiferous and secernent 
systems, which gives us the phenomena of fever ; but we do not see the 
symptoms of inflammation — above all, the evidences of an antecedent inflam- 
mation. Such is the disease the treatment of which we are now to consider. 



SECTION II. 

TREATMENT OF SIMPLE INTERMITTENTS. 

I. I have met with a number of physicians, who are accustomed to make 
but little effort to arrest simple intermittents, until their patients have expe- 
rienced several paroxysms. The reason assigned for this delay was, that the 
earlier in its course the disease is arrested, the greater is the danger of 
relapses. This may be true, for the longer time from the application of the 
remote cause, the less will be its impress ; but as the habit of recurrence, 
in all periodical diseases, is soon established, as much may be lost from that 
cause, as is gained from the other. Moreover, the patient in whom the malady 
is promptly arrested, soon lays aside every remedy, and begins to expose 
himself to exciting causes ; while he who has suffered long, is disposed to cling 
to the former and avoid the latter. On the whole I see no reason for delay 
in resorting to remedies. These I shall include under two heads — Prepara- 
tive and Curative. 

II. Preparative Treatment. — 1. Bloodletting. — In the beginning of 
simple intermittents, we often find much vascular fullness, and during the hot 
stage, a considerable resistance in the pulse, with great heat, thirst, jactation, 
headache, backache, and pains in the periosteum of the long bones. Such a 
concourse of symptoms, would seem to indicate a phlogistic diathesis; but in 
reality they are the expression of a febrile condition only, and in a few hours 
will entirely cease, to be renewed the next day, or the next but one. Shall 
we admit that in this condition the lancet is demanded? The answer, I 
think, should be, that whenever the constitution is vigorous, and the physi- 
cian is called to an early paroxysm, bloodletting is not only safe, but will 
both mitigate the symptoms, and prepare the systom of the patient for other 
remedies ; which, in many cases fail, or succeed but imperfectly, from the tone 
and fullness of the vascular system. The blood which is drawn is generally 
free from buff. It has been affirmed that liberal venesection will of itself 
cure the disease. This may be true, for sudden and copious depletion will 
produce great changes in the state of the functions ; under which the dispo- 
sition of the system to return to the morbid condition may be lost. A prefer- 
ence has been given by some physicians* to bloodletting in the cold rather 

*Dr. Mcintosh, of Edinburg, and many practitioners of the Interior Valley. 



744 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

than the hot stage. As far as it relates to the preparation of the system 
for subsequent measures, it perhaps makes no difference in which stage of 
the paroxysm the blood is drawn ; but as the cold stage is often cut short 
by the operation, it may be well to resort to it in that stage. It is undenia- 
ble, however, that the greater number of simple intermittents can be, and 
are arrested, in every part of the Valley, without a resort to the lancet. 

2. Emetics. — In the early settlement of the states bordering on the Ohio 
River (constituting what was then called the Western Country), when but 
few Anglo-Americans had, as yet, immigrated into the northern or southern 
portions of the Interior Valley, emetics were among the fashionable remedies 
in the treatment of simple intermittents. At that time, it was the custom of 
every physician whom I knew, to administer them. But for the last twenty- 
five years, they have been discontinued by many, and but seldom prescribed 
by others, in this form of fever. Has this disuse arisen from the discovery 
that they are injurious, or even useless? I think not; but from causes 
entirely different. After the estuaries of the rivers emptying into Lake- 
Erie were settled, malignant intermittents mingled themselves with the sim- 
ple; and, after the states of Mississippi and Alabama became peopled, a 
similar combination was encountered; and it was discovered that emetics, by 
their prostrating influence in those intermittents, often did harm ; and that, 
in the first paroxysms, the simple could not be distinguished from the ma- 
lignant. Under such circumstances, it became prudent to limit the admin- 
istration of emetics ; and as modes of practice are diffusive among the phy- 
sicians of every country, this limitation spread into regions where it was not 
demanded. But another, and, perhaps, greater cause of this restriction, was 
the theory that the disease we are considering, is an intermittent gastritis, 
in the treatment of which emetics could not fail to be injurious. To these 
causes we may, I think, ascribe the decline, but not extinction, of the emetic 
practice. 

My own experience, with that of many others, leads me to commend 
emetics in this form of fever. When the circumstances already recognized 
as suggesting venesection exist, let it be first employed — when they do not, an 
emetic may be the first remedy. A free and full evacuation of the stomach 
is followed by a decided improvement in its condition, by a tendency to sleep, 
and an abatement of the dryness of the skin, if not an actual perspiration. 
The emetic may be given during the hot stage, if the arterial system should 
not be plethoric ; or it may be administered in the intermission, or at the 
access of the chill, which it often shortens, and sometimes averts. In fact, 
when the disease has lasted for a while, a powerful vomit just before the 
shake, is one of the successful modes which the people adopt, for arresting 
the disease. It carries into the system a perturbation, in which the parox- 
ysmal tendency is lost. As a preparatory remedy, an emetic empties the 
stomach of undigested food, and the acids resulting from indigestion or 
morbid secretion. Very commonly, however, instead of acids, a liberal 
quantity of regurgitated bile is thrown up, from the beginning, or at the close 
of the operation. Great comfort, and much abatement of all manifestations 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 745 

of disease, generally follow such an operation, and the stomach is prepared 
for the favorable action of other remedies. 

3. Cathartics. — In the commencement of simple intermittent fever, the 
bowels are generally sluggish, if not torpid, and charged with feculent 
matters and bile. A cathartic is, therefore, indispensable, whether an emetic 
be first administered or not. Of this cathartic, calomel should always be an 
ingredient, as a complete emulgence of the hepatic ducts, is a desideratum. 
The old-fashioned dose of ten grains of calomel with ten of jalap, with or 
without one grain of tartarized antimony, is equal to any other formula ; but 
calomel, in a dose of ten, fifteen, or twenty grains may be given alone ; and 
after its alterant action has been exerted on the liver, its cathartic effect 
may be quickened by an infusion of senna, with or without sulphate of mag- 
nesia. The best time for the operation to take place is in the decline of the 
hot stage. If that stage should be intense or prolonged, the bowels may 
not be obedient to the impress of the medicine, when a liberal bleeding will 
bring on free and full purging. In some cases the liver is in a high state of 
functional excitement ; and there is an uncommon development of the ele- 
ments of the bile. Such a condition is indicated by yellowness of the eyes, a 
sallow complexion, and a tongue covered with a heavy yellowish fur, large quan- 
tities of bile being at the same time brought away by the operation of cathar- 
tic medicines. It is quite possible, however, to attach too much importance 
to the removal of these symptoms, and to be over anxious for a clear and 
healthy tongue before proceeding to other measures. In short, I can see no 
sufficient reason, for a continuance, through many days, of a treatment which, 
carried to any extent, will seldom arrest the disease. Indeed, I suppose it 
would be better to leave the patient to himself, than by the daily repetition 
of drastic evacuants, to reduce his strength, and irritate, if not inflame, the 
mucous membrane of his stomach and bowels ; for, if brought into such a con- 
dition, he would not be prepared, but rendered unfit, for the treatment which 
is essentially remedial. 

III. Curative Treatment. — If I should dwell on this head, it will not 
be on account of its difficulty ; but for the purpose of discussing a thera- 
peutic principle, and the modus operandi of a medicine, applicable to all the 
varieties of autumnal fever. Tested by their symptoms, obvious pathology, 
and the treatment found most successful, these fevers, I may here repeat, 
cannot be grouped with the phlegmasia, or inflammatory fevers depending on 
common causes, and curable by a rouiine, antiphlogistic method ; for many of 
them will not yield to that treatment, and others, if sometimes cured, are 
more tractable under a plan, of which that method is but a part. 

As already affirmed, autumnal fever, in all its varieties, is in fact, a pecu- 
liar disease, depending on a specific cause, modified in its nature or effects, 
by causes which are often as little known as the specific cause ; and although 
it may cease spontaneously, or be arrested by various means, which establish 
in the system a new action, at the expense of the febrile, it does not follow, 
that among the latter, there may not be some, whose action shall be so anti- 
dotal, that of right they should supplant the others, and be regarded as the 
48 



746 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

true and proper remedies. One of these is the cinchona bark, and its pre- 
parations. Before the discovery of the latter, the hark was in general use 
throughout the Valley, and seldom disappointed our expectations ; but the 
fashion of administering it has passed away, and one of the compounds 
formed from it has come into universal use. That compound I shall take, 
therefore, as the representative of the cinchona and all its preparations, in 
the present discussion. 

IV. The Sulphate of Quinine. — This medicine cannot be referred to the 
class of simple diffusive stimulants, such as capsicum or ammonia, which, in 
large doses, excite inflammation and fever; nor to that of tonics, as gentian, 
columba, and the carbonate of iron ; for although in minute and regularly 
repeated doses, it will, to a certain degree, excite and sustain the actions and 
energies of the system, these effects are by no means those which charac- 
ize it, as a therapeutic agent. It has, perhaps, better claims to be admitted 
into the order of sudorifics, for increase of perspiration, generally follows its 
administration, if the system and the regimen of the patient, be favorable to 
such an effect. With greater propriety, however, it may be grouped with the 
sedative and antispasmodic narcotics ; but not with the soporific division, 
for it does not, like opium, produce sleep. When its operation, in liberal 
doses, is noticed, it will be observed, to diminish the frequency and spas- 
modic force of the heart's contractions; expand and soften the pulse; in- 
crease the functions of the skin; and tranquilize the innervation. Its sin- 
ister effects on the brain, are vertigo ; on the organs of sense, tinnitus aurium 
and temporary hardness of hearing. The last is analogous to the effect of 
some other narcotics, as stramonium, and belladonna, on the pupil of the eye. 
In generalizing, the phenomena which follow its exhibition in considerable 
portions, we may say, that its action is directed more on the great sympa- 
thetic, and the muscular system of the apparatus of organic life, generally, 
than upon the functions of animal life ; another point of distinction between 
it and opium. Two opposite conditions of the system contrainclicate its use. 
1st. A high degree of phlogistic diathesis with arterial fullness ; 2d. Great 
depression of the vital forces. 

The effects which have been ascribed to it, characterize it as a medicine, 
which produces, in the innervation, a peculiar change ; and constitute it an 
alterant of a particular kind. Now this effect, as experience has shown, stands 
specifically opposed to the effect produced by the cause of autumnal fever ; 
and on this accidental opposition depends its efficacy, in all the varieties 
(though not all the stages and complications) of that fever. In reference to 
them, it may be said to be antiperiodical and antidotal . It is not, however, 
infallible; for its curative relations to autumnal fever, are like those of 
mercury to syphilis, or of iodine to goitre and external scrofula. If they suc- 
ceed beyond all other known remedies in those diseases, so does the sulphate 
of quinine in the diseases of which we are now treating : — if they, occa- 
sionally, require preparatory and adjuvant treatment, so does it ; if they 
sometimes fail, so does the remedy we are considering. 

I have said, that I should take the sulphate of quinine, as the represent- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 747 

ative of the cinchona bark, but it seems proper here to remark, that their 
effects are not precisely the same, though doubtless both act on the same 
principle, in arresting the paroxysms of the Fever. The bark is destitute 
of a diaphoretic property, and acts as an astringent and tonic. A greater 
reduction of the powers of the system, is, therefore, necessary for the suc- 
cessful administration of that medicine, than for the sulphate prepared from 
it; while on the other hand the bark is best adapted to cases in which 
the vital energies are seriously impaired. If to these variations we add, that 
when the stomach is irritable, the sulphate may be retained, but the bark 
thrown up, we have before us all the data necessary to a practical estimate 
of the relative value of the two medicines, in the present disease ; and omit- 
ting a further reference to the latter, I proceed to speak of the curative 
power of the former. 

1. Omission of Preparatory Treatment. — At the outset it may be 
asked, whether the sulphate of quinine will cure intermittent fever without 
the preparatory treatment which has been recommended? The answer must 
be that it will ; for in the south, it has of late, been frequently administered, 
as the first medicine, and found successful. This may seem incredible to 
those, who, adhering rigorously to old ideas, regard evacuation, revulsion, and 
time, as curative ; and the sulphate as a tonic, maintaining and carrying on 
what they had commenced; but those who see in that medicine, a power of 
establishing in the system a peculiar action, incompatible with the febrile, 
will have little difficulty in believing the report that it has often succeeded, 
without preparative treatment. Regarding the morbid state of the secre- 
tions, as the effect and not the cause of the disease, they will consistently 
suppose, that the best corrective for that state must be the agent which can 
supersede the febrile action by one of its own. Nevertheless, I believe the 
preliminary treatment, which has been pointed out, generally advisable, and 
in many cases indispensable. This remark, however, applies chiefly to the 
early stages of the disease; for in relapses, no treatment preparatory to the 
administration of the sulphate, is in general required. 

2. Times of Administration. — In traversing the Valley, I have met with 
respectable physicians who prefer to administer the sulphate in the decline 
of the paroxysm; others who choose the whole period of apyrexia; others 
who give it shortly before the access of the cold stage ; others who exhibit 
it indiscriminately through the paroxysm and the intermission; and all 
referred to experience as the test of their preference. It seems to result 
from this diversity, that it signifies but little, when the medicine is given, 
provided the system be brought and kept under its impress. That a liberal 
dose on the decline of the paroxysm, may promote the sweating which then 
comes on spontaneously, there is no doubt ; but it must be borne in mind, 
that the effects of such a dose upon the constitution may pass away, before 
the hour for the next paroxysm. The object in view, is to secure the im- 
pression of the medicine on the general system, at the time when the cold stage 
would form. To this end, it would seem important to make a liberal exhi- 
bition immediately before that event; and many who pursue this practice 



748 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

regard all that is previously administered, as useless ; others, however, ap- 
prehend bad effects in the approaching paroxysm, from this administration. 
Relying on my own experience and that of many others, I would say, that 
whatever previous administration may have been made, the important period 
of exhibition is a short time before the access of the paroxysm — for then 
is the struggle, to speak figuratively, between the medicine and the disease. 
The peculiar effects of this agent are temporary, and not like those of digi- 
talis, on the heart, or of calomel on the mouth, cumulative. Nevertheless, 
evidence is not wanting to show, that the disease may be arrested, without 
a special exhibition at that time ; nor is their a want of proof that it is safe 
to give the medicine in the hot stage; especially if bloodletting and purging 
have preceded its employment. 

3. Doses. — As to the doses in which the medicine should be given, I have 
also found much diversity of opinion and practice. On the whole the people, 
and a majority of our physicians, administer one or two grain doses, at 
short intervals, and the practice is undoubtedly, on the main, successful. In 
protracted cases this mode of exhibition may be the best ; but in the early 
stages, and when the object is (as it should be) promptly to arrest the 
disease, occasional large doses are, I think, to be preferred. In a quotidian, 
for example, five or ten grains on the decline of the Fever ; a similar dose six 
or eight hours afterward, and a third before the access, seem to me the best ; 
and the practice is sustained by the experience of many of our most eminent 
physicians. 

4. Required amount. — Much has been said on the quantity necessary to 
arrest a simple intermittent. That it is often given in much larger portions 
than have just been named, is quite certain. But I have met with many 
physicians who regard such an exhibition as prodigal, and declare that the 
characteristic effect is produced, if at all, by a much . smaller amount. 
There is a reality in this, as it respects simple intermittents ; and where there 
is no reason to fear a lurking malignity, it will be safe to rest upon a more 
limited administration. 

5. Adjuvants. — In regard to the adjuvants, to which recourse maybe 
advantageously had, I may say, that if the symptoms should indicate a con- 
siderable degree of biliary derangement, calomel may be advantageously 
combined with the sulphate, and that, when it is given, while the excitement 
of the system is yet considerable, or when administered during the hot stage, 
the nitrate of potash may be beneficially united with it, in the proportion 
of four grains to one; or, instead of that refrigerant salt, one grain of 
ipecac may be used. But the most important adjuvant is opium, on the use 
of which I must dwell for a moment. Of the value of this medicine, when 
administered before the access of the paroxysm, the profession has long had 
a just appreciation, though many of our physicians employ it so sparingly as 
to obtain but imperfect results. "With my preceptor, Dr. William G-oforth, 
long among the most popular physicians of the infant settlements of Ken- 
tucky and Ohio, it was a favorite prescription ; and in his practice, as well 
as my own subsequently, I often saw its liberal administration in a solid 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 749 

form, an hour or two before the expected paroxysm, so as to "bring the patient 
into a state of narcotism before the signs of chilliness began to show them- 
selves, productive of the best effects. 

The analogies between opium, and Specially between the sulphate of morphia 
and the sulphate of quinine, would lead us to expect such a result. At the 
present time, the practitioners of this country very generally unite opium with 
the quinine, which they administer before the paroxyms, but in very different 
quantities. Of those who are in the habit of giving large doses, I may mention 
Doctors Henry and Merriman, of Springfield, Illinois, who give from three to 
six grains of solid opium, with about the same quantity of sulphate of quinine, 
just before the chill, and find, as they assured me, a more certain arrest of the 
paroxysm than when they omit the opium and double or treble the dose of 
quinine. If an apoplectic tendency should be suspected, this practice, of 
course, would be improper ; while in the case of an intemperate man it would 
be almost indispensable. 

6. Continuance of the Treatment. — As to the length of time the medicine 
should be continued, it is impossible to speak definitely, without being dog- 
matical. And here I must state, that many persons, including some physi- 
cians, cherish a quasi prejudice against this medicine, on the ground that, 
although it will promptly arrest the paroxysms of an intermittent, they are 
apt to return. In short, that relapses are frequent under its use. My 
inquiries lead me to adopt this opinion. As already said, the anti-periodic 
influence of the quinine is temporary, and when it has passed away, the 
system remaining enervated, slight causes will occasion a relapse. This is 
no objection, however, to the admitted benefits of the medicine, in breaking 
up the morbid catenation ; with which effects, in many instances, the exhi- 
bition of the medicine ceases. If its administration were continued longer, 
many relapses would be prevented. The indication, however, is not precisely 
the same after as before the arrest of the paroxysms. Before they are 
arrested, the object is to establish in the system that peculiar action which 
is incompatible with their reproduction ; but after they are interrupted, the 
object is not only to keep up the same action, but to .restore the strength, 
and reestablish the functions ; to which ends the bark, from its tonic and 
astringent properties, not less than its anti-periodic elements, is much better 
adapted. The right practice then is, after having broken in upon the parox- 
ysms with the sulphate, to resort to the bark, and continue its use until the 
atmosphere of early autumn has passed away, and, in cases showing great 
tendency to relapse, throughout the succeeding winter. In general, a drachm 
of the powder taken before each meal will be sufficient. 

Dismissing the bark and its preparations as remedies in simple intermit- 
tent fever, we must now turn our attention to others, on which so much need 
not be said. 

V. Vegetable Bitters. — Many of our native bitters have been more 
or less extensively used to arrest the paroxysms of intermittent fever. The 
favorites are, or have been, the bark of the Cornus Florida, or dogwood ; 
Liriodendron tulipifera, or yellow poplar ; Prunus Virginiana, or wild cherry 



750 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

tree, and the herbs Eupatorium perfoliatum, or thoroughwort, and Sabbatia 
angularis (formerly Chironia ang.'), or American centaury. As it was an 
old professional opinion that the superior efficacy of the cinchona hark, over 
other bitters, arose from the union of an astringent principle, it has been 
customary to combine, with the bark of the trees just mentioned, a quantity 
of oak or some other astringent bark, and to render the whole stimulating 
with wine or whisky ; frequently, indeed, to administer them in the form of 
tincture. 

I cannot doubt that these bitters have often arrested the paroxysms of 
intermittent fever, but it has generally been after the diseases had continued 
for some time, and were kept up partly by debility, and partly by the habit 
of recurrence. Hence the proper time for using them is the period of resto- 
ration, after the paroxysms have been interrupted by other means. Of the 
whole, the dogwood has had most reputation ; and, after the alleged discovery 
of a peculiar alkaloid principle in it (cornine), supposed to be analogous to qui- 
nine, considerable expectation was excited in its favor. I have not myself used 
it, nor have I been able to collect any experience worth detailing. The 
testimony in favor of the eupatorium is, I think, fuller than that bearing on 
the dogwood. A number of physicians have assured me, that they had found 
it a successful anti-periodic ; but no one has spoken so unequivocally as Dr. 
Herbert, of G-allipolis, Ohio. His method is to make a saturated tincture, 
with alcohol, of the leaves and flowers of the plant, and administer it, at 
short intervals, in drachm doses. If the accounts which I have received are 
to be relied upon, it seems probable that this herb contains a peculiar princi- 
ple, resembling quinine in its effects upon the body. And here I cannot 
refrain from observing, that in a country of such vast extent as ours, many 
parts of which, from their topographical structure, must forever remain sub- 
ject to intermittent fever, it should be regarded as a duty of patriotism and 
humanity to test, by exhibition and analysis, such of our indigenous plants as in 
their sensible qualities bear any resemblance to the cinchona. He who should 
discover, in our country, a substitute for the bark, out of which the sulphate 
of quinine is manufactured, would be honored as a benefactor. 

VI. Arsenious Acid. — The extent to which this medicine was employed 
in the intermittent fever of the interior, was greater before than since the 
introduction of the sulphate of quinine. Its minute dose commended it to 
those who disrelished bulky portions of cinchona bark. Since the use of 
the sulphate became general, it is sometimes combined with that medicine, 
and there seems to be no objection, chemical or therapeutic, to the union. 
The arsenious acid has not commonly been administered in the first stages of 
our intermittents ; and, it has seemed to me, perhaps, without sufficient 
reason, as better adapted to cases a little prolonged. It is quite certain that 
it has the power of arresting the paroxysms, though not so promptly as the 
sulphate of quinine. As its effects, however, are more lasting, it is, 
perhaps, not so often followed by relapses. Many of our physicians admin- 
ister the solution of arsenite of potash (Fowler's solution); but I have 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA- 751 

generally given it in substance. Tee following formula is that which I have 
Tbeen accustomed to employ : 

K- Arsenious acid, grs. j. 

Finely powdered opium, - - - grs. iv. 

Mix intimately, and divide into sixteen pills. 

Three or four of these pills, in the course of twenty-four hours, are as 
much as can be long borne, If the disease should not yield, by the time the 
stomach becomes irritable, with some degree of epigastric tenderness, or the 
face exhibits an incipient oedema, it is not advisable to continue the medicine 
any longer. Sixteen grains of sulphate of quinine, added to this formula, 
will make it as effective in obstinate agues, as any other remedy with which I 
am acquainted. 



SECTION III. 

INFLAMMATORY INTERMITTENTS. 

I. Diagnosis and Pathology. — Every autumn, in all parts of the 
"Valley, though least in the southern, we see inflammatory mixed up with 
simple intermittents, but they are far less in number. In this respect, how- 
ever, different years vary from each other. Thus, in some seasons, there 
will be very few — in others a large number. There is in such years a 
phlogistic, atmospheric constitution, giving to almost every form of disease 
an inflammatory character. The modification of intermittent fever we are 
now studying, presents us with tension of the pulse, a prolonged hot stage, 
and an imperfect intermission. But the best diagnostic symptoms, are those 
which indicate an inflammation of some organ, generally one of the following : 

1. The Spleen. — The morbid effects of every variety of intermittent 
fever on the spleen, are well known to all physicians. In every one of the 
ten winters that I was connected with the University of Louisville, and 
delivered clinical instruction in the hospital of that city, I met with lesions of 
the capsule of the spleen, produced by inflammation. They were generally 
spots or bands of false membrane. Most of the subjects in which they 
were found had been boatmen; a class who are exceedingly liable to inter- 
mittent fever. From these and other facts, I am convinced that splenitis is 
frequently present in that disease. It is not, however, the cause, but a con- 
tingent of the fever ; for the symptoms of splenitis are not present at the 
commencement of any case, as far as I have seen ; and numerous cases run 
through a long course without their occurrence. 

The signs of splenitis are tenderness and pain, on pressure over the epi- 
gastric and left hypochondriac regions; especially when the fingers are 
pushed upward behind the cartilages of the ribs ; a slight cough, without 
expectoration, resulting apparently from an extension of the inflammation to 
the diaphragm ; and when the organ is swollen, a dull sound, under percus- 
sion, over the false ribs. When this dullness exists, the case may be distin- 



752 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

guisbed from pneumonia by auscultation, which reveals the normal respiratory 
murmur, instead of the crepitus, which characterizes that form of pulmon- 
ary disease. When splenitis is present, moreover, the intermissions of the Fever 
are imperfect, although the chills and even a shake may continue to 
recur. A still further diagnostic sign is to he found in the failure of the 
sulphate of quinine to arrest the paroxysms of the Fever. It is not my 
intention to go further into the history of this inflammation at this time, as 
the disorders of the spleen, produced by autumnal fever, must be made 
the subject of a separate article. 

2. The Stomach. ■ — The mucous membrane of the stomach is occasionally 
the seat of inflammation in these intermittents. But we must not regard 
every instance of irritable stomach as the result of gastritis ; for nausea 
and vomiting may occur independently of inflammation. This is proved by 
their yielding, in some cases, to an emetic, and in others to a liberal admin- 
istration of opium and the sulphate of quinine, or even to the bark in sub- 
stance. I was assured by Dr. Picket, formerly of Indiana, but now of Mis- 
sissippi, that he had often seen his preceptor, the late enterprising and lamented 
Dr. Perrine, who once practiced in the former state, compel his patients, who 
had irritable stomachs, to hold their hands on their mouths and swallow, a 
second time, the large doses of bark which, before the introduction of the sul- 
phate of quinine, he was accustomed to administer. Nevertheless, that gastritis 
is sometimes associated with intermittent fever, may be regarded as unquestion- 
able; though the discriminating diagnosis between it and mere morbid sen- 
sibility of the organ, may be difficult. Fullness, and great tenderness under 
pressure and percussion, with nausea and embarrassment in the descent of 
the diaphragm, would undoubtedly require us to regard the Fever as compli- 
cated with gastritis, especially if these symptoms subsisted through an 
imperfect apyrexia. That this inflammation may often extend to the 
duodenum, giving a real gastro- enteritis is, at least, extremely probable. 

3. The Liver. — Although less frequently the seat of inflammation than 
the spleen, the liver is perhaps as often, or more frequently, inflamed, than 
the stomach. The hypochondriac tenderness, hacking cough, irritable stom- 
ach, and sallow or jaundiced eyes, skin, and urine, will sufficiently disclose the 
existence of hepatitis. 

These appear to be the legitimate or characteristic inflammations accom- 
panying this variety of intermittent fever ; but there are others, of a con- 
tingent or accidental kind, which must not be overlooked. 

4. The Lungs. — A sudden change of weather may develop pulmonary 
inflammation in connection with intermittent fever. This will be indicated 
by cough, dyspnoea, pain, and the ordinary auscultic signs. 

5. The Brain. — If this organ be large, and the chest and neck of the 
patient short ; or if he has had his mind or passions strongly excited before 
the onset of the Fever ; or should he be subjected to mental perturbations, after 
it has begun, some form of cerebritis may be set up. But we must not 
regard every case of headache, sense of fullness, and delirium, as evidence of 
inflammation, for such symptoms are not uncommon, during the paroxysm of 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 753 

the simplest intermittent. The acuteness of the symptoms, their increase 
under succussion and depression of the head to the level of the body, and 
their subsistence, though in a diminished degree, through the period of in- 
termission, •will in general justify the conclusion that inflammation exists. 
If with these symptoms we have variableness in the pulse, a certain degree 
of altered expression, with redness of the eyes, and the patient, without 
being prone to disturbance of mind, under ordinary attacks of fever, is acutely 
delirious, the existence of inflammation would no longer be a matter of doubt. 

The reactive effect of a supervening inflammation, on the Fever, is to 
increase its acuteness, prevent a full apyrexia, and transform it into a remit- 
tent; which may be distinguished from an original attack of that kind, by 
the history of its commencement, and by the existing signs of an actual 
inflammation, in some organ. If the inflammation should run high, and, 
especially, if it should have been induced by an external cause, acting on 
the lungs or brain, the Fever may assume a continued type ; and pass for an 
original phlegmasia. The inflammation which attacks the spleen, stomach, or 
liver, above all, the spleen, appears to depend on the same remote cause with 
the Fever; and does not change the type from intermittent to remittent, to 
the same extent with the cerebral or pulmonary inflammation. 

II. Treatment. — If in pursuing a routine practice, the sulphate of qui- 
nine be indiscriminately administered, when there is a prevalent atmospheric 
constitution of an inflammatory character, many cases will be aggravated by 
it, and in others it will fail. Venesection should always precede its exhibi- 
tion in such cases; when, the febrile excitement being reduced, the medicine 
will produce its characteristic anti-periodic effects. 

If, however, one of the organs which have been mentioned, or any other, 
should be inflamed, a more extended anti-phlogistic treatment will be required 
to prepare the system for the use of quinine. 

Of these inflammations, splenitis yields most readily ; a copious bleeding, 
followed in some cases with cupping, or a blister, with the cathartics em- 
ployed in simple intermittents, will in most cases prepare the system of the 
patient for a successful administration of the sulphate. 

An associated gastritis gives greater difficulty, and must be more com- 
pletely removed than splenitis, before the quinine is administered. The 
lancet is, of course, indispensable ; and subsequent leeching or cupping on the 
epigastrium, will be followed by more obvious benefits than in splenitis. 
Subsequently a blister to the same region will be of great service. In this 
inflammation calomel is demanded ; and will be found more efficacious in 
large occasional, than in small and repeated doses. The following formula 
will be found convenient — 

R Calomel, ) 

Powdered Grum Arabic, > a a gr. x, mix. 
White Sugar. ) 

To be administered every four hours. The bowels should be opened with 
injections : and all drastic cathartics avoided, together with tartarized anti- 
mony and other emetic medicines. As soon as the inflammation and fever 



754 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

begin to abate, one grain of powdered opium may be added to the calomel ; 
after which, the quinine may be administered, as in simple intermittents. 

When the Fever is complicated with hepatitis, general and topical bleed- 
ing will be proper ; but their effects, on the whole, will be less satisfactory, 
than in splenitis, gastritis, or gastro- enteritis. Antimonials, unless there 
should be a high degree of sympathetic irritability of the stomach, are not 
objectionable; and free purging will prove useful. The regular adminis- 
tration of calomel should, however, be the main reliance. Five grain doses 
may be given every two or four hours, according to the intensity of the 
symptoms ; and continued till they abate, or a salivation is induced. When 
the inflammation has begun to yield, quinine may be mingled with the calo- 
mel, and will soon arrest the paroxysms. The hepatitis, however, may 
remain in a subacute form, or the liver may fall into a torpid condition and 
give a tardy convalescence. When this happens, one of the following pills, 
taken every six hours, will generally complete the cure — 

K. Extract of Taraxacum, - - - - - 3ij. 
Mercurial Blue Mass, ----- 3ss. 
Sulphate of Quinine, ------ 3ss. 

Mix and make into thirty pills. 

The nitro-muriatic bath to the feet and right hypoeondrium, will, also, be 
found serviceable in such cases. 

Should the inflammation be determined upon the lungs, the lancet will be 
indispensable ; to which, if pleuritic pain exist, topical bloodletting, and a 
subsequent blister, may be added. Drastic cathartics will be of little value ; 
but emetic medicines, even to full vomiting, will be proper. Tartarized anti- 
mony in large doses may be given, or the squill, in liberal quantities, substi- 
tuted for it. As the inflammation recedes, the sulphate of quinine may be 
combined with either of the latter medicines, or with any other sedative ex- 
pectorant. 

It is proper, here, to add a word of caution in regard to affections of the 
lungs in connection with intermittent fever. It is well known, that indi- 
viduals who have experienced attacks of the Fever in autumn, are liable, 
through the following winter, to relapse; and the change of weather, or 
exposure, which reproduces the intermittent, may generate an inflammation 
of the lungs. But in the south, or in very unhealthy places, that which 
seems to be an inflammation is often a mere congestion or sanguineous engorge- 
ment, returning with the febrile paroxysm. In this pathological condition, 
which may be recognized by the absence of tension in the pulse, and by the in- 
termittent tendency of the pulmonary symptoms, the powers of the system 
fail under copious bloodletting ; but full vomiting, with the subsequent use 
of the following compound, may be of great service — 

R. Tartarized Antimony, - - - grs. viii. 

Opium, grs. iv. 

Sulphate of Quinine, - - - grs. xx. 
Mix and divide into eight pills. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 755 

One to be given every two or four hours. In addition, a large blister to 
the thorax may be applied with advantage. 

If the inflammation be seated within the cranium, a freer use of the lancet 
should be made, than if seated below the diaphragm. The appearance of the 
blood will assist in the diagnosis of the case, and aid in a decision as to the 
repetition of the bleeding. The usual means of subduing cerebritis, such as 
cupping, elevation of the head, and cold or subtepid effusions, must of course 
be employed. Of medicines, nothing is equal to copious purging with calo- 
mel and jalap ; or with calomel and injections, if the stomach should be too 
irritable to retain the former. The diversion thus created from the brain, 
in connection with the evacuation of the contents of the lower bowels, will be 
attended with the best effects. Counter irritation with blisters, should the 
inflammation not speedily yield, will be proper. When an abatement suffi- 
cient to justify it has been effected, the sulphate of quinine must be ad- 
ministered ; but opium, except in minute quantities, or under unmistakable 
signs of constitutional irritability, should not be administered. In the com- 
plication we are now studying, the disease is, as it were, transformed from 
an intermittent into a continued inflammatory fever; and when the local 
affection is removed, there may not be a return of the paroxysms — if, how- 
ever, they should return, the sulphate of quinine must be administered, as 
for a simple intermittent. 

III. Recapitulation. — I have said all that seems necessary on the 
history and treatment of our simple and inflammatory intermittents, in their 
early stages ; but they often assume a chronic form, and occasion more per- 
plexity to the physician than in their earlier periods. Hence our study of 
them is not finished; but, as malignant intermittents and remittents of every 
kind occasionally terminate in protracted and relapsing intermittents, I pro- 
pose to include the whole under one head, after we have studied all the 
varieties in their early stages. 

But before entering on the next variety, that I may be understood as to 
certain pathological and therapeutic principles which will be carried through 
the whole, it seems advisable, that I should here present them in the form of 
a recapitulation of the two sections through which we have just passed. 

1. The remote cause of intermittent fever makes its impression pri- 
marily upon the nervous system, producing constitutional depression and 
irritation, followed by febrile reaction. 

2. The reaction lasts less than a day, and is succeeded by a period of 
comparative health ; but from the peculiar relation between the remote cause 
and the living system, the depression and irritation recur, and are again fol- 
lowed by reaction. 

3. There is no primary inflammation, nor is inflammation a necessary 
condition of the existence of the Fever; yet it often arises with or supervenes 
on the Fever ; the spleen being the organ oftenest affected, and frequently 
suffering from congestion, and perhaps, also, from modes of morbid action not 
yet understood. 

4. In certain seasons, and in the cooler climates, intermittent fever mani- 



756 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book n. 

fests a higher tone of phlogistic diathesis than in others, although no organ 
may be inflamed. 

5. Intermittent fever is a disease of a specific character, as much as scar- 
latina, hydrophobia, or scrofula. 

6. The bark, and the salts formed out of its alkaloids, are the true 
remedy — the antidote — the specific. But they are not infallible; and, in 
many cases, may be aided by certain adjuvants, of which the most important 
is opium. 

7. The object of all the other treatment is to prepare and keep the system 
in a proper condition for the action of the specific. 

8. There are other medicines which may be regarded as imperfect spe- 
cifics, of which the most important are arsenious acid, opium, piperine, and 
the active principle of the eupatorium perfoliatum. 

9. When the bark or its preparations fail, the failure is generally referable 
to one of two causes — the continued action of the agent which produced the 
Fever, or an obscure inflammation of some organ. 



CHAPTER VI. 

MALIGNANT INTERMITTENT FEVER. 



SECTION I. 
GENERAL HISTORY. 

I shall comprehend, under the term malignant intermittents, all the cases 
known to the Valley, which are not referable to the two preceding heads. 
The members of this group, in their symptoms, differ much more widely 
from each other than those of the preceding groups. They are all, however, 
marked with a common character of anomaly or irregularity. The harmony 
of symptoms, both cotemporary and consecutive, observable in the other 
groups, is here wanting ; or if displayed at the beginning of a case, is lost 
in its progress. They are still further characterized, in their obvious aspects, 
by a predominance of the cold stage over the hot ; and by a downward man- 
ifestation of the vital forces and functions, not to be mistaken by the most 
careless observer. They agree, moreover, in occurring chiefly in the epidemic 
period of the year, and in the localities most subject to autumnal fever — 
those which are branded as most insalubrious ; finally, they concur in a 
strong tendency to an early and fatal termination, when not arrested by art. 

In different parts of the Valley, they are known, by the profession, under 
the general appellation of congestive or malignant; and, in their sub- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 757 

varieties, by the terms irregular, misplaced, soporose, or algid, according to 
the prevalence, in particular cases, of this or that anomaly. 

I need scarcely say that this variety of intermittents never constitutes an 
entire epidemic. It is mixed up with the other varieties; and, in most 
localities, the proportion which these cases really bear to the others, is much 
smaller than is generally supposed, at least by the people. Two or three 
circumstances have contributed to swell the catalogue of cases beyond the 
truth. First. When a case of this kind proves fatal, the neighborhood in 
which it happens is thrown into a state of alarm, and every attack of intermit- 
tent which occurs, is liable to be pronounced of the same kind — thus, by a 
stroke of the tongue, simple intermittents are transmuted into malignants. 
Second. There are empirics who are willing to profit by this delusion of the 
people, or even to excite it, and therefore apply the dreaded epithet, con- 
gestive, to ordinary cases, for the purpose of magnifying their skill in 
saving life. Third. Physicians, the most skillful and conscientious, are often 
at a loss to say whether there may not be a lurking malignity in certain 
cases ; and, therefore, prudently speak of them, and prescribe for them, as if 
they were really dangerous ; when, in fact, if let alone, they might take the 
course of common intermittents. 

The regions of the Valley most infested with the fevers of this order, as 
Far as I am now prepared to state, are, First. The level portions of Ala- 
bama, Mississippi, and Louisiana, including the zone of estuaries around the 
Gulf. Second. The southern shore of Lake Michigan, from Chicago round 
to the St. Joseph River, and of Lake St. Clair and Lake Erie, from Lake 
Huron to Lake Ontario, near the estuaries of the creeks and rivers. The 
intervening region and the country off to the west of Lake Michigan, are, 
however, not exempt ; but the proportion of cases, with the exception of a 
few limited localities, is much less. 

In the early settlement of the states on the Ohio River, examples of this 
fever now and then occurred, and such is still the case ; but neither in early 
nor later times were they numerous, except along the lower third part of that 
river; where they seem to have existed in considerable numbers from the 
beginning of settlement. Relying on the answers to my questions, concern- 
ing the increase or decrease of this fever in the regions where it prevails 
most, I may say that, in latter years, it has been increasing, and that this 
increase appears to date from the visitation of the Epidemic Cholera, in 
1832-4. Still, from the short time that most of the physicians of the south 
remain in practice, it is difficult to gather up correct data on this subject. 
That the cholera-atmosphere may have had this effect must be admitted. 
It was very perceptible in the vicinity of Cincinnati, for two or three years 
after that visitation ; and the history of epidemics, in all countries and 
ages of the world, coincides with this alleged effect. 

No class of persons is exempt from this form of intermittent fever ; but 
both sexes and all ages are liable ; and, as far as I know, equally so, under 
equal exposure to exciting causes. 



758 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

After these general introductory remarks, we must proceed to take a 
closer view of this difficult subject, beginning with its symptoms. 



SECTION II. 
SYMPTOMATOLOGY. 

There is not perhaps in the whole range of symptomatology, a more diffi- 
cult task than that of making a graphical presentation of the symptoms, 
which accompany and characterize our malignant intermittent fevers. This 
results from several causes : First. Their number ; all the functions being 
morbid. Second. Their simultaneous occurrence; as if the whole of the 
organism had been affected by the direct action of the remote cause at the 
same time. Third. The suddenness of their occurrence on the access of 
the paroxysm ; presenting, in a single hour, a transition from a state appa- 
rently bordering on health, to one of impending dissolution. Fourth. The 
deep involvement of one great organ in one case — of a different one in 
another, and a consequent modification of the symptoms. Compared in the 
diversity of their phenomena with the most malignant cases of scarlatina, 
typhus gravior, or epidemic cholera, they are decidedly more difficult to por- 
tray in a methodical and faithful manner than either. Moreover, their ma- 
lignity sometimes shows itself by the slightest possible anomaly. Thus a 
partial numbness, or a coldness of the great toes, instead of a regular chill, 
or a disposition to sleep at the access of the paroxysm, may be all that sug- 
gests anything more than the most harmless intermittent. Hence they 
stand connected, on the one hand, with a simple ague ; while, on the other, 
they graduate into the malignant remittent type, in such a manner that a 
separate description would scarcely be worth the trouble, were it not that a 
series of morbid states, however intimately catenated, must be studied in its 
links, before it can be comprehended in its entireness. 

By far the greater number of cases begin as regular intermittents, with a 
cold fit too slight to excite more than a moderate shivering ; such, for ex- 
ample, as ushers in a simple remittent. The cold stage, is not followed, how- 
ever, by the well developed and prolonged hot stage of that variety of 
fever; but by one so inconsiderable, that the patient in many cases is soon 
upon his feet, and often resumes his business till the next day, or the day 
after that. If nothing should have been done, the second paroxysm will be 
more severe ; his coldness will be greater and more prolonged, yet not pro- 
ductive of a shake; he may have a considerable degree of drowsiness, or 
dyspnoea, with a sense of thoracic oppression; his stomach may become irri- 
table, with a sense of epigastric sinking ; or some, topical sweating may show 
itself. To these symptoms, but more slowly than the day before, will succeed 
a reaction of moderate force, and when it ceases, the patient, if not alarmed, 
will be again out of bed, and, perhaps, occupied. The third, and even the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 759 

fourth paroxysm may thus pass away; each, however, presenting an increase 
of intensity in the symptoms, and a full development of them be reserved 
for the fifth. But this is rare ; and, in the majority of cases, the third fit, 
not only discloses the danger of the patient, but often proves fatal ; or he 
struggles through it, to die in the next. The disease, however, does not 
always advance in this gradual manner. Almost every physician, where it 
prevails extensively, has met with examples of fatal termination in the 
second, and, sometimes, in the first paroxysm. Still further, cases of the 
most simple kind, which, through several recurrences, have shown no sign of 
malignancy, have, under the unadvised operation of an antimonial emetic, 
or an active saline cathartic, proved fatal in the next paroxysm. When 
the dangerous or fatal paroxysm comes on, the functions of the whole body 
seem blighted. 

1. That of innervation is blunted and inactive. But little (and no acute) 
pain is felt in any part of the body ; external applications are not much re- 
garded, and even the cuticle, as I have seen, maybe torn off, by rough frictions, 
without attracting the attention of the patient, although neither asleep nor 
delirious. The organs of special sensation are equally impaired. The in- 
tellectual functions, and the feelings, and affections of the mind, are passive ; 
and the expression of the countenance, is vacant, or stupid. In some 
cases, a considerable degree of delirium supervenes ; but in others, the fac- 
ulties of the mind, almost up to the moment of dissolution, show nothing 
more than inactivity. Should there be some degree of delirium, the dispo- 
sition to action will of course be greater. In many cases, however, the patient 
sinks into a coma, from which it is difficult to arouse him, and into which he 
immediately relapses, and continues until the paroxysm passes off, or he 
expires. These of course are the soporose, or apoplectic intermittents of 
systematic writers. 

2. The function of circulation is not less impaired than that of inner- 
vation. In comatose cases, the pulse is sometimes slow, full, and irregular; 
but in the majority of cases, it falls rapidly into a state of great feebleness, 
becomes extremely frequent, shrinks in volume, and, finally assumes a thready 
and vermicular character. Before dissolution, it often ceases altogether in 
the extremities ; and has been known to be absent for a considerable length 
of time, in some cases, which have afterward terminated favorably. 

3. The function of respiration is impaired. The frequency and depth of 
inspirations is reduced ; a sense of fullness in the chest is experienced ; and 
sighing, with the restlessness attendant on embarrassed respiration, and an 
insufficient supply of air, supervene. 

4. The digestive functions suffer not less, than those which have been 
named. The state of the tongue is various. Sometimes contracted and pris- 
matic; but more commonly of its natural breadth and form; generally 
moist; frequently furred; occasional red at the tip, but oftener, pale, and 
flabby. The appetite of the patient occasionally continues, in the inter- 
missions, up to the fatal paroxysm ; but oftener gives place to nausea and 
gastric irritability ; which, on the access of the fit, may terminate in obsti- 



760 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [bookii. 

nate vomiting; when he sometimes throws up healthy bile, and now and then 
a fluid of a blue or greenish blue color. In other cases the fluid ejected is 
acid. The number of cases in which a dark-colored liquid resembling the 
black vomit of yellow fever has been discharged, is so few compared with 
the whole, as scarcely to deserve a recognition ; yet in Peoria, Illinois, I 
saw a patient of Doctor Rouse, who ejected a black liquid from his stomach 
a few hours before death. The bowels are sometimes torpid and costive ; 
but in many cases there is a watery diarrhoea. Now and then, the matters 
thrown off have resembled the washings of beef; or water colored with in- 
digo. Discharges of blood are exceedingly rare. Of the condition of the 
liver and spleen, otherwise than is indicated of the former, by what has just 
been said of its secretion, nothing special can be recorded. Many patients, 
however, complain of a sense of fullness and anxiety, through the hypochon- 
driac and epigastric regions, and some, especially of the left side, apparently 
indicating great engorgement of the spleen ; which is doubtless the case, for 
that organ has sometimes been found in a state of manifest enlargement, 
immediately after the recovery of the patient. 

5. The urinary secretion presents considerable variety. Some physicians 
have occasionally seen a great secretion of limpid urine, but in the larger 
number of cases, it is reduced in quantity, and sometimes the secretion nearly 
suspended. 

6. The function of perspiration is, on the other hand, in most instances, 
greatly augmented — sometimes partial in its extent, more commonly gen- 
eral. The fluid discharged is watery, and may, almost, be seen exuding 
from the skin, which feels cold, inelastic, and doughy; sometimes it is blood- 
less and pale, sometimes the extremities will assume a dark red, and the 
spots on which pressure is made will remain white for a time, indicating cap- 
illary stagnation. 

7. Lastly, the greatest reduction of energy is, perhaps, in the calorific 
function. The heat of the extremities, and occasionally of the integuments 
of the trunk and head, is signally reduced. It seems as if none were de- 
veloped in the system, and as great exhalation is constantly going on, from 
the surface, external applications, both potential and actual, designed to raise 
the temperature of the extremities, very often produce no effect. In the 
midst of this reduction, the patient will neither shiver nor complain of cold, 
but on the contrary, if not deeply comatose, may declare that he is burning up 
within, and call incessantly for water. Every case, however, is not attended 
with this remarkable loss of heat. Those which manifest it most, must be 
classed with the algid intermittents of the systematic writers. 

A patient in the condition here described, must of course emerge from it 
in a short time, or die. He who might have the greater part of the symp- 
toms, which, for the purpose of a full narrative, have been detailed, cannot, 
of course, be extricated. But a majority of them may be present, and yet 
recovery take place. In no other form of fever could this occur. In this, 
it results from the periodical and paroxysmal character of the disease. As 
the violent symptoms attendant on the cold stage of a simple intermittent, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 761 

give place spontaneously, to those of the hot stage, which, in a few hours, 
as spontaneously cease, and are followed by a complete intermission; so 
there is, in malignant intermittents, a tendency to reaction and subsequent 
intermission ; and these will occur in every case, in which the depression has 
not gone beyond certain limits, nor any vital organ sustained a lesion of 
structure or function, from which it cannot recover. To this inherent and 
inalienable property, we must ascribe, as to a causa sine qua non, the revival 
of the organism from its depressed and perverted condition : without it, the 
physician would neither have ground for hope, nor encouragment to effort. 

Nothing is more common, than for medical gentlemen, where the worst 
cases of this fever prevail, to describe it, as a compound of the cold and hot 
stages ; which, losing their natural relation of sequence, are, to speak para- 
doxically, present at the same time ; the pathological condition of the cold 
stage, prevailing in some of the functions — of the hot stage, in others; 
according as the reaction is not, or is, awakened. No exhibition of symp- 
toms, could more impressively declare the extent to which an external cause 
had violated the laws of the organism. The prognosis of the case, is drawn 
largely from an analysis of these phenomena. In proportion as the signs 
of reaction augment, is the prediction in favor of recovery ; while, according 
to their feebleness, and limited extent through the system, is the prophesy 
of a fatal issue. In a simple intermittent, all the symptoms of the hot 
stage, arise nearly at the same time, and harmonize with each other, while 
they contrast strongly, with the equally harmonious, concourse of symp- 
toms, which characterized the cold stage an hour before. In the malignant, 
both the harmony and the contrast, are replaced, by a discordant assemblage 
of phenomena, which belong to both stages, and will contrast with neither. 

In some cases, an abatement of the coma — which may give place to a con- 
siderable degree of intellectual vivacity, with or without delirium, and some 
flush of the face and eyes — will indicate cerebral reaction, while the other 
symptoms of depression may remain. In others, the heart may recover its 
energies, so far as to manifest reaction, and still the capillary circulation may 
not be restored. The respiration may increase in frequency, but the color 
and heat of the surface not be improved. The thirst and sense of internal 
heat may become intense, with augmented epigastric tenderness and febrile 
heat of the trunk of the body, while the extremities may remain icy- cold. 
Finally, the exudation from the skin may diminish, a feeling of chilliness 
with shivering come on, or the temperature of the limbs become warmer, 
while many internal functions continue depressed. 

If it be a fatal paroxysm, either of the soporose or algid kind, even these 
feeble manifestations of renovated excitement, may not appear. The occur- 
rence of some of them, moreover, is not a guaranty of recovery; for after 
having lasted for a brief period, they may die away, and death occur, at the 
very hour, which a too sanguine hope had fixed for a full development of the 
hot stage. In cases of a less malignant character, some of the phenomena 
of the cold stage are apt to continue, anomalously, throughout the hot ; and 
the intermission which succeeds, is seldom comfortable or promising ; but 
49 



762 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

displays signs of an unhealthy condition of the "vital properties, or the lesion 
of some important organ ; giving a melancholy presage of the mortal event, 
which awaits the access of the succeeding fit. In proportion as the hot stage 
has been full and intense, and the intermission perfect, is the prospect of 
safety in the next paroxysm. 

Among the anomalies of this most ataxic fever, I may mention what many 
of my brethren have, occasionally, seen, a transition from the state of collapse 
to that of healthy function, or the third stage, as it is absurdly called, mani- 
fested in an open and equable pulse, diffused and natural heat, a warm per- 
spiration, renovated muscular energies, and sound functions of mind. In 
these cases the hot stage seems, so to speak, to have run its course in com- 
bination with the cold. They resemble those cases of epidemic cholera, 
which pass from collapse to recovery, without the intervention of the long 
paroxysm of fever, which in other cases succeeds to the stage of depression. 

"When a patient has been brought out of a severe paroxysm of this fever, 
if neglected or improperly treated, he invariably dies in the next; but under 
judicious management the disease either takes the course of a regular ague, 
or ceasing altogether, a rapid and favorable convalescence ensues, which is 
very commonly the case. When, however, any great organ has suffered in- 
jury during the paroxysm, the recovery will be impeded; and, even, a relapse 
may be the consequence. That organ may be the brain, when the intellec- 
tual functions will be, to a certain degree, stultified; or the lungs, producing 
more or less of cough or dyspnoea; or the stomach, which will remain irri- 
table, and incapable of a due performance of its functions; or the bowels - 1 ~ 
affected with diarrhoea ; or the liver, which will mark the system in its own 
peculiar manner; but of all the organs, the spleen appears to suffer most; 
and often remains enlarged, and sometimes tender for a considerable period 
of time. Thus after all the symptoms of the constitutional disease have 
passed away, those of a local affection may remain. 

As illustrative of several parts of the symptomatology through which we 
have traveled, I will here introduce the following case, which fell under my 
notice in Springfield, Illinois. 

Case. — September 6, 1844, at 10 o'clock in the morning, was invited by 
Doctor Merriman, to accompany him in a consultation to which he had been 
called, by one of his brethren. The history of the case, as well as we could 
make it out, was as follows: — The patient, a robust and hale countryman, 
not yet of middle age, residing fifteen miles in the country, felt unwell, on 
the evening of the first instant, while on his way to Springfield, which he 
reached the next morning. He was then chilly, but kept about the town till 
noon, when a fever came on. It abated, and in the evening of the second, 
he had another chill followed by fever. The next day (third), he had perspira- 
tion and was much better, in which condition he still found himself on the morn- 
ing of the fourth. In the afternoon of that day the chill returned, and his 
hands and feet, with his legs up to his knees, became cold, and continued so, 
till his death. His stomach on that became irritable, and he vomited, occa- 
sionally, for twenty-four hours, that is, till the evening of the fifth. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 763 

next morning (sixth), when I saw him, at ten o'clock, he was restless in the 
extreme; his forehead was warm, but not moist; his face was overspread 
with a copperish hue ; his eyes were suffused and vacant in expression. His 
hands and wrists were cold and sodden, but scarcely moist ; and exhibited 
the appearance of post mortem congestion, — the dark reddish patches be- 
coming, and for some time remaining white from pressure. His feet and 
legs displayed nearly the same appearance. The trunk of his body had its 
natural heat. The pulse of the right wrist had ceased ; that of the left 
was feeble, moderately full, tolerably regular, and one hundred and four in a 
minute. There was no pulse behind either ankle. His carotid arteries beat 
feebly. The impulse of his heart was weak, and the sounds reduced. On 
percussing his chest, I found the resonance loud and hollow, even over the 
region of the spleen. His respiration was a little bronchial. He had fre- 
quent sighings, but no cough or hiccup. He had no abdominal tumefaction 
or tenderness, and no diarrhoea. There was some ragged fur on his tongue, 
which, with his gums, had a very tolerable cherry-red color. His mind was 
a little wandering, and be gave some indications of false, visual perceptions. 

Four hours after I first saw him, that is at two o'clock P. M., his restless- 
ness had increased; his pulse had become smaller, and beat one hundred and 
twenty in a minute ; the coldness and parboiled condition of his hands, was 
greater; and his face at times was pallid. His delirium had, also, increased 
a little ; but he tried, as it appeared, to find his pocket, and when questioned, 
said he wanted tobacco. Some was handed him, which he put into his mouth, 
and presently, used his handkerchief, in a natural manner. He then lay 
more quiet, and seemed as though he would sleep. In a short time, he asked 
for the urinal, and after an unsuccessful effort at urinating, handed it 
back. I examined, and found that there was no distension of the bladder. 
He now complained of the irritating applications, which had been made to 
his legs two hours before. Such was his situation when I left him, at half 
past three. At four he became somewhat convulsed and suddenly expired. 
An hour and a half after death, I found his feet strongly flexed, with a 
knotted contraction of the muscles of his legs, which had continued from the 
time of his dissolution. A post mortem examination was not permitted. 

A further illustration of the fatal anomalies presented by our intermittent 
fever, is afforded by the following narrative, published by myself, several 
years since. The cases mentioned in it were probably of the kind which 
should be called apoplectic rather than algid.* 

" Burlington is a small village on the Ohio River, in our own state, 
nearly opposite the mouth of the Great Sandy River, which separates Vir- 
ginia from Kentucky. A family by the name of Cox, resided one mile 
below the village, on the north bank of the Ohio River. The shore is high, 
and exempt both from alluvial accumulations and collections of water; but, 
on the opposite side of the river, above the mouth of the Big Sandy, there 

*Western Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences (Cincinnati), for July, Au- 
gust, and September, 1835. Page 372. 



764 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book n. 

are several large ponds. The people on both sides of the Ohio, including 
those of the village of Burlington, were generally affected with intermittent 
fever. Among the rest, Mr. Cox and every member of his family, amounting 
in all to eight persons, were taken down. He, himself, in the course of the 
disease, was seized with convulsions and delirium, of which he died. One of 
the children, laboring under the fever, became affected with symptoms of 
epidemic cholera, and died. Another, laboring under the same fever, expe- 
rienced an attack with convulsions, like the father, which terminated in 
hemiplegia, from which, however, it has nearly recovered. All these events 
happened at the same place. Soon afterward the remaining members of 
the family removed to Cincinnati, and fell under the care of Doctor Ridgley. 
One of the children, a boy four or five years old, when the Doctor first saw 
him, appeared to be coming out of the cold stage. He was able to sit up in 
the bed and converse rationally. But soon after the Doctor left the house, 
he said he was dying, and in fact expired — having complained of severe 
pain in his bowels, a symptom which existed in the paroxysm of the prece- 
ding day. Not long afterward, a daughter, two or three years older, labor- 
ing under the same form of fever, was attacked with convulsions, accom- 
panied with hemiplegia, and after several repetitions, throughout the intervals 
of which she remained senseless, she expired. Two other children and the 
mother are recovering. One of these children, according to the statement of 
the mother, had a paroxysm of the fever, when it was but three days old. 
Of the two that died in the city, Doctor Ridgley was permitted to examine 
the body of one only, the boy, but had not an opportunity of inspecting the 
brain or spinal marrow. The mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels 
was free from inflammatory lesions. The liver was unusually firm, and of a 
leaden color. The spleen was dark- colored, engorged, and enlarged. 

" The whole family had been treated, before they came to Cincinnati, with 
the sulphate of quinine, and bloodletting, both general and local, had been 
omitted. The Doctor and myself are of opinion, that the whole, at first, 
required the lancet ; and suppose that to its omission, and the early and 
empyrical administration of the sulphate of quinine, the sinister termination 
of most of them might be fairly attributed." 



SECTION III. 

PATHOLOGY AND COMPLICATIONS. 
I. Pathology. — So much was said in the preceding chapter on the pro- 
duction and pathological character of the first and second stages of autum- 
nal fever, that but little remains to be added here. A malignant paroxysm, is 
little else than the cold stage of an ordinary intermittent, deepened and 
prolonged. The innervation is scathed, the circulation is enfeebled; the 
blood, largely retained from the more external parts, circulates with difficulty, 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 765 

through the internal or visceral system, which is rendered plethoric, and the 
great organs, as the stomach, spleen, liver, lungs, heart, and brain, are, re- 
spectively, liable to pernicious engorgements, or obstructions, greatly increasing 
the danger. A failure in the function of respiration, in the cooperative 
action of the brain, and in the projectile power of the heart, combine to 
diminish the aeration of the blood ; which, deteriorated in its constitution, 
contributes still further to sink the powers of life. This condition of the 
respiratory function, diminishes the heat of the body, which is moreover 
reduced by the failure of the calorific function of the skin, from the com- 
bined lesions of the nervous and circulatory systems; while the ready trans- 
udation, which the relaxed integument permits, of the serous portion of 
the blood, and the copious exhalation which takes place, accelerate the 
cooling. Thus the patient dies under the combined influence of depression 
of the vital forces, and that consequential or accidental engorgement of 
some great organ, which has procured for this fever the epithet, congestive. 
Or should a partial reaction occur — should he survive two or three par- 
oxysms, to expire in a fourth or fifth, as occasionally happens — a low in- 
flammation may be superadded to passive hyperEemia in the organs most capa- 
ble of reaction, while others remain torpid, and perhaps engorged. 

II. Complications. — The diathesis which is present in our malignant 
intermittents, is observed to manifest its influence in several diseases, which, 
in summer, autumn, or winter, appear where they are endemic. 

1. In July, and August, when dysentery prevails, cases occur, and gener- 
ally prove fatal, which, by the periodical sinking of the vital powers, evince 
the presence of this condition of the constitution. 

2. During the prevalence of epidemic cholera in the south, the ope- 
ratives on some plantations, died in such numbers, so much in despite of 
remedies employed in the very first stages,, and with such a rapid decline of 
the powers of life, as to leave no doubt of the presence of the same influence. 

3. The same thing has happened in the epidemic erysipelas of the last 
few years, several instructive examples of which have been detailed to me. 

4. This diathesis has likewise been observed to modify yellow fever — giv- 
ing it a tendency to a periodical type, and rendering the treatment for inter- 
mittent fever necessary to the cure of that disease. 

5. But the most frequent and formidable of these complications, is that 
presented by the pneumonias of the south; and, also, on the shores of the 
Lakes in the north, where numerous cases occur, which the profession too 
often find unmanageable, by any method of treatment they have been able 
to devise. 



SECTION IV. 

TREATMENT IN THE PAROXYSM. 

In most instances, the physician, when first called to a case of malignant 
intermittent, will find the patient in a paroxysm, and his immediate aim will 



766 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

be to produce reaction. For this purpose a great variety of means have been 
tried ; which sufficiently indicates that none of them are very effective. I 
shall begin with — 

1. Evacuants. — 1. Bloodletting. — Some of our physicians, on the 
hypothesis that a malignant intermittent is only the highest grade of gastro- 
enteritis, have bled for the reduction of inflammation, but no success has 
attended the practice ; on the contrary, if certain things, injurious in that 
inflammation, were not done after the bleeding, the patient perished. 

Others, and a greater number, have bled to promote reaction, by accumu- 
lating the excitability of the system. That, in most forms of disease as well 
as in health, the loss of blood has that effect, seems quite certain. But is it 
followed by such an improved condition of the vital properties and powers in 
malignant intermittents ? That it frequently is, in simple intermittents, when 
a severe chill is rather prolonged, has been shown by Doctor Mackintosh,* 
and the experience of a number of our physicians goes to the same point. 
But does such an effect follow its use in malignant intermittents, unattended 
with great congestion of the lungs or brain ? To this question a large 
majority of our physicans give a negative answer. There is a degree on 
the scale of vital energy, to which the functions often sink in the cold stage 
of this disease, which renders bloodletting not only inefficient as a means of 
restoring the exhausted excitability, but causes the patient to sink more 
rapidly. When the forces of the system are above that grade, when the 
danger from exhaustion and collapse is not imminent, the loss of blood may 
favor reaction ; but precisely, when assistance is most needed, it gener- 
ally fails to afford any. It is to the north, in the basin of the Lakes, as 
might be expected, that the efficacy of this remedy has been most appa- 
rent. To the south, so great is the enfeeblement of the heart and arterial 
system, that reaction will not in general follow. 

2. Emetics. — It is well known that full and free vomiting is very often 
followed by an increase of the excitability and sensibility of the stomach ; 
and, through it, of the whole system. Hence emetics, prima facie, would 
seem adapted to this stage of malignant intermittents, and they have, in 
fact, been often prescribed. But, on the whole, their effects have not been 
salutary. In cases not very violent, and administered under certain restric- 
tions, they have often, it is true, been followed by early and general reaction ; 
but their sinister effects have greatly limited their use, and deserve to be 
recorded. First. The nausea, protracted when the stomach is torpid, which 
precedes vomiting, sinks the powers of the system still lower. Second. 
When the vomiting takes place, it becomes, in certain gastric cases, excessive 
and irrepressible. Third. Instead of vomiting the patient, or after having 
done so, the medicine is apt to turn upon the bowels, and produce a watery 
diarrhoea, or hypercatharsis, under which the patient sinks. This is espe- 
cially true of tartar emetic ; which, at the same time, reduces the vital forces ; 
and, therefore, over the south generally, is regarded as a most dangerous 

^Principles and Practice of Medicine. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 767 

medicine in this fever. The objections to ipecac are not so great, and it is, 
occasionally, employed with advantage. Of the whole class, however, the 
stimulating salt and mustard emetic, is the least dangerous, the most 
likely to do good, and the oftenest employed. 

3. Cathartics. — Hydrogogue cathartics are regarded as inevitably fatal. 
Doctor Boling, of Montgomery, told me that he had known six patients killed 
with a solution of epsom salts and tartar. In cases preceded by costiveness, 
moderate purging, with blue mass or calomel, combined with extract of 
scammony, the compound extract of colocynth, and other stimulating cathartics, 
or followed by an infusion of senna, with aromatics, with castor oil, or, as Doc- 
tor Ames, of the same place, prefers, the oil of turpentine, is admissible during 
the paroxysm, and occasionally favors the reaction. But, on the whole, 
drastic purging is held to be injurious; and the change which has taken 
place over the west and south, within the last eight or ten years, on this 
point, has been signal and decisive. But may not large closes of calomel do good? 
Of course that medicine will not injure the patient by excess of purging; 
and, a priori, it would seem likely to prove beneficial ; but experience has not 
shown it to possess the power which is demanded in these cases ; and, 
although still in general use, the quantity given is much less than formerly, 
and the reliance on its efficacy is greatly diminished. 

We must turn from evacuants to stimulants, considering them under 
two heads — external and internal. When the vital forces are so re- 
duced that the functions generally fail, and seem likely to cease, a kind 
of instinct, strengthened by experience, turns the attention of the phy- 
sician, the friends, and even the patient, if his mental faculties should 
not be too much impaired, upon something to excite the system. This 
feeling, not less than observation, has prompted to the use of almost 
every known means of excitation. I am sorry to say, they have too often 
proved altogether ineffectual, and sometimes even inert. The susceptibili- 
ties of the system are, in many cases, so much diminished, that stimuli pro- 
duce scarely any more effect, than if the patient were actually dead. In 
cases, less deep and dangerous, they do good, by creating excitement — the 
great object to be accomplished in the paroxysm. The means employed for 
this purpose may be divided into external and internal. 

II. External Stimulants. — Frictions with the hand, with woolen 
clothes, or with brushes ; pungent liniments, as those containing ammonia, or 
oil of turpentine ; mustard, rubbed on dry or applied in the form of a sina- 
pisms; a capsicum-bath, blisters, alcohol, and camphorated spirit, to the 
extremities, epigastrium, or over the spine, are the princijjal applications. 
It is a fact that these articles will redden the skin, without increasing its 
temperature, or raising the sunken powers of the circulation. The patient 
may even complain of them, and become restless under their action, without 
having the excitement of his constitution elevated. But in this matter a phy- 
sician should be on his guard, for friends and nurses, when a patient is extremely 
ill, are prone to remove from him everything of which he complains, whereby 
the expected benefit is sometimes lost. The application of sinapisms and 



768 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

blisters to the extremities is often made when the latter are so cold and 
insensible, that no effect can be produced. This is seeming to do something, 
when nothing, in fact, is done. There are two applications which deserve a 
separate consideration from those we have just enumerated. 

1. Heat. — In a pathological state, so strikingly characterized by reduction 
of temperature, nothing seems more natural than the application of caloric, 
through the media of air, liquids, and solids. When we are cold, the approach 
to a fire speedily warms us, and we look to the same result in a malignant 
intermittent ; but are often disappointed. The reason is obvious. The 
organized body — living, dying, or dead, is an exceedingly imperfect con- 
ductor of caloric ; and, when we are suddenly warmed after exposure to cold, 
being at the same time in health, it is partly because the loss of caloric was 
superficial, and partly because the applied heat stimulates the calorific 
function into increased activity, or reaction; whereby caloric is developed in 
the structures, as well as received by them from without. But in the sunken 
state of the vital propertithes, is stimulus often fails to reexcite the calorific 
function, and all the warming that follows, on our applications, is superficial 
and temporary. Sometimes, indeed, none can be observed, for the great 
exhalation which is going on from the skin, and which is actually promoted 
by the more rapid evaporation of the escaping vapor, under the influence of 
the caloric we apply, tends to prevent any rise of temperature ; and this 
will, especially, be the case when dry heat is applied, and the atmosphere at 
the same time has access to the surface. Baths, extensive cataplasms, or 
the application of flannels wrung out of hot fluids, and so covered with oiled 
silk or India rubber cloth, as to prevent evaporation, are, therefore, the best 
modes of applying caloric. Nor need their temperature, in these modes, be 
many degrees, or, indeed, any above the natural heat of the body; as Doctor 
Edwards* has proved that heat tends to destroy the irritability of the mus- 
cular fiber, already greatly reduced in these cases. 

I have seen immersion in a general hot bath, made stimulating with 
mustard, salt, and whisky, fail to produce the least reaction ; and have, also, 
seen the entire body wrapped in blankets, wrung out of a spiritous decoction 
of bark, equally ineffective, although applied as hot as they could be borne 
by the hands of the nurses, and evaporation from them prevented. 

2. Cold. — The gentleman just quoted has shown that cold tends to preserve 
the irrritability of the fiber, and what has that effect may, within certain limits, 
be presumed to augment it when reduced. The sudden application of cold, 
moreover, acts strongly on the nerves of the skin, which are endowed with a 
peculiar or specific sensibility to caloric ; if then cold water be thrown upon 
it, excitation will be the consequence, unless the patient be past reaction; 
but the effect will, perhaps, be transient, and by continuing the application 
too long, the loss of caloric, by abstraction, may do harm. Finally, the cold 
dash tends to reexcite the languid function of respiration, whereby excite- 
ment and heat may be generated. There are three modes, then, in which 

*Influence of Physical Agents. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 769 

cold may prove beneficial in these cases. But not to decide anything a 
priori, when we can appeal to experience, let us inquire into the results of 
this practice. 

The Western Journal* contains a paper by Doctor Achilles Whitlocke, of 
North Alabama, on the cold dash in malignant intermittents, from which I 
make the following extracts: — "The common practice in this region, is to 
repeat the affusion, according to circumstances, until general reaction is 
brought on, which it seldom fails to produce ; though like all other remedies, 
it sometimes falls short of our more sanguine expectations. The adminis- 
tration of this agent in the collapse of fever, so far as I am informed, origi- 
nated with Doctor Thomas Fearn, of Huntsville, Alabama ; whose reputa- 
tion both as a physician and surgeon, is too well known to the profession in 
the south, to need my humble testimony. Living in a region of country, 
where the diseases are generally violent, he resolved, as a dernier resort, on 
the experiment of cold water, in the stage of collapse, of the disease now 
under consideration, and his experiment was not fruitless, for in numerous 
instances, he and his enlightened colleague, Doctor Erskine, have employed 
it with unprecedented success ; and they do not hesitate to recommend it to 
the profession, as an agent of superior efficacy to any other they have ever 
employed. They further believe, that, where the susceptibility of impres- 
sion is not entirely destroyed, and where no vital organ has sustained an ir- 
recoverable injury, the affusion of cold water, will in almost every case, be at- 
tended with complete success. To exemplify its effects fully in this malady, 
I will here detail a few additional cases, which came under my own care and 
observation, within the last three years." 

The Doctor has given the details of four cases in which the practice was 
Successful. I will introduce one as a specimen of the whole : 

" On the third of September, 1834, I was called to see a black man, the 
property of Mr. F., aged thirty-four years, and of good constitution. I 
found him very restless, with a small, quick pulse of one hundred and thirty- 
five beats to the minute, and he was bathed in a cold clammy sweat over his 
whole surface ; he complained of great weight in or about the epigastrium, 
had an insatiable thirst for cold drinks only; his respiration was difficult, 
and his physiognomy shrunken. I learned from the overseer, that he had 
had a chill two days previously, and one on the morning of the present day 
(it was now near night), and had become much worse since the approach of 
the sweating stage. Fully understanding the case, as I thought, I ordered 
some cold well-water to be brought, and immediately poured on his naked 
body about twenty gallons ; having finished, the patient was so much relieved 
as to return to bed without assistance. In a short time, his oppression was 
removed, the heat of the surface returned, and he fell into a refreshing 
sleep. His pulse gradually rose, and became open, full, and less frequent, 
his respiration easy, and general reaction was present when he awoke. No- 
thing but the free use of quinine and mild laxative was afterward necessary 
to restore him to his former health." 

* For January, February, and March, 1837. 



770 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

By extensive inquiry, I have found that this practice is not general, especi- 
ally to the north. Those who have resorted to it, reside chiefly in the south. 
Their reports conflict with each other. A part have found it "beneficial — a 
part injurious, no reaction having followed. I may say, of a truth, that the 
majority of our physicians, influenced, perhaps, to some extent by popular 
aversion and prejudice, have not employed it. 

The sudden alternation of hot and cold water, would, perhaps, he more 
efficacious, than the exclusive use of either. I have not, however, met with 
any physician who had resorted to this powerful means of restoring lost 
excitement. 

III. Internal Stimulants. — Almost every kind of excitant and narcotico- 
stimulant, has been administered, internally. In this stage of the paroxysm of 
malignant intermittent fever, wine, brandy, whisky, and other alcoholic drinks 
have been liberally given; but the results have not been such as to commend 
them. They probably act unfavorably upon the brain. The acrid and aro- 
matic stimulants, such as capsicum, and the oils of black pepper, cloves, and 
cinnamon, are not liable to this objection, and continue to be in general use : 
an evidence that they have not been found prejudicial; and doubtless they 
have sometimes proved serviceable. Camphor and ammonia are likewise used, 
a considerable number of physicians testify in their favor. On the whole, 
however, opium has, perhaps, been more constantly employed than any other 
medicine ; and appears to be harmless (if not very obviously beneficial), when 
not contraindicated by the state of the brain. When the bowels are torpid, its 
use is apochryphal ; but if there be watery diarrhoea, by no means, an uncom- 
mon complication, its effects are every way precious; to obtain them, how- 
ever, it must be administered in very large doses. Finally, the sulphate 
of quinine has been repeatedly and copiously prescribed during the paroxysms ; 
but not, on the whole, with much benefit. Such at least is the result of my 
inquiries ; to which I must add, that quite a number of physicians have, as 
they think, found it injurious, from its depressing the vital forces still lower. 

Stimulating and anodyne enemata have not been omitted; but it seems 
that when the stomach is insusceptible to the action of medicines, the rectum 
is nearly in the same condition. When, however, there is diarrhoea, astringent 
and narcotic injections have done good. 

Such are the measures in general use, for establishing reaction, in our ma- 
lignant intermittents. Their variety is great, and they are, in most cases, 
applied with that energy, which is characteristic of our physicians ; but the 
results of their employment, have never been encouraging ; and, I see no 
ground of hope, for greater success, from the use of other, untried agents. 
The difficulty lies in the state of the vital susceptibilities during the paroxysm. 

IV. Means of relieving the Internal Organs. — To relieve the or- 
gans which are in a state of congestion or incipient inflammation, is the 
second object. In the majority of cases, the pathological condition is that of 
congestion only. This condition connects itself with the paroxysm, of which 
it makes in many cases a momentous element. I propose to speak of the 
organs, seriatim, in which it occurs, beginning with — 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 771 

1. The Brain. — The affections of this organ, manifest themselves, as we 
have seen, by two sjonptoms — drowsiness and delirium — the former being- 
far more common than the latter. All soporose intermittents, may be re- 
garded as of an apoplectic character, and should be treated accordingly. The 
remedies are of course substantially the same, as for ordinary apoplexy; but 
the character of the fever, of which this is a mere, but most serious contin- 
gent, limits their application, for the vital forces do not admit of their being 
pushed very far. Of the whole, that most deserving of deep consideration is: 

a. "Bloodletting. — After the dissemination in this country, more than pre- 
viously, of Doctor Mackintosh's recommendation of bloodletting as a means 
of producing speedy reaction, in the more common form of intermittent fe- 
ver, it became fashionable to resort to the lancet in soporose intermittents ; 
and it seems scarcely admissible to omit it. In fact the most beneficial effects 
have frequently followed its use — the coma abating and reaction coming on. 
Nevertheless, it has often failed; the enervation of the circulatory apparatus, 
which lies at the foundation of the difficulty, being augmented by the loss 
of blood. The cases in which it has been most beneficial, were such as pre- 
sented an anatomical and physiological predisposition to apoplexy, with full- 
ness of face, increased heat of the head, and stertorous respiration. In the 
absence of these symptoms, and the presence of mere coma with palor of the 
face, its effects have been less beneficial, and sometimes injurious. After 
venesection, or in cases not seeming to admit of it, cupping over the neck 
and temples, has been employed with decided advantage. 

b. But, perhaps, nothing, taking the whole range of these soporose inter- 
mittents, has done more good, than the continued application of cold or sub- 
tepid water to the head ; while efforts were simultaneously made with hot 
baths to invite blood into the lower extremities. 

c. A sinapism or blister to the nape of the neck, and sometimes to the 
scalp, has been found serviceable. 

d. In these cases the administration of stimulating and drastic purgatives, 
such as aloes, gamboge, calomel, senna, and the oil of turpentine mixed with 
castor oil, is beneficial; and in pursuance of the same object — diverting from 
the brain — irritating injections may be employed. 

2. When the congestion is in the heart and lungs, the dyspnoea, with sense 
of thoracic oppression, is great, and the danger unquestionable. This state 
may, to a considerable extent, coexist with oppression of the brain, to the 
production of which it can indeed contribute; but many cases are without 
coma, and the anxiety and restlessness of the patient is then very great. In 
this pulmonary obstruction, and congestion of the heart, the physician is often 
tempted into the use of the lancet ; and is sometimes rewarded by the relief 
of his patient ; but, quite as often is disappointed, no relief to the suffering 
organs being, thereby, procured; while the powers of the general system are 
sunk still lower by the depletion. In addition to bloodletting, or as a sub- 
stitute, scarification and cupping, or extensive dry cupping, over the chest 
maybe employed; after which, the parts maybe as extensively irritated with 
sinapisms or blisters. Of internal medicines, ipecac, or that medicine with 



772 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

opium, or the wine of ipecac with laudanum and ammoniated alcohol, would 
seem to promise most. I do not know that the inhalation of steam, rendered 
stimulating with vinegar or aromatics, has been tried ; but, a priori, it would 
appear likely to prove beneficial. 

3. The stomach may be the chief seat of local irritation and congestion, 
when incessant vomiting tends still more rapidly to sink the already smitten 
vital forces. In this condition, large closes of calomel, opium, and capsicum, 
are most to be relied upon, while epigastric cupping, or strong counter irrita- 
tion, have been found serviceable. 

4. The diarrhoea occasionally present in the malignant paroxysm, may, per- 
haps, be the sign of a congestive tendency to the intestinal mucous membrane. 
The prescription just mentioned is proper in such cases ; or liberal doses of 
opium and acetate of lead, with astringent and narcotic injections, may be 
employed. 

5. The liver, undoubtedly, suffers very frequently in this paroxysm, be- 
coming engorged and sometimes perceptibly enlarged. The secretion and 
excretion of bile are suspended, and, in some instances, bilious appearances 
manifest themselves in the eyes, the skin, and the urine. Of course, under 
such circumstances, a liberal administration of calomel or the blue mass, with 
or without opium, capsicum, or some other stimulant, is never neglected. I 
do not recollect to have learned that any physician has tried sponging the 
trunk of the body with a hot and strong nitro-muriatic solution, in such cases ; 
but, as it would be a powerful counter-irritant, and might exert some specific 
influence on the liver, it seems worthy of a trial. 

6. That the spleen is generally engorged in malignant paroxysms, can 
scarcely be doubted. It sometimes projects beyond the cartilages of the ribs 
during the paroxysms, and, of all the sequela, of the disease, an enlarged 
spleen is the most common ; almost the only one, indeed, which remains for 
any considerable time. Of the different congestions, this is, perhaps, the 
least dangerous ; and may even save more important organs from the same 
pathological condition.* I know of no special treatment directed upon this 
organ during the paroxysm. 

Such are the chief local affections attending the malignant paroxysm, and 
the most approved means of removing them employed by our physicians. 
That these local affections often prolong the paroxysm, and increase the 
difficulty of exciting reaction, must be admitted. It is still more obvious, 
that they are frequently the immediate cause of death, especially when 
seated in the brain or lungs. I have spoken of them as simple congestions, 
but post mortem examinations in Europe have demonstrated, that in the 
malignant intermittents of that continent, traces of inflammation, in all the 
organs mentioned, have been found ; and, therefore, we must conclude that 
it occurs on this continent. In general, however, the inflammatory action 
must of necessity be feeble ; and cannot be admitted to be the cause of 
death, in those who die in the first malignant paroxysm. An inflammation 

* Doctor Rush. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 773 

may commence with the coming on of reaction ; and, continuing comparatively 
dormant, through the intermission, acquire greater intensity in the succeed- 
ing fit, notwithstanding the sunken powers of the system. Thus its ravages 
are most likely to be found, in those who die after several paroxysms. 
Should the inflammation supervene at an early period, and acquire consider- 
able activity, it changes the diathesis from a malignant to an inflammatory 
type, and in that way may prove salutary. When signs of inflammation 
supervene, the remedies appropriate to its particular seat, must be employed to 
an extent commensurate with its intensity ; but the physician should never 
forget, that he is dealing with a paroxysmal disease ; and that he must em- 
ploy the antiperiodic treatment not less than antiphlogistic. 



SECTION V. 

TREATMENT IN THE INTERMISSION. 

All the medicines required in the intermission, have been enumerated, as 
portions of the long catalogue, which have been employed, with but little 
effect, in the paroxysm. The most important are the bark and the sulphate 
of quinine, opium, calomel, arsenic, and certain aromatics. 

I. Bark and the Sulphate oe Quinine. — Before the introduction of 
the sulphate of quinine, the bark, administered in large doses, was found a 
successful remedy in this variety of fever. I have often seen from two to 
four ounces, administered in a single intermission; but such quantities 
were swallowed with reluctance, and sometimes thrown up by the stomach. 
Under such circumstances, the medicine was often mingled with injections, 
and effected a cure. Doctor Hays, now of Indiana, who thirty years ago 
practiced his profession in Chillicothe, Ohio, where malignant intermittents 
prevailed, has lately informed me, that he often administered four ounces of 
bark in that way with the happiest effect. 

The sulphate of quinine is not, however, obnoxious to these objections; 
and at the same time is probably more efficient; I shall, therefore, confine 
what I am about to say, to that preparation. 

1. Time of Exhibition. — The concurrent experience of our physicians, 
declares that this medicine is an effectual remedy, in malignant intermittent 
fever, if properly administered in the intermissions ; yet, there are circum- 
stances which frequently interfere with its success ; or, to speak more defi- 
nitely, either occasion or permit a fatal termination. To these circumstances 
we must now turn our attention. 

a. We have already seen, that the sulphate will not produce its specific 
influence, if administered in the paroxysm. Now it sometimes happens in 
quotidians or double tertians, that the intermission is so short and imperfect, 
that the medicine cannot make its proper impression on the system. 

b. When the hyperemia, either passive or active, of some great organ, 



774 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

survives the paroxysm, it may prevent the successful administration of the 
medicine in the intermission. 

c. In cases accompanied with gastric irritability, the stomach may refuse 
to retain a sufficient amount of the medicine, to arrest the paroxysms. 

d. The physician may be called in, when the access of the fit is so near, 
that the recurring debility of the system may be established, before the 
medicine which he administers can take effect. 

e. He may through ignorance, timidity, or a false theory, exhibit the med- 
icine, in insufficient doses. 

/. A predisposition to apoplexy, or habitual feebleness of constitution, 
may render the exhibition ineffectual. 

g. Do morbid accumulations in the stomach, ever countervail the bene- 
ficial influence of the medicine ? It cannot be doubted, that an alterant of 
any kind, is more effective, if the stomach be empty ; but such a condition 
of the organ as follows the operation of an emetic or cathartic, cannot be 
regarded as^indispensable to the successful action of the sulphate. If pa- 
tients have died, because of an unprepared state of the stomach when the 
medicine was given, I cannot doubt, that a still greater number have been 
lost, by the delay, and the debility occasioned by a course of evacuation 
from the stomach and bowels, designed to prepare them for the reception of 
the antidote. 

The physician who suspects that he is grappling with a malignant inter- 
mittent, should be on his guard in reference to such evacuations. He should 
fully realize the great truth, that antimonial preparations and saline cathar- 
tics, are often the immediate, or exciting causes, of a malignant paroxysm ; 
and that cases, apparently, of the simplest character, are often transformed 
into the most dangerous, by their debilitating influence. 

2. Quantity and Intervals of Exhibition. — When the sulphate of quinine 
was first introduced among us, it was given in one or two giain doses, in or- 
dinary intermittents, and, seldom, in more than double that quantity, for the 
arrest of the most malignant. The periods of exhibition were every two, 
four, or six hours, according to the apparent gravity of each case. But al- 
though such portions might have proved successful in ordinary intermittents, 
they were soon found to be insufficient for the malignant ; and the practice 
of giving the medicine, in what would once have been regarded as fatal por- 
tions, is now almost universal. Yet, even at an early period, a few physicians 
went far ahead of their brethren; and the late respectable Doctor Perrine, de- 
serves to be named as one who, twenty-five years ago, in the State of Indiana, 
led the way in this bold medication. To make known the extent to which 
this medicine is prescribed by many of our physicians; and, also, to show, 
that in quantities far beyond the limits of ordinary practice, it does not occa- 
sion any permanent bad effects, I will mention the doses in which it is given 
by many of our physicians. 

On the southern shore of Lake Erie, Doctor Tilden, of Sandusky, told me he 
has given forty grains at once ; Doctor Manter, and Doctor Howard, of Elyria, 
sometimes administer half or two thirds of that quantity at a single dose, to 



part ii.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 775 

be repeated every two hours, through the intermission. These gentlemen 
practice in the latitude of forty-one degrees and thirty minutes. At Memphis, 
near the thirty-fifth degree, Doctor Shanks administers the same portions, and 
has sometimes given twenty grains at once. Between the thirty- third and 
thirty-second degree, in Mississippi and Alabama, Doctor Yongue has given, in 
a single intermission, as much as fifty grains, in ten grain doses ; Doctor Davis, 
ten grains every hour, or every other hour ; Doctor Dancy, from five to fifteen 
grains at once, repeated occasionally ; Doctor Street, from ten to fifteen grains, 
in the same way ; Doctor English frequently administers from thirty to forty 
grains in four or six hours ; Doctor Echols, in anticipation of a paroxysm, took 
twenty grains at a single dose. The fit was averted, and perspiration came 
on, with a slow and full pulse; Doctor Sims often administers it in ten grain 
doses, frequently repeated ; and Doctor Boling regards that dose as rather large, 
though he has administered fifteen or twenty at once, and knew forty to be 
taken in one intermission. But the boldest exhibition seems to have been 
made in Florida, between the thirtieth and twenty-seventh parallels, by some 
of our army surgeons. The assistant surgeon, Holmes, has administered 
twenty, fifty, and even eighty grains at once; and surgeon Harney, one of 
the senior, and most authoritative members of the medical staff of our army, 
has given from thirty to sixty grains at a dose, and thinks the larger the por- 
tion the better. It is probable that so many of our soldiers are, or have been, 
intemperate, that they can bear, or may even require, larger doses than are 
demanded in private practice. To these facts, intended to show the upward 
limit of the sulphate in our Valley, and at the same time its harmlessness in 
large quantities, I may, in reference to the latter, add the following : A man 
in Cincinnati, by mistake, took two drachms of the sulphate, without injury; 
a patient of Doctor Sappington, of Memphis, Tenn., who had a relapsing inter- 
mittent, took eighty grains at once instead of taking it in eight doses, as 
ordered, but was not injured ; Doctor Fair, of Montgomery, Ala., has told me 
of a patient, who took an ounce in three days, and recovered ; and Doctor 
Hiriart, of Plaquemine, Louisiana, knew of an old lady, laboring under an algid 
intermittent, who took ten grain doses, every two hours, till an ounce was 
swallowed. No bad effects occurred and she recovered. 

But are the large doses which have been mentioned really necessary to ar- 
rest the paroxysm of a malignant intermittent ? To this question I would 
reply : First. That a majority of our physicians do not resort to such portions, 
yet claim as much success as those who do ; and I know not that their claim is 
groundless. Second. But in very violent and dangerous cases, as the medi- 
cine may be administered in great doses without any empoisoning effects, it 
would certainly be prudent to give it liberally. 

In ordinary cases, a scruple taken in one intermission, will, I think, accord- 
ing to the experience of our profession, be found sufficient; and with the ad- 
juvants to be presently mentioned, even half that quantity may often answer. 
But in cases of a threatening character, forty or sixty grains should be given 
in the same space of time. "Whether any advantage is ever derived from 
going beyond that quantity, is, I suppose, an open question. 



776 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

Much diversity of opinion and practice exists among us as to the distribu- 
tion of the medicine through the period of intermission. I need not repeat 
what was said on this subject, when speaking of simple intermittents. My 
own mfctA inclines to large doses, and long intervals ; but, whichever may be 
adopted, the patient's system should be strongly impressed by the medicine, 
at the time for the recurrence of the paroxysm ; and to secure this, a good 
proportion of what is used should be administered a couple of hours before 
the end of the intermission. Thus, if a scruple should be the aggregate 
quantity, one half ought to precede the chill, and whether the other half 
should be given in ten, five, or two grain doses, is, perhaps, a matter of 
indifference. 

II. Opium, or the Sulphate of Morphia, is in general use as an adju- 
vant to the sulphate of quinine, in our malignant intermittents. Of its great 
value no physician of experience, in those diseases, can entertain a doubt. 
If there be no diarrhoea, however, it is not necessary to administer it through- 
out the intermission, but reserve it for the last dose of the sulphate, before 
the approaching chill. The quantity in which it is then given, is often 
entirely too small, and much better fitted to simple intermittents, in which 
the susceptibilities of the system are lively, than to those in which they are 
greatly reduced. In such a state of the system, three or four times as 
much as would be required in an ordinary ague, is not a large dose. I have 
met with many physicians who had a just appreciation of this state of the sys- 
tem ; but with none who carried the practice, logically deducible from it, so far 
as Doctor Merriman and Doctor Henry, of Springfield, Illinois. It has grown 
into a settled opinion with those gentlemen, that a moderate quantity of the 
sulphate, combined with a large quantity of opium, is the very best practice. 
Hence through the early periods of the intermission, they do little or 
nothing ; but, three or four hours before the chill, administer a bolus of 
four grains of opium and eight grains of the sulphate, which, as they affirm, 
scarcely ever fails. Doctor Henry has even found that dose of opium, -with- 
out the other medicine, successful. Doctor Jayne pursues the same prac- 
tice, but generally limits the opium to two grains. While I was in Spring- 
field, the next morning after the death of the man whose case is given page 
762, and who had not been treated on this plan, Doctor Merriman invited me to 
see one of his own patients. She had labored for several days, apparently, 
under an ordinary quotidian, and, by the advice of an empiric, had been 
copiously purged. This brought on a very dangerous paroxysm, from which, 
however, she recovered, before Doctor Merriman was called in. As it recurred 
in the morning, he directed that, in the latter part of the night, she should 
take his ordinary portion of four grains of opium, and eight of sulphate of 
quinine. At nine, A. M., four hours afterward, I saw her. She had a slight, 
degree of drowsiness, said she felt comfortable, her eyes were a little red, her 
pulse was well sustained, and her skin pleasantly warm. The next morning 
I called again, and learned that the paroxysm had been averted, and she was 
recovering. Doctor Shanks, of Memphis, has also found opium very valuable, 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 777 

but distributes it throughout the intermission. He has given as high as 
twenty-four grains in the twenty-four hours, with decided advantage. 

Neither my own experience, nor the facts I have been able to collect from 
others, enable me to decide between opium and the sulphate of morphine, in 
the treatment of malignant intermittents. The former is, perhaps, the more 
durable, the latter more coincident with the sulphate of quinine, in its effects. 
In many cases its limited bulk may render its administration easier than that 
of opium. 

III. Arsenious Acid. — I have met with a few physicians who had 
combined arsenious acid with the sulphate of quinine, in the treatment of 
malignant intermittents, and found it beneficial. Whether, in union with 
opium, the sulphate being omitted, that compound would succeed, is not 
known. When the approved anti-periodic is scarce, it would certainly be 
well to give opium and arsenious acid, liberally, throughout the intermission, 
and the sulphate with opium near its close. In such cases, the arsenic 
should be used in larger doses than for simple agues. An eighth of a grain, 
with a grain of opium every two hours, could not be too much. 

IV. Piperine and the Oil of Black Pepper have been added to the 
sulphate of quinine ; and many physicians think well of the addition, espe- 
cially of the latter. I am not aware, that either of them has been relied 
upon to the exclusion of the sulphate. Capsicum, in doses of two or ten 
grains, has been combined with the latter ; and, in cases of great exhaustion, 
the union of that local stimulant may give effect to the principal medicine. 

V. Calomel is a common adjuvant of the sulphate ; and a favorite pre- 
scription with some, is a bolus of ten grains of each of those medicines, and 
a grain of opium every two or three hours ; during the intermission, 
when there is a watery diarrhoea, or signs of engorgement, torpidity, or other 
derangement of the liver, the use of calomel or the blue mass is certainly 
indicated ; but, in the absence of such symptoms, that medicine does not 
appear to be required; as it certainly exerts no power as an anti-periodic, 
whatever may be its value as an anti-phlogistic. 

VI. Regimen and Relapses. — Whatever modification of the treatment 
here detailed may be adopted, I cannot doubt the indispensable necessity of 
the patient being kept in bed, and restrained from conversation and every 
kind of occupation, for the purpose of maintaining the warmth and capillary 
circulation of the skin, and promoting a gentle but sustained diaphoresis. 
Through the ignorance and restlessness of patients, seen but seldom by 
their physicians from being scattered over the country, these salutary observ- 
ances are perpetually violated, and the wisest methods of treatment thereby 
rendered abortive. Nothing is commoner, than for men to be walking about 
up to the access of a most dangerous paroxysm. A man, whose case was 
mentioned to me, stood up and shaved himself only fourteen hours before he 
expired ; and many undress themselves and go to bed, to die before the next 
day. No sound pathologist would expect to see a patient, who kept on his 
feet during the intermission of such a disease, preserved from its fatal effects. 
After having escaped one paroxysm, the necessity for close confinement is 



778 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

less urgent ; but, still, before the period for the next, the patient should be 
warm in bed, and if possible, asleep. 

In some cases a relapse may be malignant, when the original attack was 
simple ; of which I saw an example in a patient of Doctor Rouse, Peoria, 
Illinois : 

Case. — Maynard, a citizen of Kaskaskia, in that state, suffered an 
attack of intermittent fever, from which he had tolerably well recovered, 
when he set off to Peoria. On the journey he was exposed to a hot 
sun and relapsed. On the 14th of September, 1844, when Doctor Rouse 
saw him, in the paroxysm, he had copious vomiting and purging of 
bile, and was very cold. On the 15th he experienced another paroxysm of 
the same kind. On the 16th, when I was invited to see him, he was in a 
third. I found him nearly pulseless, and the' force of his heart very feeble. 
His respiration was bronchial, and attended with a kind of vibratory purring, 
recognizable both by the hand and ear. His extremities and tongue were 
cold. The latter was moist, and stained of a dark color, by a fluid, which 
resembled finely powdered coffee grounds, mixed with mucus, which he 
brought up by a kind of eructation. His intellectual functions were nearly 
unimpaired, though he died an hour afterward. 



SECTION VI. 

CONCLUSION. 

I shall conclude the subject of malignant intermittents with the following 
observations : 

I. I have several times used the word collapse, to indicate the state of the 
system in a very dangerous or fatal paroxysm. Since the year 1832, that 
term has been associated in the public mind with epidemic cholera, and can 
scarcely be used without suggesting that disease. In employing it in the 
history of malignant intermittent fever, it is by no means misapplied ; for 
the failure in the power of the heart, the reduction of animal heat, the stasis 
of blood in the skin of the extremities, and the post mortem spasmodic con- 
traction of the muscles of the extremities, observed in some instances, are 
so many points of identity in the two diseases. But there are still 
some others. Thus, as we have seen, the subject of malignant intermittent 
fever may keep on his feet, and even attend to business, up to the access of 
the fatal paroxysm, as the victim of cholera is wont to do, while laboring 
under the diarrhoea, which may be followed by collapse and death in a few 
hours. Such patients seem alike unconscious of their condition, and 
incredulous of the predictions of danger. In the final stage, when death is 
impending, their intellectual functions are often unimpaired, or simply reduced 
to an aspect of stolidity, while their feelings and emotions are subdued into 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 779 

apathy. Further, these maladies, so constantly fatal when they reach a 
certain stage, are, even immediately before its arrival, controllable by very 
simple and nearly the same measures. Finally, cadaveric examinations have 
disclosed occasional vestiges of inflammation in both, but not of sufficient 
extent to account for the fatal termination. 

There are, however, two striking differences. First. The Fever has an 
indigenous cause, annually reproduced, and is confined to certain localities ; 
but the cholera depends on a cause, which occasionally visits countries distant 
from those in which it is elaborated. Second. The Fever is, essentially, peri- 
odical, while the cholera consists of a single paroxysm. 

II. The well known fact, that in the midst of many cases of simple inter- 
mittent, not proving fatal, although but little shall be done, there may be a 
few which assume a malignant character, perplexes both physicians and the 
people. But this trait of character is not peculiar to that fever. It is 
equally true of yellow fever, cholera, scarlatina, and all other diseases which 
have an epidemic prevalence. The whole, in this respect, are under one law, 
which doubtless connects itself in part with diversities of constitution. 



CHAPTER VII. 



REMITTENT AUTUMNAL FEVER — SIMPLE AND INFLAM- 
MATORY, CONSIDERED TOGETHER. 



SECTION I. 
SYMPTOMS. 

I. Diagnosis. — If we suppose an ague-shake to be reduced to a mere 
chill, but the subsequent hot stage aggravated and prolonged, we shall form 
a just conception of the relations, in symptomatology, between intermittent 
and remittent fever. We have studied the former under two heads, but I 
propose, in treating of the latter, to blend under one head, all the cases 
which are not designated as congestive or malignant. 

In general, a remittent is preceded by a forming stage of one, two, or 
three days, in which there is an increasing languor of the muscular system ; 
inefficiency of body and mind ; defective perspiration ; rigors, sometimes 
alternating with flashes of heat ; a torpid state of the bowels ; increased or 
diminished secretion of bile; a bilious hue of the eyes; loss of appetite, 
nausea, and in many cases bilious vomitings ; a foul and generally white 
tongue, having sometimes a tint of yellow; in most instances a dull pain in 



780 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

tlie head and back. After these and various kindred symptoms of debility 
and perversion, in the different organs of the body, have continued for a while, 
the rigors are, as it were, concentrated into a chill, which may or may not 
amount to shivering ; the patient now becomes thirsty, or, if so before, the 
desire is increased ; his nausea is generally augmented ; his pulse increases 
in frequency, and his headache grows worse. In a few minutes, or an hour 
or two, the chilliness ceases, and is succeeded by febrile heat, over the whole 
surface, but especially in the head, the pain in which, as in the back, be- 
comes more acute ; the mouth loses much of its moisture ; the white fur on 
the tongue rapidly augments ; the epigastrium becomes tender ; the secre- 
tion of urine lessens ; and the pulse acquires preternatural frequency, force, 
and fullness : there is also intolerance of hot and confined air; a tendency to 
deep inspiration, or sighing, and great restlessness. The chill generally occurs 
between midnight and noon, commonly in the forenoon, and the hot stage, of 
which I have drawn the character in brief outline, runs on till after midnight, 
when it begins to abate; and, by morning, the patient is found with greatly 
diminished heat, and a limited perspiration ; his pulse has become slower, 
and lost its preternatural force; his thirst has diminished, and he is more or 
less inclined to sleep. Feelings of health, however, are not present ; there 
remains a dull aching of the head and back ; the epigastrium is more or 
less tender, and pressure upon it may excite nausea ; in short the patient 
has not passed into a state of intermission ; but returned nearly into the 
condition which preceded the chill, the day before. After continuing in this 
state a few hours, an increase of thirst, headache and frequency of the pulse, 
usher in a second chill, which,, instead of being more, is often less violent, 
than the first ; and is soon succeeded by the full development of a hot stage, 
commonly more intense than the preceding ; which is succeeded by a remis- 
sion, not quite as great as that which followed the first paroxysm. In this 
manner, the exascerbations and remissions, are repeated daily ; the former 
being sometimes more violent every other day, giving to the case the charac- 
ter of a double tertian. 

II. Tendencies and Terminations. — 1. Mild attacks, in persons of 
good constitution, even when but little is done to moderate their violence, will, 
in many cases, terminate by a sort of crisis at some period of the second 
week, and recovery or a regular intermittent follow. 

2. In more violent attacks, it may soon be discovered that some organ is 
becoming inflamed. The one which is, perhaps, more frequently attacked 
than any other, is the spleen; but that organ does not always make known 
its condition ; next to it, in the opinion of many, is the liver, of which the 
inflammation is less obscure in its signs ; then come the stomach and duo- 
denum ; then the head, and lastly, the lungs. In proportion to the intensity 
of the inflammation thus awakened, is the danger of the case ; and those 
who perish within the second week, generally die of inflammation of some 
great organ. 

3. Passing beyond the period here mentioned, the disease may lose its 
acuteness and periodicity, and begin to exhibit typhous symptoms, which may 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 781 

gradually increase, until a fatal termination occurs at the end of two, three, or 
four weeks. In this condition a close diagnostic inspection will generally dis- 
cover some organ in a state of subacute inflammation, and the one, perhaps, 
the most frequently involved is the brain ; but more of this hereafter. 

4. In some cases, especially in the south, it is observed, that after a few 
regular paroxysms, the hands and feet will continue cold through the hot 
stage, and only recover their heat in the remission ; and this, with other 
symptoms, to be mentioned elsewhere, indicates, to the experienced observer, 
congestion of some of the great organs, continuing throughout the whole 
twenty-four hours, and admonishes him, that he has to deal with a lurking 
malignancy. 

5. Far in the north, remittent fever often presents, almost from the begin- 
ning, a tendency to the continued type, displaying the characteristics of the 
synochus of Cullen's Nosology. It is properly called autumnal fever, because 
it prevails most in that season, and is an equivalent for the true remittent 
fever of the warmer climates. Nearly the same remark is applicable to this 
fever when, in the middle latitudes, it appears in the long- cultivated and 
dryer portions of Tennessee, Kentucky, Western Pennsylvania, and Ohio. 
Formerly it often abated into an intermittent ; latterly, it is apt to degenerate 
into a continued type. 

6. All these tendencies and modes of termination may occur in the same 
locality, and in the same autumn ; but some are more common in one place, 
others in another. Moreover, in one season, the cases may be generally mild 
and simple ; in another highly inflammatory ; in another disposed to assume 
a typhous character; in another a malignant or congestive type. 



SECTION II. 

TREATMENT. 

The concise history of the symptoms and pathology of simple and inflam- 
matory remittent fever, which I have sketched, belongs to the middle latitudes 
rather than the northern ; where, as we have seen, the tendency to a con- 
tinued form prevails ; or the southern, where the malignant or congestive 
type most frequently manifests itself. And what I am about to say on the 
treatment, will apply more aptly to the fever of our temperate climates than 
any others. 

I propose to speak, successively, of the various methods of cure which 
have been in vogue among us ; and, as far as possible, assign the principle on 
which each was based. 

A reference to the times of settlement of the Interior Valley (Book I, 
Part III), will show that, with the exception of the French and Spanish 
inhabitants around the Grulf of Mexico, and the French and British, on the 
St. Lawrence and the Lakes, nearly all the settlements of the Valley 
have been made within the present century ; it is possible, therefore, to 



782 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book it. 

review the plan of treatment from the commencement of western society, 
which cannot he done in any other part of the world where large masses of 
population exist. 

I. First Treatment in the West. — There never has been a time 
when our fever was regarded and treated, as a simple inflammatory affec- 
tion — a mere phlegmasia. In the earliest period of immigration, it was 
believed to have something in its pathology, which required other agencies 
than the antiphlogistic, although a portion of that treatment might be 
requisite. Two facts, especially fixed the attention of the physicians of that 
day: First. The derangements of the biliary function: Second. The inhe- 
rent periodicity of the Fever ; and these facts suggested the treatment. 
The disordered functional action of the liver was to be corrected ; the 
stomach and bowels relieved from their morbid secretions; the arterial 
excitement reduced until intermissions were obtained; and, then, the bark 
was to be administered, to prevent the recurrence of the paroxysms, and 
complete the cure. 

For the accomplishment of these ends, the lancet was employed in the 
more violent cases, especially when signs of inflammation in any organ were 
present ; and blood was drawn several times in certain cases by some physi- 
cians. Others, however, scarcely employed the lancet in any ; and referring 
to the admitted fact, that the drawn blood was, in most eases, free from buff, 
they argued that venesection could do no good, and might do harm, by in- 
ducing the typhous state. 

Emetics in those days were standing remedies in this fever. The patient 
generally threw up a liberal quantity of bile, and felt more comfortable after 
the operation. In many cases they were repeated several times. 

Cathartics were in equal, or even greater use, and consisted chiefly of calo- 
mel and jalap, or of calomel followed by castor oil, Glauber's salt {sulphate 
of soda), or an infusion of senna, sweetened with manna. A close inspection 
of the discharges, from the stomach and bowels, was regarded as an indis- 
pensable duty at every visit ; and the slightest indication of a return to a 
healthier state of the secretions, was seen with hope and satisfaction. 

Tartarized antimony, generally used as an emetic, and often combined with 
a cathartic medicine, was, also, administered in nauseating doses ; sometimes 
in simple solution, but oftener in combination with saline refrigerants, of which 
the most reliable were the nitrate of potash, and the acetate of potash, or 
common saline mixture, formed with sub-carbonate of potash and diluted vin- 
egar, sometimes administered in a state of effervesence. The spirit of nitrous 
ether was likewise in universal use, and often added to the saline draught. 
But, Professor Rush, who controlled the medical mind of the whole country 
more than any other physician has since controlled it, proposed the following 
recipe, which was almost universally adopted: 

E;. Nitrate of potash, - 3 j. 

Tartarized antimony, ----- gr. i. 
Calomel, ---- grs. vj. 

Triturate together, and divide into six papers. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 783 

One of these powders was given every two hours, through the hot stage. 
They always nauseated, and sometimes produced both vomiting and purging, 
while the nitre acted as a refrigerant and sedative. 

If the calomel thus or otherwise administered, affected the mouth, no re- 
gret was felt by the physician, for, in fact, a mercurial action was thought td 
be curative. It was generally held, that calomel, on the whole, was the most 
important remedy, inasmuch as it would act on the liver (assumed to be the 
organ primarily affected), and at the same time arrest the fever, by its influ- 
ence on the constitution. T\ T ith these satisfactory reasons for its adminis- 
tration, it was generally continued for such a length of time, that but few 
patients got through an attack of the Fever without a salivation. 

Opium, in connection with sudorifics, was in general use, and after free 
evacuation from the bowels, through the afternoon and evening, Dover's pow- 
der, or the spiritus Mindereri with paregoric, was administered to produce 
sleep and diaphoresis through the night. 

Cupping was seldom practiced, and leeching nearly unknown. But instead 
of these, blisters were employed, not only to relieve local inflammation, but 
to subdue the Fever, when no sign of inflammation existed; and, hence, almost 
every patient had a blistered surface on some part of his body, throughout 
the whole period of his confinement. 

The object of all this treatment, was to prepare the system for the recep- 
tion of the bark and other tonics. The length of time required to effect 
what was regarded as the necessary preparation, varied in different cases, 
but was scarcely ever less than a week. In many respects this method was 
judicious; and, although I have spoken in the past tense, it still maintains 
itself (with some modifications), in the confidence of a large portion of our 
physicians. 

II. Advantages and Disadvantages oe this Treatment. — The indica- 
tions proposed to be fulfilled by this treatment, were, on the main, correct ; 
but some received too much, others too little attention, and a part of the 
means employed acted violently on the system, without superseding the mor- 
bid action. 

Those who regarded the Fever as arising independently of inflammation, 
often omitted bloodletting; when, even in the absence of inflammation, there 
were reasons for employing it; and, on the other hand, they who held to the 
inflammatory origin of the Fever, placed too much reliance on that remedy. 
The true reason for resorting to the lancet was not perceived; but on this 
point I shall speak presently. 

The exhibition of powerful emetics and cathartics, before resorting to the 
lancet, was wrong, for they would not operate kindly, and their daily repeti- 
tion sometimes produced gastro-enteritis. The signs for their discontinuance, 
were a healthier aspect of the tongue, and of the alvine discharges ; but, how 
could they assume a natural appearance, under the daily irritation of drastic 
medicines ? Too much stress was, in fact, laid upon the indication — ' to cor- 
rect the state of the secretions.' Moreover, many physicians prescribed 
purging for the purpose of lowering the excitement of the vascular system, 



784 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ir. 

when venesection would have accomplished that object much better, and with- 
out the risk of exciting mucous irritation in the stomach and bowels. 

As calomel is, perhaps, the most efficacious of all antiphlogistic alterants, 
and, as the liver seemed to be more involved, than any other organ, it was 
not strange, that physicians should have assumed, that a mercurial action 
would supersede the Fever ; and, therefore, should have administered that 
medicine both liberally and perseveringly. The curative results of this 
practice, were seldom satisfactory, however ; while its pernicious effects were 
sometimes of the saddest character. 

The extensive blistering which made a part of that treatment, was every 
way objectionable. It was sometimes resorted to, while the arterial excite- 
ment was high, when all the effects obtained, were an increase of that ex- 
citement ; and an extensively ulcerated surface, which added to the sufferings 
of the patient, and occasionally became gangrenous. 

Lastly, the administration of the bark was deferred too long ; though, we 
must admit, that it cannot be safely administered, at as early a period of the 
Fever, as the sulphate of quinine. 

We come now to speak of curative plans, carved, as it were, out of that 
which has been discussed. Methods founded respectively, on a single idea ; 
and, therefore, commended to us by their simplicity. 

III. Treatment as for G- astro-enteritis. — The fascinating simplifications 
of Broussais, could not fail to meet with advocates among us ; but they have 
never amounted to more than a respectable minority. The assumption, that 
remittent autumnal fever is but a primary gastro-enteritis, had the appear- 
ance of a pathological discovery ; and the proposed treatment was accept- 
able to all, both physicians and patients, who had become tired of the poly- 
pharmacy, and the uncertain results, of the prevailing method. To withhold 
emetics and cathartics, opium, stimulants, and food ; to give demulcent and 
acidulated drinks ; to use the lancet in some cases, and cup or leech the epi- 
gastrium in all, was at once easy in practice, and captivating in promise. In 
cases which were, really, attended with mucous inflammation, this method was 
beneficial ; and, its adoption by a number of our physicians, exerted a salutary 
influence on the rest, by restraining them from the excessive administration 
of tartar emetic, calomel, and drastic cathartics. Without having, therefore, 
superseded, it has modified the older method. Two or three things have, 
perhaps, contributed to limit its more general adoption. First. The extreme 
difficulty of adequate, topical bleeding, in the country, to which most cases 
of the Fever belong. Second. The desire of our people for strong measures. 
Third. The general propensity in our physicians to employ them: that is. 
to be doing a great deal. 

IV. The Purging Practice. — At all times, and with all our physi- 
cians (except those who adopted the opinions of Broussais), purging, as we 
have seen, has been an important part of our melhodus medendi; but it re- 
quired a peculiar hypothesis, to resolve the whole treatment into that ope- 
ration. This was at length supplied, in congestion of the portal circle and 
the vena cava ascendens. The removal of this congestion constituted the 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 785 

sole indication of cure, and was to be accomplished, by increasing secretion 
from the liver, and the mucous membrane of the stomach and bowels. Those 
who adopted this hypothesis, as simple as the gastro-enteritis of the French 
school (but suggesting, in the opinion of its advocates, a totally different 
practice), built their hopes on drastic purging, and, consistently, made calo- 
mel the governing article of their prescriptions. Thus the mercurial and 
cathartic treatment became united into one method, which in its application 
substituted, for the discriminating skill of the physician, the relentless punc- 
tuality of the apothecary and the nurse. Calomel, in doses which the world 
had not hitherto known, was given to excite the liver and mucous mem- 
brane into increased secretion, and drastics, in corresponding doses, to drain 
the bowels, as fast as those fluids were poured into them. The object was 
not to supersede the febrile action, by a mercurial irritation of the general 
system ; but to rouse the liver and gastro-enteric membrane into secretory 
excitement ; and thus transform the blood of the portal viscera into bile and 
liquor-intestinalis. To this end, scruple doses of calomel were regarded as 
sufficient for the mildest cases only; and drachm closes, at short intervals, be- 
came a familiar prescription, in ordinary epidemics ; while, in those of greater 
violence, portions of half an ounce, an ounce, or an ounce and a half, were swal- 
lowed by the patient several times a day; till in some instances, a pound, or a 
pound and a half, was administered to a single patient, and gave to his ex- 
cretions the appearance of chalk ! I am not at liberty to doubt the testi- 
mony collected in the south, on which I make this statement. In the State 
of Mississippi, a physician assured me, that he had given a patient, one 
thousand grains for three successive days ! As the purgative effects of cal- 
omel do not increase with the dose, and yet purging was an essential part 
of the cure, medicines better calculated to excite it, were either alternated 
or combined with the calomel ; and these were very commonly given in vast 
doses. A respectable planter, in the same state, assured me, that he had 
given, by order of his physician, such quantities as I thought incredible ; 
till I met with a neighboring physician, who declared that he had adminis- 
tered, in a single case, six hundred grains of a triple compound of aloes, 
rhubarb, and calomel, in equal quantities, for six consecutive days ! Such 
instances, I am happy to think, embrace the extremest abuses of this method; 
and the number who reached these criminal limits, was perhaps not very 
great. It cannot be denied, however, that the practice, here reprobated, was 
for several years, that on which numerous physicians of the west and south 
rested their hopes ; and although in general they stopped short of the reck- 
lessness of a few, they carried their single idea to an excess, which at length 
produced a revulsion in the public mind; and in numerous instances led to 
their being superseded by empyrics, who declaimed equally against the judi- 
cious, and the headlong administration of calomel. Under this reaction, it 
became, at least, difficult to exhibit that medicine in any dose, and the blue 
pill is now often substituted, when calomel would be preferable. 

It does not appear, I think, that the immense doses of calomel, adminis- 
tered by a few fanatics, did any more injury, than the drachm doses of the 



786 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

majority of physicians. These doses often passed through the bowels un- 
dissolved, and inactive. They did not salivate or purge more than the smaller 
portions. They were, however, a revolting absurdity. The drastic purging to 
which the patients, day after day, were subjected, was no doubt as pernicious, 
though not so frightful to the people, as the mercurial ravages, which in 
many instances accompanied this practice. The former were invisible, the 
latter visible, to the public eye. That the purging practice was often con- 
tra-indicated by, or produced inflammation of, the mucous membrane, no 
sound pathologist can doubt ; and therein consists one of the weightiest 
objections to the practice. Another is, that in cases which had any latent 
tendency to those paroxysms of collapse, which are called malignant or con- 
gestive, excessive purging soon developed it, so that it has grown into a 
saying in many parts of the south, that congestive fevers are made by this 
practice. Further north, the same purging, has often led to the production 
of a typhous state, equally, though not so immediately dangerous. Finally, 
both this and the practice of the Broussais school, are liable to the grave 
objection, that they aspired to be curative, when, in their most judicious appli- 
cation, they were but preparative. 

Having given this brief narrative of the methods of treatment, which 
have prevailed, and indeed still prevail among us, I proceed to speak of that, 
to which public opinion has for some years been tending, and which seems to 
me yreferable to any, which has yet been followed. 

Y. Tendency at the Present Time. — Both the methods of treat- 
ment we have just discussed, are modifications of the first, and that which 
we are now to study, can claim nothing more. Its fundamental principles are, 
that autumnal fever is the product of a specific cause, and, therefore, con- 
sists in a morbid action of a peculiar kind, requiring a specific remedy; that 
we possess such an antidote for the intermittent variety of the Fever; and, 
that, we have only to abate all the causes and points of difference between 
the two varieties, to render the sulphate of quinine as efficacious in one as 
the other. 

But what are the pathological differences between them? The answer 
must be, that we do not find them, in the functional disturbances and morbid 
secretions of the liver and primes, vice, which are generally as great in the 
intermittent as the remittent type. They seem to me to consist in a higher 
febrile excitement of the whole system ; a greater tendency to visceral hy- 
peremias and inflammations; a much longer hot stage; and the consequent 
want of a complete intermission. These conditions being obviated, the 
antidote will take effect, as in an ordinary intermittent. The old treatment, 
it is true, proposed all this ; but the change in the condition of the sys- 
tem was to be accomplished gradually ; and as each exascerbation of the 
Fever, added to the lesions of innervation, or renewed the inflammation of 
some organ, it often happened, that a suitable condition for the administra- 
tion of the antidote was never reached. 

The new modification of treatment, consists in transforming a remittent 
into an intermittent in a single day, and by a single agent. As stimulation 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 787 

will raise an intermittent into a remittent, so an opposite treatment may 
suddenly change the latter into the former ; or, at least, so reduce the excite- 
ment of the heart and arteries, that the pathological state of the patient is 
an equivalent for the apyrexia of an intermittent. 

Bloodletting is the means for accomplishing this end. To be successful, 
however, it must be employed in the first, second, or third paroxysm, that is, 
before inflammation in any organ has become established. The quantity 
taken, must be such as will bring the patient to the verge of syncope. Pal- 
lor and perspiration of the face, yawning, nausea, and a feeble, empty, and 
rapid pulse, must declare, that the excessive excitement of the system is, for 
the time being, effectually brought down. If these effects be not produced, 
the preparation of the system for the antiperiodic is not accomplished. 

After such a bleeding, we may or may not administer an evacuant ; but, 
if decided on, it should be given without delay. In the higher latitudes, 
ten grains of calomel, ten of jalap, and one of tartar emetic, mixed, or a 
solution of the last, with sulphate of magnesia, may be administered. To 
the south, two or four grains of ipecac may be combined with ten or fifteen 
of calomel, and, in a few hours, worked off with castor oil, and oil of tur- 
pentine, mixed, or an infusion of senna and manna. By the sudden and 
profuse evacuation thus effected, the condition of the system, produced by 
the bleeding, will be augmented, and the primes vice prepared for the recep- 
tion of the antidote. But if the signs of gastric and biliary disorder should 
not be great — if the stomach has not been previously irritable, nor the 
bowels obstinately costive, nor the eyes and skin tinged with bile — the 
cathartic may be omitted. 

Having thus lessened the volume of blood, reduced the power of the heart, 
and increased the susceptibility of the system; having, in other words, 
brought about a transient, artificial intermission, the sulphate of quinine, as 
the specific alterant, must be immediately and liberally administered. If it 
be deferred, another paroxysm will form; just as we see the fever in scar- 
latina or small pox return, after bleeding, even to deliquium animi. Those 
diseases, respectively, depending on specific causes, will not yield to a simple 
antiphlogistic treatment ; inj like manner, the Fever we are now studying 
depends on a specific cause, and demands for its cure something that can 
supersede the morbid action. To this end, ten grains of the sulphate of 
quinine, with one or two of opium ; and, if no calomel have been given, ten 
grains of that medicine, should be exhibited in a single dose. The results 
which may be expected are sleep and perspiration, with a full, slow, and soft 
pulse. In the latter part of the following night, the dose of quinine must 
be repeated, with or without the other medicines, and again repeated about 
noon the next day. It does not follow that the patient will not, at that 
time, have some degree of thirst, pain in the head or back, and increase of 
pulse ; but his warm perspiration will continue. In this exascerbation, an 
injection may be administered, if he had not been previously purged, or he 
may be bled again. At bed-time, a fourth dose of the quinine, with an equal 
quantity of Dover's powder, should be taken, and another portion of quinine 



788 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 11. 

should be exhibited early the next morning. If he had not been freely 
purged at the beginning, he may now take a stimulating cathartic ; but, if 
possible, should use the pan, and not leave his bed during the operation. 
In the early part of the following night, he must repeat the quinine and 
Dover's powder, after which a repetition will scarcely be required. He 
ought, however, to keep in bed for two or three days longer ; a gentle dia- 
phoresis should be kept up, and the healthy action of the liver restored, by 
small doses of the blue pill and quinine, with a' gentle opiate at night. 

In principle, this method is the same which we find successful in pneumo- 
nia, hepatitis, and some other phlegmasia, except that the alterant used is 
different. In pneumonia we do many things, but the detraction of a great 
quantity of blood, followed by the immediate administration of large doses 
of tartar emetic, will effect a cure ; in acute hepatitis a similar bleeding, suc- 
ceeded by full doses of calomel, will bring out the desired result. The same 
is true of acute peritonitis, which, readily yielding to these measures, proves 
fatal without them, notwithstanding many other things may be done. In these 
phlogistic fevers, tartar emetic and calomel, respectively, exert an alterant 
influence, which, without the previous bleeding, they could not. They have 
power over common phlegmasia! fever and inflammation; but not over the 
specific fever, and its associated inflammations, which constitute the disease 
we are now studying. To supersede them, we must establish in the system 
(rendered unresisting by the loss of blood), an action incompatible with the 
febrile and inflammatory — a transient quinic disease, which^ ceasing sponta- 
neously, leaves the patient free from his original disorder. 

But this happy result is not always attainable, and we must now consider 
the causes of failure. I have limited the commencement of the proposed 
treatment to the third paroxysm ; but there may be cases in which it will 
succeed, if begun in the fourth or fifth; nevertheless, the earlier, the better; 
for, if inflammation have become established in any organ, it may not yield to 
bloodletting, the quinine, or any other means. Moreover, the longer the fe- 
ver has continued, the less is the quantity of blood which can be taken away 
with impunity. The vital energies have begun to fail ; the susceptibilities 
have become more perverted, and the blood has fallen into a vitiated condi- 
tion. Under these circumstances, if a free bleeding should be practiced, a 
dangerous constitutional irritation may follow; for copious venesection ren- 
ders the heart and arterial system irritable ; and thus gives to the deteriorated 
blood, a reactive influence upon them, which, before the operation, it could 
not exert. The practice of bleeding to relieve inflammation, in an ad- 
vanced stage of the Fever, has been condemned, even by those who bleed freely 
in the beginning. But may not an immediate exhibition of quinine obviate 
the objection to such a bleeding? May not that medicine, even, contribute 
to the cure of the inflammation ? Is not the inflammation as much a part of the 
Fever, as the pustule is of variola, a quinsy of scarlatina, or the abscess of a lym- 
phatic ganglion, of the chronic fever, present in some cases of scrofula ? These 
questions must be answered, I think, in the affirmative; and, if so, we might ex- 
pect advantages from the quinine in remittent fever, even when inflammation 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 789 

exists. If, however, it should not possess a power of that kind, it would not, I 
suppose, increase the inflammation; while its peculiar sedative and semi- 
narcotic operation, would aid in repressing the constitutional irritation, which 
might follow Weeding in the stage of the Fever, we are now considering. 

Although inflammation is not the cause, but arises with, or supervenes 
upon, remittent fever, still, it is not on that account the less dangerous. 
When it begins with the fever, it generally yields to a copious bleeding, and 
the subsequent use of quinine; but when its development is late, it often 
sets our utmost efforts at defiance. Among the means which may be em- 
ployed for its abatement, there are three external applications, in which con- 
siderable confidence may be placed : First. Long continued tepid ablutions 
and fomentations over the affected organ. Second. Repeated topical bleed- 
ing. Third. Blistering, which, however useless when there is no inflammation, 
is of much value when that condition exists. There are, moreover, several 
medicines, which may be employed with advantage. Thus, if the inflamma- 
tion be seated in the liver or spleen, calomel should be administered in doses 
of four or six grain doses every two or four hours, according to the violence 
of the symptoms ; if seated in the mucous membrane of the stomach and 
duodenum, the same medicine, triturated with gum arabic, refined sugar, and 
opium, or the sulphate of morphine, should be employed; if the lungs be the 
seat of the inflammation, tartarized antimony, and other sedative expecto- 
rants may be used ; if the brain, calomel with cathartics, will be proper. 

Should any one of these inflammations become intense, the fever may as- 
sume a continued type; when quinine would, perhaps, prove useless; but, 
if remissions still manifest themselves, that medicine should be mingled or 
alternated, with the other means which have been recommended. 

VI. Facts bearing favorably on the early exhibition oe Quinine. — 
The treatment recommended under the last head, is one which I have pur- 
sued, as occasional opportunities offered, since the year 1838 or 1839. The 
effects have been highly encouraging, but I am not under the necessity of com- 
mending it on such limited grounds, for in several long journeys, from 1840 
to 1844, I collected the experience of a multitude of physicians, from the 
Gulf of Mexico to Lake Superior, and will present an abstract of that portion 
which is in favor of the early administration of quinine. 

At Milwaukie, N. L. 43°, remittent fever is almost unknown; but Doctor 
Hewet, had treated cases successfully on the old method of venesection (in 
some cases), emetics, cathartics, and diaphoretics, for a week, when he ad- 
ministered the sulphate of quinine. 

The Fever is somewhat more prevalent at Racine, a little further south ; 
the treatment, as I learned from Doctor Blanchard, and Doctor Graves, the 
same as that just mentioned. 

Chicago, still further south, on the same western coast of Lake Michigan, 
is far more infested with the Fever. Its treatment, as stated by Doctor 
Brainard, Doctor Brinckerhoff, and Doctor Kimberly, is substantially the 
same as at the two other towns. 



790 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

At Port Huron, N. L. 43°, the Fever is frequently epidemic. Doctor 
Noble informed me that he seldom bleeds ; but after the operation of an 
emetic and mercurial cathartic, administers Dover's powder and camphor, till 
an intermission with perspiration is obtained, when he resorts to quinine. 

At Detroit, Doctor Potter regards bloodletting as a most important 
remedy. Doctor Pitcher, a gentleman of ripe experience, resorts to the 
lancet early, gives a cathartic of calomel, and then administers quinine, in 
five or ten grain doses. 

Doctor Denton, of Ann Arbor, west of Detroit, is a strong advocate for 
bloodletting; to which he resorts in the cold stage, rather than the hot, and 
sometimes bleeds twice in one paroxysm ; but does not administer quinine, 
till after the lapse of six or seven days. 

Doctor Landon, of Monroe, south of Detroit, has bled freely, and saw the 
blood sizy ; then purged copiously, and proceeded to the administration of 
quinine ; which he has often given with success, when the tongue was still 
heavily coated. 

The estuary of the Maumee, at the south west angle of Lake Erie, is 
infested with this fever. Doctor St. Clair bleeds freely and has often seen 
the blood sizy; uses emetics, and cathartics; but does not begin to employ 
the quinine for several days afterward. 

Doctor Peck bleeds, vomits with tartar emetic, and purges with calomel and 
other cathartics till an intermission is obtained. In this condition, when the 
tongue has become clean, and the patient seemed convalescent, the next 
paroxysm has set in with coma, and that which followed proved fatal. In 
other cases, this sinister effect has been averted by five grain doses of 
quinine, in conjunction with the same quantity of calomel. 

Doctor Dwight has, in some autumns, bled freely, and seen the blood buffy, 
purged with calomel, and then administered quinine. 

Doctor Van Every, in the autumn of 1838, bled in almost every case, 
sometimes to twenty ounces — after which, cathartic medicines operated 
freely, when he gave three grains of quinine every two hours. 

Doctors Smith and Perkins, did not bleed very often, but found the early 
use of quinine, in two grain doses, every two hours, successful. 

In the same fever, Doctor Ackly gave the blue mass, or calomel with 
morphine and ipecac, or tartar emetic every three or four hours, till a dia- 
phoresis occurred ; when he administered a cathartic, and then resorted to 
quinine. All these observations were made in the same region. 

Doctor Cochran, of Sandusky City, south side of Lake Erie, has bled 
freely, given a few large doses of calomel, and then administered ten grains 
of quinine every eight hours, till perspiration came on. 

Doctor Tilden, of the same city, has seen bleeding, vomiting, and purging, 
do harm, when not followed by an early administration of quinine. 

At Norwalk, near Sandusky, Doctors Baker and Kitteridge, have bled, in 
some cases several times, and found the blood sizy; administered calomel 
freely, purged with extract scammony and colocynth, followed with castor oil, 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 791 

and as soon as the remissions were made a little more perfect, administered 
quinine, 

Doctors Manter and Howard, of Elyria, on the same lake-terrace with 
Norwalk, have found quinine injurious in the Fever, before it was brought, 
by one or more bleedings, to an intermittent type. Have often seen the 
blood sizy. 

Doctor "Wallace, of Massillon, Ohio, bleeds freely, once or twice, and, 
without waiting for an intermission, proceeds to give quinine in five grain 
doses. 

At^Joliet, on the Illinois Eiver, Doctor Scholfield informed me that he 
was in the habit of giving his patient from twenty to forty grains of calo- 
mel, with half a grain of sulphate of morphine, while in the exascerbation, 
and following it the next day with castor oil or salts, immediately after which, 
he administered the quinine. 

Doctor Howland, of Ottawa, on the same river, bleeds, and if the patient 
have been costive, gives a cathartic of blue pill and rhubarb ; otherwise he 
proceeds at once to administer quinine. 

Doctor Whitehead, of Lasalle, on the same river, in an epidemic remittent, 
omitted bleeding, administered a dose of calomel and pulvis antimonialis, as 
a cathartic, and then gave quinine in two or three grain doses, sometimes 
combined with Dover's powder, every two or three hours. It arrested the 
hot stage, and brought on perspiration, with a slow and full pulse. 

In Springfield, the capital of Illinois, I found Doctors Todd, Henry, Jayne, 
Merriman, and Frazier, concurring in the practice of very moderate prepara- 
tory evacuation, either from the bloodvessels, or the bowels, and an early 
administration of quinine and opium. 

At Jefferson City, on the Missouri River, Doctors Abbott and Edwards, in 
the declining stage of the first paroxysm, without any previous preparation 
of the system, begin the administration of quinine in two or three grain 
doses, at short intervals, till the paroxysms cease to recur, when they give a 
mild cathartic. When the fever is strongly remittent, they bleed before 
using the quinine. 

Doctor Price, of Arrow Rock, further up the Missouri River, is accustomed 
to resort to quinine after the operation of a single cathartic or ernetico- cathar- 
tic, notwithstanding there may be head or back ache. 

Doctor Vaughan, of Dover, near the same river, does not often use the 
lancet, nor administer evacuants, but begins the treatment with quinine and 
calomel. 

Doctors Shanks and Frazier, of Memphis, Tennessee, are accustomed to 
employ the lancet, cold to the head, some small doses of calomel and ipecac, 
and then, at an early period, to complete the cure with quinine. Doctor 
Christian, of the same city, in latter years, bleeds once, gives a few doses of 
spirit of nitrous ether, and then the quinine ; in six or eight hours, a gentle ca- 
thartic, and quinine again ; which method cures in one third the time of that 
which he formerly pursued. Doctor Grant, of the same city, formerly of the 
hill country, in Alabama, while there, bled freely, cupped, blistered when the 



792 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

stomach was irritable, gave a full dose of calomel, and in the first remission 
afterward, gave twenty grains of quinine in a solution of tartaric acid. A 
slow and full pulse, with perspiration, followed. 

Doctor Hicks, of Vicksburg, Mississippi, after one bleeding, and a dose 
of calomel, or blue pill, with ipecac, administers quinine with happy results. 

Doctor Gist, and Doctor Cabannis, of Jackson, Mississippi, purge moder- 
ately, in most cases with castor oil, and, in the first remission, give quinine, 
which they think tends to promote intermissions. In some cases they bleed. 

Doctor B. Yandell, of Benton, Mississippi, often employs the lancet, and be- 
gins the exhibition of quinine, before the end of the paroxysm. 

Doctor Davis, of Natchez, bleeds, and resorts almost immediately to that 
medicine. It abates the thirst, and the force and frequency of the pulse, in- 
creases its fullness, and promotes perspiration. In the cases in which it fails 
to produce these effects, he throws it aside. Doctor Jones, of the same city, 
seldom bleeds, but after the operation of a dose of calomel, or blue mass, fol- 
lowed by castor oil, proceeds to administer the quinine, in five grain doses, 
every three or four hours. 

Doctors Tate, Estes, and Winter, of Columbus, Mississippi, have found 
that many cases of remittent fever, treated only with aperients, and cold 
acidulated drinks, assume an intermittent type, and are cured with the qui- 
nine. These physicians, with their brethren, Doctors Smith, Jones, Lips- 
comb, and the Malones, have found the lancet unnecessary, or injurious,- and 
drastic purgatives still more so. After gentle alvine evacuations, they de- 
pend on quinine. 

Doctors Beall, McCune, and Wilkins, of Pickensville, Alabama, on the 
Tombeckbee River, below Columbus, condemn free purging, and do not em- 
ploy the lancet,' without following it immediately with quinine. 

Doctor Drish, of Tuscaloosa, in the same state, frequently bleeds, some- 
times vomits, purges with calomel, or the blue mass, combined with opium, 
and then gives one or two grains of quinine, with pipeline or morphine, every 
hour or two. He has seen large doses of calomel produce watery discharges. 

Doctor Billingslea, on the Tallapoosa River, has used large doses of quinine 
immediately after bloodletting. 

Doctor Echols, of Selma, bleeds, but generally omits active purging, and 
proceeds to administer quinine. 

Doctor English, of Cahawba, bleeds, cups, administers a mild cathartic, 
and then gives quinine. 

Doctor Hogan, of the same region of country, as his partner, Doctor Stone, 
informed me, stimulates, and administers quinine from the beginning, with 
admirable success. 

When at Natchez, in 1844, I was told by Doctor Cartwright, that Mr. 
Charles Crossgrove, a respectable superintendent of a cotton plantation, in 
Concordia Parish, Louisiana, had administered quinine with great success. 
I had a conversation with him on the subject, and, he, also, gave me a writ- 
ten statement, of which the following is the substance : 

On the plantation there are fifty-five negroes, and a white family. No 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 793 

physician had been employed for three years. Autumnal fever, in its differ- 
ent varieties, had been the chief disease. He began the administratation of 
quinine without any previous evacuation. The first day, he gave two 
doses, of ten grains each; the next day, three doses, of the same size. He 
never had occasion to administer the medicine beyond the third day, and it 
had never failed, in a single case, to " break the fever." It is worthy of re- 
mark, that, on the plantations of the south, the treatment is begun with the 
beginning of the Fever, before deep-seated congestions or inflammations have 
been formed. 

Finally, I may add, that, when exploring the statistics of the great 
Charity Hospital of New Orleans, in 1844, I found that a change had 
taken place in the method of treating patients there, as great as I have found 
over the country at large. The mercurial and drastic practice had given 
way to mild aperients, occasional bloodletting, and an early exhibition of qui- 
nine ; the effect of which had been a diminution in the number of deaths, com- 
pared with the number of cases admitted into the hospital. 

These citations show that, in all parts of the Interior Yalley, there are phy- 
sicians who, for several years past, have been changing their modes of prac- 
tice in the same direction ; and that, too, without borrowing from one another. 
The reform may be said to have arisen spontaneously in each portion of the 
country; and is, therefore, entitled to the greater confidence. The facts 
which I have presented were collected from 1840 to 1844, inclusive, and, at 
the end of the latter year, transcribed and arranged. During that period, 
and since, more has been published on the treatment of the Fever, than for 
a long time before; and almost every paper testifies to what I am attempting 
to establish. But I do not think it necessary to make a transcript of this 
published experience, as it is within the reach of our physicians, and does 
not materially extend our knowledge on this point, beyond the unpublished 
notes which have just been presented, however strongly it may confirm the 
conclusions to be drawn from them.* 

It may be said, th^t I have given the evidence on^one side only. This I grant, 
but I know of none on the other. All our physicians are advocates of the 
quinine-practice; and even those who postpone the administration of the 
antiperiodic to a later stage of the Fever, and subject their patients to a 
longer preparatory treatment, do not, in general, profess to have given the 
method, here recommended, a trial, and rejected it as injurious or ineffectual. 
They are only more conservative than their brethren — more attached to old 
ways — and yet, even the most cautious among them, have abated consider- 
ably in their diversified, and often, perturbating measures. 

VII. Required Modifications of Treatment. — 1. From the Epidemic 

*The papers, to which I allude, may be chiefly found in the American Journal of the 
Medical Sciences, and in the Journals of New Orleans, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincin- 
nati, and Buffalo. Several of them are from gentlemen whose names are in the forego- 
ing catalogue of authorities. Of those with whom I had not the opportunity of con- 
versing, I may mention Doctor McCormick, and Doctor Porter, U. S. A. ; whose observa- 
tions in Florida, confirm, in the amplest manner, all that has been said. 

51 



794 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

Constitution. — At different times our Valley has been visited by an epidemic 
constitution of the typhous kind. The effect of such an atmospheric influ- 
ence, is to convert our remittent into a continued fever, or, at least, to give it 
a set in that direction. This complication of two diatheses, greatly increases 
the difficulty of the treatment ; for neither the copious detraction of blood, 
nor the liberal exhibition of quinine, is apt to prove beneficial in such cases. 
They are, in fact, exceedingly difficult to manage, and demand from us the 
most careful consideration ; but what may be said, can be best introduced 
under the head of typhous fevers ; where the treatment of the so-called 
" typhoid stage " of remittent fever will also be presented. 

2. From a Northern Climate. — In the northern part of the Valley, 
where autumnal remittents often incline to a continued form, quinine is, per- 
haps, not as efficient ; and is, certainly, not administered in as large doses, as 
are given further south. Copious bleeding would, perhaps, increase the effi- 
cacy of that medicine in the higher latitudes, while it would, in turn, prevent 
any bad effects from the loss of blood. 

3. From a Southern Climate. — 'The modification of the proposed treat- 
ment, which is required in the south, relates chiefly to the use of the lancet. 
The heat and moisture of the southern climates, in connection with the agent, 
whatever it may be, which occasions the Fever, so act upon the constitution, 
that acute inflammation, and a high phlogistic diathesis are not easily induced ; 
and copious venesection, as a preparative for the quinine, is not so necessary, 
as in more northern latitudes. At the same time, that medicine seems to act 
more kindly, and to be borne in larger quantities, in those climates, than 
further north; of which more will be said in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

MALIGNANT REMITTENT FEVER. 



SECTION I. 

GENERAL REMARKS. 
The malignant remittent, is the most dreaded form of our autumnal fever. 
Malignant intermittents, when left to take their course, will, it is true, termi- 
nate in death ; yet they are curable ; but, under every known method of 
treatment, malignant remittents often prove fatal. I speak of cases to which 
the alarming epithet is truly applicable ; and not of all which, in the loose 
phraseology of the people, or even of the profession, are called malignant. 
In the middle latitudes they are rare ; and, although more frequent in the 
south, especially below the thirty-third parallel, they are nowhere as common 
as malignant intermittents. In some seasons, and in certain districts of 
country, they are more prevalent than in others. In the year 1843, I 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 795 

traversed, on different lines, a zone, extending from Arkansas to Florida, 
which is more infested with this fever than any other portion of the south. 
It lies chiefly between the thirty-first and thirty-third degrees, and includes 
what are called the prairies and canebrakes. The soil of those districts, rests 
on cretaceous or " rotten" limestone. As every other form of autumnal fever 
prevails in the same zone, we are required to refer the whole to one remote 
cause ; and confess our ignorance of the subordinate influences which gene- 
rate the diversities which have been described. 

I have conversed with many physicians, who had not recognized a remitting 
form of malignant autumnal fever. They spoke only of the intermitting. 
Others, however, had observed the distinction, and from them I collected 
facts, which, united with my own observations, give the following differential 
diagnosis. 



SECTION II. 

DIAGNOSIS AND PATHOLOGY. 
I. There is no danger of confounding a case of malignant with one of 
simple or inflammatory remittent fever ; for, in the former, certain symptoms 
which belong to the cold stage, continue in the hot, and even run through 
the remission. 

1. The pulse does not rise in fullness and force during the exascerbation, as 
in the other forms of remitting fever, but remains undeveloped ; being gen- 
erally small, frequent, weak, and more or less variable. But when the remis- 
sion begins, it generally improves in every quality ; yet it does not become 
as healthy, as in the remission of a simple or inflammatory case. 

2. The feeling of abdominal oppression, and the anxiety, restlessness, and 
gastric irritability, are deeper in this than in other forms of remittent fever ; 
and these symptoms never cease entirely in the remission. 

3. A coldness of the hands and feet, or of the ends of the toes and 
fingers only, continues through the hot stage, while the trunk of the body 
and the head are in high fever heat. With the arrival of the remission this 
coldness, in the milder cases, is replaced by a natural temperature ; but, in 
the more malignant, it continues, though, in general, with some abatement. 
Doctor Pickett, of Mississippi, and many other experienced physicians, regard 
this, as the most characteristic sign of the form of fever we are now studying. 

Malignant remittents may be distinguished from malignant intermittents ; 
First, by presenting remissions only : Second, by showing less reduction of 
temperature : Third, by the comparative absence of cold sweats : Fourth, 
by more delirium, and less apoplectic drowsiness. With these exceptions, 
the description of malignant intermittents already given, answers very well 
for malignant remittents. In fact, the symptomatical diversity between 
them, is chiefly the difference between intermission and remission — between 



796 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 11. 

cessation and abatement. Yet, this difference is indicative of pathological 
modifications, which, from their obscurity and danger, demand a rigid investi- 
gation. In algid intermittents, the feeling of thoracic oppression, the dysp- 
noea, the thirst, and the icy coldness of the limbs, are either followed by 
death in a brief period of time, or they cease, and a comfortable intermission 
follows. In soporose intermittents, the apoplectic stupor ends in death, or 
the patient revives at the end of the paroxysm, and remains free, till the 
recurrence of the next. In both forms, there is such a complete suspension 
of morbid action — such a restoration of healthy function in the internal 
organs — that the patient seems almost free from disease, although the next 
paroxysm may prove fatal. He has neither fever, congestion, nor inflamma- 
tion; but there is, in his system, a disposition to fall, again, into the patho- 
logical state of the preceding day ; and the cure consists in changing or de- 
stroying this disposition, by the known antiperiodics. 

Now, in malignant remittents, there is no time when the Fever is absent; 
and whatever irritations or congestions are formed in the cold stage — whatever 
inflammations are set up in the hot stage — remain, though moderated in de- 
gree, throughout the remission. Their continuance is, perhaps, at once the 
reason why intermissions do not take place ; and the cause that this form of 
fever, is not as curable as the intermittent. Whenever, in simple remittents, 
a complete intermission is effected, the antiperiodic puts an end to the disease, 
as certainly as if it had been, originally, of that type ; and we may presume, 
that if a perfect apyrexia could be brought about in malignant remittents, 
they would be as easily cured as malignant intermittents. The task lies in 
effecting this transformation — in procuring this absolute intermission. 

II. To reach a full apprehension of the difficulties in the way of this 
enterprise, it is necessary to inquire into the pathological conditions, which 
have to be overcome. 

1. In every case there is an original morbid state of the innervation, 
which may be designated by the terms, prostration and irritation ; and which, 
moreover, is peculiar or specific, febrile and periodical. To this affection 
of the solids, much of the feeling of exhaustion, the anxiety, the restlessness, 
and the suspended or morbid state of the secretions, is attributable. The 
same condition exists in intermittents, and is doubtless the chief cause of 
death, when they prove fatal, without the supervention of apoplexy. 

2. To the prostration and irritation of the solids, we must ascribe the con- 
gestions, which have given a name to the cases we are now considering. 
Our hydraulic, or mechanical pathologists, have too often overlooked this 
antecedent, pathological state, and found nothing to dread or avert, but 
these congestions. They have forgotten, that this unequal distribution of 
the blood, is the effect of an altered condition of the apparatus of circulation ; 
that the greater the congestion, the stronger is the evidence of a deeply 
smitten state of the containing solids; and, consequently, the greater the 
danger. Still further to narrow down this theory, many of them regard the 
congestion as taking place chiefly in the great vessels, and in the cavities of 
the heart ; to these alledged stagnant accumulations of the blood, they as- 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 797 

cribed the danger. But while we grant that the vena portse, the vena cavse, 
and the right auricle and ventricle, are overcharged and embarrassed, we 
must extend our views beyond them. 

In the fever now under consideration, the blood, which, before the attack 
was diifused through the whole body, becomes largely accumulated in the 
central parts. The subclavian and external iliac arteries, which, in health, 
receive a large quantity, and carry it far away from the heart, to be 
slowly returned, now receive very little ; and an inordinate quantity takes 
the course of the carotids, the vertebrals, the intercostals, the bronchials, the 
coronaries, the coeliac, the mesenteries, and the emulgents, establishing a cen- 
tral or visceral plethora, in which all the cavities of the heart, the arteries, 
veins, and capillaries, participate; by which the whole are oppressed 
and many new symptoms, or aggravations of those previously existing, are 
produced. I do not suppose, however, that the blood continues to circulate 
equally, and freely, through all the organs ; for it is soon discoverable that 
some are more oppressed than others; and, they are, of course, the special 
seats of irritation and congestion. 

3. In this pathological condition, the secretions of the liver, stomach, and 
bowels, become highly morbid ; and by their reaction upon the surfaces on 
which they are poured out, increase the very irritations, of which they are 
the products; thus augmenting the anguish, and the feeling of epigastric 
heat, which are such prominent symptoms in every stage of the Fever. 

4. Out of the pathological conditions just described, arise inflammations. A 
morbid state of the vital properties of the viscera, in connection with con- 
gestion, it may be safely affirmed, cannot continue long, without originating 
inflammation; but, we are not compelled to rely on this apriori-view, for many 
cases of the Eever are attended with symptoms, which cannot be interpre- 
ted, except on the theory of inflammation; and unquestionable ravages of 
that local affection, have been found after death. 

When inflammation is thus added to the previous debility, irritation, mor- 
bid secretion, and congestion, the complication is complete. Every element 
of difficulty and danger is present; and the concourse of symptoms displays, 
at once, a highly adynamic, and ataxic character. Should any one doubt the 
possibility of inflammation in one organ, while another remains in a state of 
passive congestion, and all are prostrated in their vital energies, let him con- 
template for a moment, the phenomena which follow the escape of a portion 
of the contents of the bowels, into the sack of the peritoneum. Extreme 
prostration and irritation immediately ensue, and continue till the patient ex- 
pires ; before which event, however, the tenderness on pressure, the swelling, 
pain, and heat, clearly indicate a supervening peritonitis. The physician 
does not doubt its existence, notwithstanding the feeble and thready pulse, 
and resolves on venesection. When only four or five ounces of blood have 
been drawn, however, the patient faints, and no rise of the pulse, no reac- 
tive impulse of the heart, follow; yet, the blood is sizy, and a post mortem 
inspection discloses active hyperemias and effusions of coagulating lymph in 
the peritoneum, with passive congestions elsewhere. 



798 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 11. 

Thus it is demonstrated that inflammation may be set up, when the power 
of the heart, and the tone of the arterial system, are in a state of extreme 
reduction ; and, also, that it may continue until death, without arousing them 
into energetic reaction ; which, no doubt, happens in the form of fever we 
are now studying. 

Indeed, great energy in the heart is not necessary to the production of 
inflammation, which, being an affection of the capillary extremities of an 
artery, arises independently of the heart ; and may, therefore, be as readily 
established in one condition of that organ as another. But the legitimate 
effect of any inflammation, is to rouse the central organ of the circulation 
into greater activity and stronger impulse. In a common phlegmasia, for 
example, this is done. In ordinary autumnal fever, of the kind denominated 
inflammatory, we observe the same effect ; but, in the malignant variety, such 
a consequence may or may not result from inflammation. Hence comes the 
variety which has been observed in the movements of the heart ; some 
physicians having observed them to be essentially feeble, others strong, but 
tumultuous, and inefficient in the propulsion of the blood to distant parts of 
the body. 

In proportion as the inflamed organ is incapable of exciting the heart into 
vigorous, phlogistic action, the case is malignant; and the diathesis, which 
prevents that reactive influence on the central organ of the circulation, con- 
stitutes the true distinction between malignant and inflammatory remittents. 
Neither the simple congestion, nor the inflammation which occurs in this 
fever, seems to have any special or invariable seat. There is no fixed law of 
localization, like that which determines the inflammation in variola upon the 
skin, or in scarlatina upon the throat; yet, as we shall see hereafter* 
the abdominal organs suffer more than those of the other great cavities. 
It is not likely that inflammation occurs in every case of malignant remit- 
tent ; and if its ravages were found in all who die, they would only show 
that inflammation was probably the cause of death ; while the patients in 
whom it did not occur, on that very account recovered. 

Of the four pathological conditions — constitutional irritation, simple 
hyperemia, morbid secretion, and inflammatory congestion, the first and last 
are most to be deprecated. When the first is so deep, that the excitement of 
the heart will not rise after bloodletting, or under the exciting influence of 
an inflamed organ, the prognosis is bad. On the other hand, whenever, from 
treatment, or the occurrence of inflammation, the heart rises in power, and 
the pulse becomes full and firm, the prognosis is better; for however intense 
the inflammation, it may be subdued or abated by treatment. Such a case 
presents the metamorphosis of a malignant into an inflammatory fever. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 799 

SECTION III. 

TREATMENT. 

I. Indications and Difficulties. — No physician enters on the treat- 
ment of a case of our malignant remittent fever, without a feeling of doubt 
as to the means, and of foreboding as to the result. To understand the 
sources of this misgiving, we must recapitulate the points set forth in the 
last section. First. There is a peculiar, original enfeeblement and irritation 
of the vital organs, the first effect of the remote cause. Second. This con- 
dition of the solids, occasions an internal accumulation of the blood, and pas- 
sive congestions of some organ, or organs ; which do not cease, but only suf- 
fer abatement in the remission. Third. In many cases, some of the con- 
gestions become inflammations. Fourth. Under the influence of one or 
more of these pathological states, the special functions of the organs, are 
either suspended, or increased, and at the same time perverted. In this 
morbid condition, the sulphate of quinine, as experience has shown, cannot 
exert the specific, alterant and antiperiodic effect, which follows its exhibi- 
tion in the apyrexia of a malignant intermittent; and of course the first 
object should be, to bring the system into a state favorable to the action of 
that medicine. The accomplishment of this end has taxed the ingenuity of 
our brethren, in regions where malignant remittents prevail ; but no methods 
of practice have as yet given satisfactory results. 

II. Venesection and Cupping. — When the lancet has been employed, 
the most opposite effects have followed. In some instances the pulse has 
sunk still lower, and the feelings of oppression and anxiety have increased. 
The physician has looked anxiously for reaction, and a more vigorous pulse, 
but none have occurred. In these cases, the primary reduction of the vital 
forces, had been great, or the congestions were passive and uninflammatory. 
A pathognomonic symptom for this condition is certainly desirable ; and it 
may, perhaps, be found in the feeble impulse of the heart, discoverable by 
applying the ear or stethoscope, to the precordial region. 

But venesection, sometimes, does not produce syncope, but is followed by 
favorable reaction, or open excitement. In these cases, the pulse may be 
empty, feeble, and frequent, yet the heart generally manifests a firm though 
struggling impulse. When a more open and well- declared excitement fol- 
lows the bleeding, the operation can generally be repeated with advantage, 
in the next exascerbation ; and may even be required in the third, for the 
purpose of moderating reaction — the Fever having been transformed into 
an inflammatory type. 

Cupping or leeching, may, of course, be advantageously employed, when 
venesection is inadmissible ; and, as a further means of revulsion, the surface 
operated on, should be covered with emollient poultices. There are two re- 
gions which should be preferred for topical bleeding — the sub -diaphragmatic, 
and the spinal. A row of cups, should be applied, from one hypochondrium 
to the other, traversing the epigastric region, where a greater number should 
be placed, than to either side. By such cupping, the stomach, duodenum, 



800 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

liver, and spleen, the chief seats of abdominal irritation, congestion, or in- 
flammation, are most effectively reached. Of the extent to which the spinal 
cord is involved in this fever, it is impossible to speak with certainty ; but 
we can hardly doubt that it participates in the irritation and congestion (if 
not inflammation), with which we have to contend. A portion of the enfee- 
bled and irregular action of the heart, depends, perhaps, on a morbid condi- 
tion of this' nervous axis ; and a part of the defective circulation, limited 
development of caloric, and reduced sensibility of the extremities, may 
be plausibly referred to the same condition. Many of our physicians, under 
these, or similar views, have applied cups along the whole length of the spi- 
nal column; and the results of the practice have been such as to justify its 
recommendation. 

III. External Stimulation. — Whether venesection or cupping be 
resorted to, it is beneficial before commencing, and throughout the operation, 
to immerse the hands and feet of the patient in hot water, rendered stimula- 
ting by mustard, capsicum, or common salt. In cases, moreover, in which 
we doubt the admissibility of bloodletting, it is safe and beneficial, before 
proceeding to the operation, to apply stimulants of a pungent kind, over the 
whole spine, the precordial region, or the epigastrium ; surfaces on which we 
can certainly make a strong impression, when it might not be made on the 
extremities. Revulsion, from the internal organs, attends the cutaneous 
hypersemia thus excited; the whole innervation feels the same influences, 
and the loss of a greater quantity of blood can be borne, than might other- 
wise be safe. 

In fact, cutaneous stimulation and bloodletting combined, are among our 
most powerful means of exciting reaction. But we too often apply our stim- 
ulants to parts which are benumbed and nearly insensible ; when their effects 
are limited to drawing into the cutaneous capillaries, a little of the stagnant 
blood, which still lingers in the muscles below. We see the redness, and 
suppose the organism, at large, must be acted on, when it is not. We deceive 
ourselves by supposing that derivation has been made from the affected 
organs, when it has only been made from the subjacent parts. 

We make hot applications to the extremities, and when their temperature 
is raised, with transmitted heat, we illogically and illusively regard the effect, 
as identical with restored warmth from developed caloric — thus confounding 
a physical operation with a vital function — and are disappointed if the 
excitement of the heart and brain should not rise with the temperature of 
the heated limbs. If the same applications had been made to surfaces where 
the vital forces, the capillary circulation, and the calorific function were but 
little reduced, they would have acted with such energy as to carry an exci- 
ting influence into the central organs of innervation and circulation, when 
the loss of blood would have been better sustained. 

But when no inflammation exists, the internal irritations and congestions 
are often relieved by these powerful revulsives ; which, in fact, make a part 
of the treatment of all our physicians, however they may differ on other 
points of practice. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 801 

If I have not spoken of blisters, it was not because they are useless. 
For the purpose of exciting reaction, they are inferior to sinapisms; but, as 
means of revulsion, they are greatly to be prized. A large blister to the 
neck, when the brain is the seat of irritation or inflammation, is of much 
service; and, when the stomach and duodenum are specially affected, its 
influence is still greater ; particularly if the surface be afterward covered, as I 
have already suggested, with a soothing, emollient poultice, which will pro- 
mote a mild, suppurative inflammation of the skin, without pain or irritation. 

And this leads me to say, that when our object in this fever, is not to 
excite the system, but to relieve the abdominal organs from inflammation or 
severe irritation, it is decidedly advantageous to allay morbid sensibility with 
gentle narcotics, while our sinapisms or blisters are in action. If the patient 
be kept in a state of suffering by the external application — if he be rest- 
less and irritable — the revulsion will never be as favorable and effective as 
if he be kept composed. And to the administration of an opiate there can 
be no objection, since inflammation is the only prohibiting condition, and its 
grade is too low and irritative, to make it such, in the cases we are now 
considering; or, if it should be otherwise, if the inflammatory action should 
chance to run high, the lancet would prepare the way for the anodyne. 

IV. External Emollients. — I have more than once referred to the 
application of poultices to the irritated or inflamed skin. I come now to say, 
that when the brain is the seat of irritation or inflammation, the continued 
application of tepid water to the head, the hair having been shorn, is of 
much value ; and, that for the relief of gastro- duodenal irritations or inflam- 
mations, it is, perhaps, still more valuable. A stream of tepid water cannot 
be made to fall for an hour on the epigastric and umbilical regions, without 
soothing the organs within. But, as inconveniences may attend that mode 
of application, the whole trunk of the body may be wrapped in a dripping- 
wet sheet, covered with any fabric that will confine the water, and thus keep 
the skin bathed in aqueous vapor of its own temperature. The revulsive 
and soothing effects of such an application are very great. 

V. Vomiting. — As in malignant intermittents, so in the remittents we 
are now considering, antiinonial emetics are inadmissible. Indeed, in the 
south, they are a generally admitted cause of the metamorphosis of simple 
into malignant remittents. They prostrate the general system still lower, 
generate gastric irritability, and excite serous diarrhoea. Yet vomiting is 
not always injurious. When the system is sunken and torpid, and passive 
congestions exist, a salt and mustard emetic often does good ; but, in cases 
accompanied by, or tending to inflammation of the stomach or duodenum, 
with acrid secretions, the mustard is too stimulating, and the wine of ipecac, 
or a hot infusion of the Eupatorium perfoliahcm, or of Lobelia infuata, should 
be chosen. Of the whole, the last is perhaps the best. While visiting the 
states of Alabama and Mississippi, in the year 1843, I learned, from many 
reliable persons, both in and out of the profession, that vomiting, with that 
medicine, had been found signally beneficial; and, in 1844, Doctor Monette ? 



802 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

in a valuable paper on this form of fever,* bore unqualified testimony to its 
efficacy in the following language : 

" Emetics of the ordinary kind, that is of ipecacuanha or tartrate of 
antimony, the latter especially, are unsafe in most cases of congestive fever; 
unless the action and sensibility of the stomach have been previously excited 
by pepper and brandy, or some other pungent aromatic. Without a previous 
use of these precautionary measures, the ipecac or tartar emetic may pros- 
trate without vomiting, or it may possibly pass off by the bowels, and pro- 
duce hypercatharsis instead of emesis as desired. Yet there is a valuable 
article of the emetic class which is, at the same time, stimulant and emetic. 
This is the Lobelia infiata, which excites immediate vomiting, without any 
attendant prostration. 

" This article, when properly used, is one of the most valuable emetics and 
stimulants in the materia medica, for the treatment of congestive fever. 
Its action is prompt, speedy, and easy, in the evacuation of the stomach, and 
in developing excitement. Nothing is more gentle, nothing more safe, nothing 
more salutary. 

" There are cases, wherein it is desirable, after the excitement and reaction 
have been partially restored, to discharge the morbid secretions and ingesta, 
from the stomach, when they have become a source of morbid irritation. In 
such cases, to insure the prompt action of the emetic, the patient should 
first take a wine-glass full of warm toddy, with the addition of a few grains 
of capsicum to rouse action and sensibility in the stomach. A few minutes 
having elapsed, a full dose of fifteen or twenty grains of ipecacuanha, mixed 
in a wine-glass full of warm toddy, may be taken with great advantage. 
The operation is prompt, and instead of prostrating the patient, it excites 
the general action of the system, and promotes a salutary excitement in the 
stomach itself, and the collatitious viscera. Soon after free emesis has taken 
place, the system and the stomach specially, should be calmed and equalized 
by a gentle anodyne of morphia, or camphorated tincture of opium. A tea- 
spoonful, or less, of the strong tincture of the seeds of the Lobelia infiata, 
will often be preferable to the ipecacuanha, as acting more promptly, and 
inducing less tendency to prostration." 

The advice to administer a narcotic, after the operation of a vomit, is 
highly judicious. Among other good effects which it may produce, is that of 
determining to the surface of the body; and, consequently, of making 
revulsion from the internal organs ; to this end the vomit is an efficacious, 
predisposing remedy; for, as long as the stomach is oppressed or irritated 
by peccant matters, in any form of disease, perspiration cannot be excited. 
Moreover, vomiting at all times promotes that function. 

VI. Purging. — When congestion, either passive or inflammatory, oc- 
curs in the brain, cathartics are demanded; but the saline and hydrogogue 
are not proper. Pills composed of equal parts of calomel, rhubarb, and 
compound extract of colocyncth, make one of the best; and the first dose should 

*New Orleans Medical Journal, Vol. I, No. III. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 803 

be sufficient to effect a perfect evacuation. Should the cerebral disorder 
continue, the medicine may be repeated; unless a state of exhaustion should 
follow the first operation. The great object is to make revulsion from the 
brain ; but this method may reduce the vital energies, faster than it diverts 
from the brain ; and, still further, it may establish a mucous irritation in the 
stomach and bowels, which in the end may prove dangerous. Notwith- 
standing the great efficacy, then, of purgation in ordinary apoplectic conges- 
tion, and in cerebritis from common causes, there is a narrow limit to its 
utility in the cerebral affections, which sometimes accompany our malignant 
remittents. 

When the topical affections, or localizations of the Fever are found in the 
abdominal organs, a much greater abstinence from active cathartics is re- 
quired. If the patient have been costive, a freer evacuation is necessary ; 
but even then, the operation should not continue after the existing contents 
of the bowels have been removed; nor should the subsequent administrations 
have anything for their object, but the evacuation, from time to time, of 
what may be poured into the bowels from their own mucous membrane, and 
the liver ; the retention of which is always injurious. When diarrhoea is 
present, a moderate cathartic, followed by opium and stimulants, may be 
safe, and productive of a quieter condition of the bowels. In all cases, how- 
ever, hyper-catharsis must be avoided as eminently pernicious. 

Great care is necessary in the selection of cathartics* A portion of cal- 
omel — five, ten, or fifteen grains — worked off with a decoction of rhubarb, 
is proper ; or the latter may be replaced with two drachms of castor oil, and 
one drachm of oil of turpentine, mixed ; or with a powder of rhubarb and 
magnesia, should the previous discharges have evinced acidity. Another 
method of safe purging, in these cases, is, to give pills composed of two 
grains of blue mass, two of rhubarb, and one of ipecac; which may be 
quickened in their operation by any of the mixtures just mentioned, or by 
the compound tincture of senna. Whatever medicines may be chosen, they 
should not be permitted to operate, on the same day, more than two or three 
times ; and even a single copious evacuation will be sufficient ; the object 
(properly) in view, being the evacuation — not the production — of morbid 
secretions. 

Such is the present state of medical practice, among the best observers, 
where malignant remittents most prevail ; and it contrasts, strikingly, with 
the practice which it has superseded. Of the pernicious effects of inces- 
sant, and drastic purgation, I have already spoken, under the head of simple, 
and inflammatory remittents ; which were, sometimes, transformed by it, into 
violent gastro-enterites; at other times, into still more dangerous malignant 
fevers. The pernicious effects of the practice were, however, incomparably 
greater in the form of fever we are now studying, than in the open inflam- 
matory. Those who pursued the practice, saw in the cases before them 
nothing but an oppressive accumulation of blood in the abdominal organs — 
they had no end in view but its removal — they employed no means but 
those which would convert it into secreted fluids, and then evacuate them 



804 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

from the bowels. The certainty of increasing the debility of the patient 
was unheeded; and the danger of exciting or aggravating irritations and 
inflammations of the stomach and upper bowels, was overlooked. But, 
apart from these serious objections to the practice, was it fitted to ac- 
complish the end they had in view? It certainly was not; for purging, 
produces an introversion of the blood, the very condition for which it was 
prescribed. In the treatment of erysipelas, scarlatina, and other acute in- 
flammations of the skin, the beneficial influence of cathartic medicines is 
produced by their diverting from the surface. On the same principle, after 
extensive burns or scalds, a favorable suppuration is prevented by purging, 
which reduces the cutaneous circulation. Finally, the free operation of a 
cathartic, when an individual is in health, never fails to produce pallor, re- 
duction of surface heat, and a shrunken aspect of the superficial parts of 
the body, showing a centripetal tendency of the blood; which, of course, 
accumulates in the vessels of the interior. A therapeutic agency which 
produces such effects, can never be adapted to the removal of the assumed 
abdominal congestions, in malignant remittent fever. The organs, it is true, 
may be depleted by the increased secretion ; but the means employed, and 
the secretory actions which they excite, keep up the supplies of blood from 
the outer parts of the body, and thus maintain the congestion for the cure 
of which the drain was established. 

VII. Calomel. — In the last chapter, an estimate was made, of the 
use of calomel in the treatment of simple and inflammatory remittent fever. 
If we found, that two high a value had been placed -upon it, in the treat- 
ment of those varieties, and that its liberal administration had often done 
harm; we may expect to find, that, in the cases we are now studying, it 
has, still oftener, disappointed the expectations of those by whom it has 
been prescribed ; for it is unquestionably true, that it acts more kindly and 
efficiently, in cases of an inflammatory character (after bloodletting) than in 
the adynamic and ataxic. The suspended, or morbid condition of the se- 
cretions of the liver, in connection with epigastric tenderness and anxiety, 
so often present in this fever, suggested that calomel could not fail to prove 
salutary beyond every other remedy, and for many years it was administered 
in large quantities, especially in the South; but, in 1843, and 1844, I found 
that this practice had been generally renounced ; yet the memory of its 
failures and ravages, had not faded from the minds of the profession, or the 
people. It was exhibited for the fulfillment of various speculative con- 
ditions, as for exciting the liver into increased secretory action, that the por- 
tal circle might be relieved from congestion; for subduing gastro-duo- 
denitis, extending into that organ, and for allaying" s simple irritation of the 
same parts.* The greater number had the first of these objects in view, 
and seemed to have lost sight of the fact, that the suspended, or morbid 



* Some years before the visits of which I have spoken, a physician of Louisiana, 
flippantly and hyperbolically, wrote me, that in a certain epidemic, he had drawn 
" blood enough to float, and given calomel enough to freight, the steamboat General 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 805 

action of the liver, was secondary, and the consequence of a localization of 
the Fever, in the form of irritation or inflammation, upon the hepatic system ; 
or if they admitted the existence of those pathological states, they assumed, 
that calomel was the best means of curing them. 

That moderate portions of that medicine, in connection with other reme- 
dies, are useful, cannot be denied ; but their exclusive and inordinate use 
is greatly to be deprecated. After local bleeding, and the evacuation of the 
existing contents of the primes via, by the means just pointed out, the ad- 
ministration of three or five grain doses of calomel, in combination with 
small quantities of opium, morphine ; or Dover's powder, and a free use of 
slightly acidulated demulcent drinks, with abdominal fomentations, are safe 
and beneficial. But, the epigastric irritation may be allayed, and the biliary 
secretion reestablished by other means. Thus, Doctor Monetae* declares, 
that since he has discontinued the exhibition of calomel, his practice has 
been more successful than before. One of his formulae for allaying gastro- 
duodenal irritation, is the following : 

H. Sulphate of magnesia, - - - 3ij. 

Ipecac, grs.iii. 

Tincture of opium, - - - - 31. 

Water, gvi. Mix. 

The dose is half an ounce every hour, or every two hours ; according to 
the judgment of the physician in each case. 

" This mixture, continued for twelve or fifteen hours, and sometimes, in 
less time, is followed by an abatement of the gastro- duodenal irritation, a 
general relaxation of the skin, and a full and soft pulse. Besides these sal- 
utary effects, a perseverance in the use of this mixture, for a longer time, 
is followed by a free and gentle discharge of thick yelloio bile. During this 
administration, if the intestinal canal be in a high state of irritation from 
previous purgatives, or copious watery discharges, anodyne and emollient 
enemata are not to be neglected, nor demulcent drinks, of which none is 
superior to the mucilage made of the prickly pear by cold infusion." 

Doctor Monette acknowledges himself indebted to Doctor McPheters, 
one of the most sagacious practitioners of Mississippi, for a knowledge of 
the efficacy of sulphate of magnesia, in small quantities, with laudanum, in 
the irritations we are now considering. The addition of ipecac, made by 
himself, gives, according to his experience, additional efficacy to the prescrip- 
tion. When there is much developed fever, he adds to the mixture an ounce 
of spirit of nitrous ether. 

" The proportions of each ingredient may be varied to suit peculiarity of 
cases. If the irritation was extreme, the first recipe was used ; and the 
quantity of sulphate of magnesia diminished one half, and the tincture of 

Jackson !" During my first visit, another who had given it by the ounce, said his ob- 
ject was, to load down the irritable stomach, so as to prevent vomiting ! While multitudes 
believed, that when they did not obtain bilious discharges, by ounce doses, it was be- 
cause they were too timid in the administration ! 
* New Orleans Journal, loco citato. 
\ 



806 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

opium increased in the same proportion. If the duodenal irritation was 
moderate, and the bowels appeared irritated with a profuse secretion of acrid 
bile, the quantity of sulphate of magnesia was increased; and sometimes the 
tincture of opium was diminished in the same proportion." 

VIII. Refrigerants, Sedatives, Chologogues, Diuretics, and Sudor- 
ifics. — I have joined these different heads together, because of their 
relations in practice. As long as the treatment of our malignant remittents 
was confided to unlimited doses of calomel, and unrelenting purgation, various 
means of a gentle character were entirely neglected, as inconvenient or 
incompatable ; yet their adaptation to the form of fever now before us cannot, 
I think, be doubted ; especially when the local congestions, irritations, and 
inflammations are seated in the abdominal organs. The continued intro- 
duction of pellets of ice into the stomach is often productive of relief; but 
they act merely as local coolers, by absorbing their caloric of fluidity from 
the parietes of the organ. Of all refrigerants, I suppose water to be the 
greatest ; and am quite convinced, that its powers in this, as well as many 
other forms of fever, have not yet been fully tested. After the stomach and 
bowels have been evacuated, if the former should not be irritable, water 
should be drunk in large quantities ; and, to give it greater efficacy, the 
system should be brought slightly under the influence of an opiate. As a 
topical application to the irritated or inflamed mucous membrane of the 
alimentary canal, it is one of the most soothing. But passing readily, by 
endosmosis, into the gastric veins, it is carried not only through the liver, but 
the entire organism; diluting the blood, and allaying the febrile irritation of 
the solids, abdominal, thoracic, and cranial. This is at once a cooler and a 
soother; and being one of the sustainers of life, refreshes and invigorates, while 
it allays morbid action. Other effects, however, result from its liberal intro- 
duction into the blood vessels. All experience proves that the system makes 
unceasing efforts to keep the amount of water in the blood uniform ; and, 
hence, when the quantity is increased, the secretory apparatus is immedi- 
ately excited into increased action, for the purpose of throwing off the super- 
abundance. To what extent the secretion of the liver may be promoted by 
this agency we cannot decide ; nor do we know in what degree the pulmonar} 7 
exhalation may be augmented ; but, from analogy, may presume, that both, 
and especially the latter, are increased. As to the other secretions tfrere can 
be no doubt, for a flow of urine or of perspiration, according to the circum- 
stances under which the individual is placed, invariably occurs. To obtain 
the former, the nitrate of potash or the spirit of nitrous ether, may be 
administered in appropriate quantities during the period of aqueous dilution. 
The first has long been regarded as a valuable refrigerant, and the last has 
maintained a high rank, as a febrifuge, under every modification of the theory 
of fever ; while both direct the superfluous water upon the kidneys, and by 
increasing their secretion, eliminate from the blood, many things developed 
or thrown into it during the Fever, which, reactively, keep up the febrile 
irritation. But the action of the diluent upon the skin, is still greater than 
upon the kidneys, if the patient be placed under circumstances favorable to 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 807 

perspiration. These are rest, silence, and diminished light ; adequate cov- 
ering ; heat to the extremities, and the administration of gentle narcotics 
and diaphoretics, such as a hot infusion of serpentaria, balm or orange leaves, 
with small portions of Dover's powder, or the following mixture : 
R. Spiritus Mindereri, ------- 3viss. 

Spirit of nitrous ether, ------ gss. 

Camphorated tincture of opium, - - - 3ss. 

Wine of ipecac, 3ss. Mix. 

Half an ounce of this mixture, taken every two hours, will seldom fail to 
bring on perspiration, if the pathological condition of the patient be such as 
to admit of the restoration of that function of the skin. On the value of 
such an effect there can be but one opinion. The centrifical determination 
of the blood, without which the perspiration cannot be established, of 
course tends to relieve the internal organs from congestion; the reactive 
influence of an improved state of the skin, upon the liver and the mucous 
membrane of the stomach and bowels, must be admitted as a reality ; finally, 
the blood is depurated of peccant matters, which often give to the perspired 
fluid an offensive odor ; and, retained, irritate the interior of the arteries. 

IX. Sulphate of Quinine. — The various means which have been 
pointed out, have for their object to convert the remittent into an intermit- 
tent : to produce a state of apyrexia, unaccompanied by visceral conges- 
tion, irritation, or inflammation. In many cases this is slowly accomplished, 
each remission becoming more perfect than the last ; but in some the end 
is much sooner attained. When it is reached, the patient, as in the common 
inflammatory form of remitting fever, treated with active antiphlogistics, will 
sometimes recover if left to himself: but this should never be assumed; for, 
on the succeeding day, the paroxysm may return and prove as fatal, as the 
fit of a maligmmt intermittent. Had his fever been of a continued type, 
from some common cause, such an event could not occur ; but being essen- 
tially periodical, the anti- periodic should, on no account, be now omitted. 
The quinine, which up to this time, when the remission has become more perfect, 
could not have been administered with advantage or even impunity, will now 
begin to establish in the system its peculiar effect ; and the recurrence of 
the paroxysm will, at length, be precluded. It is not necessary to dwell on 
the mode of administering the quinine in such a case. Before an intermis- 
sion is effected, it must be used in small quantities. But when that state 
is brought about, it may be given in five or ten grain portions, in connection 
with solid opium, and repeated every two or four hours. If great exhaustion 
should be present, it will be requisite to stimulate the patient with camphor, 
ammonia, or tincture of capsicum, wine-whey, wine, or ardent spirit ; and, 
at an early period, to give him a moderate quantity of nourishing diet. 
His feet should be kept warm, and a'gentle diaphoresis maintained. Should 
there be a tendency to diarrhoea, which the opium does not arrest, injections 
of starch, and a decoction of Peruvian bark, with laudanum, will be effica- 
cious. If bile do not appear in the evacuations, small closes of blue pill may be 



808 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

conjoined with, the quinine and opium, or the region of the liver may be 
sponged with a strong nitro-muriatic solution. 

When one day has passed without a recurrence of the paroxysm, the 
patient will probably go on to recovery; but the quinine must not be dis- 
continued, for the type may now change from quotidian to tertian; and, 
on the third day, the fever may return, unless the system be kept under the 
influence of the specific. 

X. Cases and Remarks from Doctor Ames. — The following condensed 
account of seven fever cases, from Doctor Ames, of Montgomery, Alabama, 
shows that in negroes, at least, a manifest irritation of the brain does not 
contra-indicate the employment of the sulphate of quinine without previous 
evacuation. The symptoms and treatment were nearly the same in all, 
and all recovered. 

" Tongue slightly coated, ash-colored, yellowish, or natural ; sometimes dry, 
but never hard or fissured. Heat of the trunk and head natural, or a little 
below; legs and arms cool; feet, hands, nose, and ears, cold. Pulse, from 
one hundred and twenty to one hundred and forty, small, feeble, and indis- 
tinct. The brain strongly affected — coma and delirium alternating; the 
latter violent when the patient was disturbed ; indisposition to speak ; 
aversion to swallowing, with obstinate resistance. The stomach and bowels 
natural, except a little nausea in two or three. Treatment substantially the 
same in all. Blisters to the neck ; mustard to the extremities ; and sul- 
phate of quinine in large doses, without regard to the stage of the disease. 
Convalesce in the whole begun before the fourth day." 

Another case affords evidence coincident with this : 

"A young gentleman, aged sixteen, was attacked with a chill, which was 
quickly succeeded by convulsions. His pulse was about eighty beats in a 
minute, nearly as full as in health, but soft and hollow; he soon became 
comatose, but was sometimes wakeful and restless ; the temperature of his skin 
was everywhere natural; his pupils were dilated; he refused to swallow 
anything but water, and screamed and struggled violently when disturbed ; 
did not speak, or even attempt to articulate. He continued in this state 
about forty-eight hours, during which he was bled to ten ounces, with a bad 
effect. He was repeatedly immersed in a warm bath, having cold applica- 
tions to his head; he took a cathartic, which operated promptly; blisters 
were applied to his neck, arms, and thighs. Attempts were made to admin- 
ister quinine ; but, for sometime, very little was swallowed; atlength, how- 
ever, he took it regularly and freely, with immediate benefit and complete 
recovery." 

The following observations, from the same gentleman, present still further 
the results of his experience in the soporose, malignant fever, of the region 
around Montgomery : 

" The coolness of the surface, in these cases, is never the coldness of 
collapse; nor is there ever the profuse sweating, the diarrhoea, vomiting, 
epigastric oppression, sighing, jactitation, and general restlessness, charac- 
teristic of abdominal, congestive remittents ; neither have I, at anytime, 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 809 

observed muttering delirium, or picking of the bedclothes; headache is 
never, spontaneously, spoken of after the disease is fully developed, though 
it is a common precursory symptom. The aspect of most of the cases is that 
of profound sleep, but without the stertor or pulse of apoplexy. Now and 
then I have seen a case in which the skin was above the natural temperature, 
with throbbing of the carotids, but the pulse had no firmness. In that con- 
dition the coma is less profound. The refusal to swallow medicine is a char- 
acteristic of this form of fever." 

" Quinine is better borne in congestive remittents and intermittents, than 
in any other form of fever. It is tolerated by the system, as tartar emetic is 
tolerated in pneumonia, and bloodletting in cerebral inflammation. I lately 
gave a negro boy, under twelve years of age, about fifty grains of quinine, 
within twelve hours, without producing deafness or ringing in the ears. Its 
good effects, however, were none the less evident. Bleeding, as far as I have 
seen, even in small quantities, does harm. Blisters and sinapisms are valua- 
ble adjuncts, particularly the former, and so is the hot foot bath. Nothing 
can be said in favor of purgatives ; though I have occasionally seen full 
vomiting with tartar emetic, produce the best effects. When the pulse, 
under the use of quinine, gets more feeble as it becomes slower, with a copious 
supervening sweat, I know of no remedy equal to carbonate of ammonia, the 
quinine being at the same time suspended." 



CHAPTER IX. 

PROTRACTED, RELAPSING, AND VERNAL INTERMITTENTS. 



SECTION I. 

CHRONIC AND RELAPSING CASES. 

I. We have already seen, that many facts conspire to prove that all the 
varieties of autumnal fever, depend on one specific, remote cause, and, we now 
come to an additional fact in support of the same conclusion. It is, that in 
many cases, the different forms of remittent fever, at last, assume an inter- 
mittent type ; and continue to recur, for an indefinite period, in the manner 
of original, uncured intermittents ; from which, in fact, they cannot be dis- 
tinguished. This being the case, I have postponed an account of their 
character and treatment, until all the acute varieties of the Fever, of which 
they are properly the chronic form, should have been studied. 

II. Regular, Chronic Recurrence. — When an intermittent becomes 
chronic, it generally shows a disposition to recur, at more distant intervals. 



810 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

A quotidian, it is true, if neglected, may continue as such for several weeks ; 
but such cases are not numerous, and a change to the tertian type is a com- 
mon event. There are, moreover, many original tertians, which become 
chronic. In this form, when not arrested, they may run on for months. 
Sometimes a recurrence on the fourth day, including that of the preceding 
paroxysm, gives us a quartan ; much more rarely, the return is on the fifth 
day, constituting a quintan. A recurrence on the seventh day (septan) is, 
however, common. This is the day on which the third paroxysm of a 
tertian, and the second of a quartan, would return; which, perhaps, explains 
the liability to recurrence on that day. But discarding all speculation, I 
may state, as a fact, that the hebdomadal period is, preeminently, that of 
many protracted intermittents ; the recurrence of the paroxysm being, in 
some instances, between the thirteenth or fifteenth, in others the twentieth, 
twenty-first, or twenty- second, and in others the twenty- eighth, twenty- 
ninth, or thirtieth day. Still further, in some instances, after the 
Fever seems to have ceased entirely, it returns at a multiple of this 
hebdomadal period. The following case, from Doctor Raymond, illustrates 
this point : In the autumn, he had three paroxysms of intermittent fever. 
The next spring it returned, and was arrested by an emetic and half a drachm 
of quinine. In twenty-one days it recurred, and continued its visits, at the end 
of that period, until August. He was then bled, after which its recurrences 
were at the end of the fifth, instead of the third hebdomadal period, until 
December, when it was finally stopped by arsenic. 

The causes which render intermittents protracted, deserve consideration : 

1. Of the whole we should, undoubtedly, ascribe the greatest influence to 
the agent which produces the disease. It is of the very nature and essence 
of that agent, to generate an intermittent irritation ; which shall soon pass 
away, but return at the end of twenty-four hours from the beginning of the 
previous fit, or at the end of some multiple of that period. We cannot, I 
apprehend, go further than to recognize the fact. In some constitutions, the 
primary impression wears out much sooner than in others : the latter present 
us with the disease in a chronic form. It is common to say, that the fits 
recur from habit ; but habit is custom confirmed ; and the question in 
these cases is, what maintains the custom until it grows into a habit? One 
person has a habit of waking at a certain hour in the morning ; another at 
a different hour ; in both cases some agent was employed to create the 
custom ; but, after a time, that agency may be withheld, and the effect will 
continue from habit. Intermittent fever, then, cannot become chronic from 
habit; but having been made so by the influence of some cause, habit 
may, at last, contribute to reproduce the paroxysms. 

2. The Fever is sometimes kept up by the unabating action of the remote 
cause. Thus, there are many instances of its continuance as long as the 
patient remains in the locality in which it was produced, and of its ceasing 
on his removal to a more salubrious spot. 

3. It is probably rendered chronic, in certain cases, by the permanent con- 
gestion or subacute inflammation of some organ. 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 811 

It is held by many of our people, and, perhaps, by some physicians, that 
if chronic intermittent fever be not interrupted by medicines, but allowed to 
run its course, until it ceases spontaneously, the individual, although contin- 
uing in the same locality, will, ever after, remain free from an attack. His 
system loses its susceptibility to the poison. A gentleman, in Illinois, assured 
me that this had been the result in his own ease; and that he was led to 
make the experiment, by the assurance of others, that they had, by that method, 
obtained a permanent immunity. The greatest objection to such a course is, 
that some organ may become seriously deranged in structure. 

II. Relapses. — Relapsing intermittent fever, is but a variety of chronic. 
The paroxysms cease from the influence of treatment; but the tendency 
to recurrence remains, and constitutes a true predisposition. An exciting 
cause is generally necessary to the reproduction of the paroxysm. An indi- 
vidual in this condition, is compelled to be circumspect, in regard to what the 
old pathologists called the non-naturals. The loss of a night's sleep, a day 
of. protracted fatigue, exposure to cold and moisture, an excessive and indi- 
gestible meal, or a strong mental emotion of the depressing kind, may bring 
back the disease. In this predisposition, moreover, a cold, saline cathartic, 
often proves an exciting cause, and should be carefully avoided. Rut of all 
these causes, the exposure which chills the surface of the body, is most 
injurious. Hence it is, that those who have had the Fever in August or 
September, and may have been free from it in October, and the mild and 
dry portions of November, are liable to relapses afterward. These may 
occur uncomplicated with any other affection; but it frequently happens, that 
the sudden change of weather, which excites an inflammation of the lungs or 
some other organ, reproduces the Fever, so far, at least, as to give a parox- 
ysmal character to the plegmasia, and render great modification of its treat- 
ment necessary. In addition to the external exciting causes which have 
been enumerated, we ought, perhaps, to recognize an internal pathological influ- 
ence, in the enlarged spleen, which so generally occurs in protracted cases. 
That local affection, it is true, results from the Fever ; but it often begins in 
the first paroxysms ; and the experience of the profession is, I think, that, as 
long as it continues, the patient is more subject to relapses than others, in 
whom that organ is not disordered. Thus it seems to maintain the pre- 
disposition ; and without being one of the exciting causes, renders the sys- 
tem still more susceptible to them, than it would otherwise be. 



SECTION II. 

VERNAL INTERMITTENTS. 
I. The intermittents which occur in winter, are generally sporadic, and 
this may also be the case in spring. Nevertheless, the Fever often displays 
an epidemic character in the latter season. Whatever may be the number of 



812 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

cases in any locality, we are not to conclude, that they are the offspring of 
a poison developed in that season, but relapses, like those of winter. They 
are, generally, numerous in proportion to the prevalence of the Fever in the 
preceding autumn; the subjects are, chiefly, those who had suffered at that 
time; and the symptoms, and most successful treatment, mark them as 
relapses, instead of attacks from a new application of the remote cause. It 
would appear, that the steady cold of winter, is much less injurious, than the 
diurnal and occasional vicissitudes of February and March, in the South — 
of March and April, in the middle latitudes — and of April and May in the 
northern. After the hot weather has set in, they commonly cease ; and this is 
the termination of the epidemic of the preceding year ; which, beginning in 
the last month of summer, ends in the last month of spring. The Fever of 
the next autumn, depends on a new development and application of the 
remote cause; to the action of which, however, those who suffered the year 
before, are, very commonly, as liable, as those who might not have resided 
in the locality at that time, and, in many instances, more so. 

The exciting causes of winter relapses, are equally productive of the vernal ; 
and one of them — undue and chilling exposure of the surface of the body — 
is far more general; from the imprudent and premature disuse of flannel, 
and of winter clothing, upon the access of warm weather. Those who are 
obnoxious to the Fever, should therefore wear their flannel, till the hot 
weather is established, or even throughout the summer; and should careful- 
ly avoid exposure to the stormy weather of the equinox, or the sudden show- 
ers of April, both of which are more injurious than the snows and north- 
west winds of winter. 

It is a popular opinion, that standing or sitting in the sun, in spring, will 
bring on a relapse ; but this, I apprehend, is an example of false observation — 
the transposition of cause and effect. Those who are relapsing, find such 
exposure pleasant ; a full development of the disease follows, and is falla- 
ciously ascribed to the influence of the sun's rays. 

The relapses which occur late in spring, are apt to present more of gastric 
and biliary derangement, than those which happen early. This results from 
the impress of heat, and the same cause, gives to the hot stage of the par- 
oxysm, more intensity than it displays at any earlier period. These facts 
have led to the opinion, that the special, remote cause is generated de novo, 
at that time ; but I see no reason for the supposition. 

As a general fact, vernal intermittents are not violent nor dangerous, but 
there are exceptions ; and the following observation, communicated to me by 
Doctor France, is one of the evidences. In Powell's Valley Virginia, 
intermittent fever was epidemic in the autumn of 1843. January was cold, 
but early in February, the weather became so warm as to give an impulse to 
vegetation ; during which the Fever reappeared in a great number of per- 
sons, and, in many, assumed a malignant character. 

II. Deferred Attacks. — The intermittents of winter and spring, as we 
have seen, are chiefly relapses, but there are, also, new cases. These are not 
to be ascribed to a reproduction of the special, remote cause, in those sea- 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 813 

sons, but to its impress in autumn; which impress was not followed by the 
Fever, at that time. On page 370, a case is related, in which the Fever 
appeared within three days after an exposure to its remote cause : The 
case now under consideration proves, that many months may elapse, before 
its development. For the existence of such cases, I may refer to the expe- 
rience of every observing physician, who resides in regions infested with au- 
tumnal fever. Indeed, the profession are familiar with vernal intermittents, 
in those who had not suffered in autumn ; all of whom, however, had been 
exposed to the remote cause. Many years since, the following fact fell under 
my own observation. A Cincinnati family made an overland journey, in 
autumn, to the State of New York, traveling slowly on the terraces of Lake 
Erie and Lake Ontario, which at that time were annually scourged with in- 
termittent fever. Some of them were seized with the disease on the way, 
and others escaped. During the next spring, when the Fever was not pre- 
vailing in the part of the city where they resided, some members of the 
family, who had suffered in autumn, were seized with it; and at the same 
time, one of the party, who had escaped, was attacked with the same disease. 
Another, and, more conclusive observation, was communicated to me by 
Doctor Smith, of Racine, Wisconsin. When he resided in Vermont, two 
men made an autumnal visit to western New York, where the Fever was 
prevailing ; and returned without experiencing attacks. In the following 
winter, however, one of them was seized, and, in the spring, the other, with 
the same disease. No other persons were attacked ; and, indeed, no case of 
the kind had before occurred, in the part of the state in which they presided. 
At Quebec, where the Fever does not originate, Doctor J. Douglas informed 
me, that he had repeatedly known persons attacked with it, several months 
after their return from more southern regions, where it was prevailing ; al- 
though they continued in health while there. These cases are analogous to 
those of Irish immigrants, who are, sometimes, taken with typhous fever, 
several months after their arrival in the West. 

It is, perhaps, not correct to apply the term incubation, to the period 
which elapses in such cases, between the application of the poison, and the 
outbreak of the Fever. In the case of small pox and of hydrophobia, there 
is a progressive, or ingravescent change, perhaps in the innervation, which 
ends in the production of specific, morbid phenomena, that do not require 
an exciting cause to bring them out. But in deferred intermittents, the 
morbid impression constitutes a mere predisposition, which slowly wears 
away ; and cannot, without the aid of exciting causes, originate the Fever. 
On the evidence which these cases afford, of a specific, efficient, remote 
cause, I have already spoken. 



814 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 



SECTION III. 

TREATMENT — HYGIENIC AND MEDICAL. 

I. Treatment of Winter Cases. — 1. I have introduced the word hygienic, 
into the title of this section, for the purpose of strongly directing the attention 
of the reader, to the more important part of the treatment. It may be truth- 
fully affirmed, that after intermittent fever has been arrested, it would not often 
— perhaps never — recur, if all exciting causes could be avoided. Of course 
that is not practicable ; but every predisposed person should withdraw from 
them, as perfectly as possible. Thus, the hygienic regulations deserve great 
attention. Warm clothing, with flannel next the skin, and shoes that will 
keep the feet dry, are necessary; but the patient should not house himself; 
for that would prolong his liability. On the contrary, with the surface of 
his body adequately protected, he should boldly encounter the cold of win- 
ter, and take a great deal of active exercise. The muscular effort will in- 
crease the depuration of his blood, by promoting pulmonary and cutaneous 
transpiration, while it invigorates all his solids. It will, moreover, give im- 
pulse to the portal circulation, and assist in rousing the sluggish abdominal 
organs into healthier action. The loss of sleep should be guarded against. 
To lodge warm is essential ; but on rising in the morning, the surface of his 
body should be dashed with cold water ; and then wiped dry, the friction 
being continued until it reddens the skin. Finally, his diet should be sa- 
vory, nutritious, and digestible. 

;;: 2. The medical treatment of these cases, has been in part anticipated, 
when speaking of the cure of simple intermittents. It resolves itself into 
that which is proper to prevent the return of the disease, and that required 
when it has recurred; ^nd, first, of the former. 

Some persons, are in the habit of taking small doses of quinine for this 
purpose ; but they often fail. They do not establish a quinic diathesis, 
which, for the time being, would always arrest the paroxysms ; nor do they 
give tone to the system. As a prophylactic, in these cases, the bark is 
much to be preferred, on account of its tonic, not less than its antiperiodie 
properties. A teaspoonful before each meal, will, in general, answer the 
purpose. The impoverished state of the blood, moreover, suggests the use 
of chalybeates ; of which, perhaps, no preparation is better, than the proto- 
carbonate of iron. It may be given in an electuary with the bark ; for I am 
not aware, that the latter will lose any of its efficacy by yielding up a part 
of its tanno-gallic acid to the iron ; or that the salt thus formed, will not pro- 
duce all the effects of any other chalybeate preparation. Recently, a new pre- 
paration, the ferro-eyanate of quinine, has been introduced in practice, 
and, prima facie, seems likely to be useful; but I have not tried it, nor 
informed myself of the experience of others. Arsenious acid and opium, 
sometimes root out the predisposition to recurrences ; but to do so, their 
administration should be continued, until the arsenical oedema is produced. 
The preservation of a regular habit of body is important ; but in obviating 
costiveness, the cold and debilitating laxatives should be avoided. When 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 815 

required, powdered rhubarb may be added to the bark ; or the tincture of 
rhubarb and gentian may be chosen ; or pills composed of blue mass, rhu- 
barb, galbanum, and aloes, made into a mass with extract of gentian, may be 
given. Whatever medicine is chosen, it should not be allowed to operate 
more than once or twice. 

But all these things fail in some instances, and a treatment of the oppo- 
site kind succeeds. In such cases there is, probably, a subacute inflamma- 
tion of some organ, as the spleen or alimentary membrane. From Doctor 
Frye, of Illinois, I have learned, that he has frequently succeeded in these 
refractory cases, by laying aside tonics and stimulants, and administering an 
eighth of a grain of tartarized antimony, with ten grains of hydro-chlorate 
of ammonia (sal ammoniac), given every two or four hours. 

We come, in the second place, to the treatment required in the paroxysm. 
If the existing symptoms should indicate functional, biliary derangement, a 
mercurial cathartic will be proper; and if the stomach should be dyspeptic, 
an active emetic will do much good ; but, in many cases, all evacuation may 
be dispensed with, and immediate recourse had to quinine and opium ; 
which will, almost infallibly, arrest the disease so promptly, that not even 
another paroxysm will occur. The proportion of opium should be large ; 
for, in the condition of the system we are now considering, there is great 
toleration of that medicine. 

We must not forget, that along with these relapses, may come an inflamma- 
tion of some organ, that will render these measures abortive or even inju- 
rious. Thus, the very cause which reproduced the paroxysm, may revive or 
generate a hepatitis, a splenitis, or a pneumonitis, in which case a certain 
amount of the treatment, required for the inflammation, will be necessary. 
In proportion as the inflammation is severe, the signs of its existence will be 
more or less present during the intermission. I have had many patients of 
this class, whom it was necessary to bleed copiously ; but, further south, or 
in places where intermittents greatly prevail, copious bloodletting is inadmis- 
sible, and calomel, tartar emetic, cupping and blistering, must be employed. 
Everywhere, however, it is necessary to connect the opium and quinine prac- 
tice with the depletory. 

II. Treatment of Vernal Intermittents. — The hygienic means of 
preventing vernal intermittents, are the same as for those of winter. In 
spring, as we have already seen, one exciting cause is the great diurnal change 
of temperature. The elevated heat, after the system has had its suscepti- 
bility to caloric increased by the cold of winter, renders many persons im- 
patient of warm clothing, and prompts the imprudent, to throw it off too 
soon. In doing this, however, they begin wrong. Instead of laying aside 
their winter coats, they take off their flannel; thus depriving the skin of a 
stimulus to which it had become habituated : whereupon it readily falls into 
torpor. Those who are strongly predisposed to attacks, generate but little 
animal heat ; and, as we have already seen, instinctively expose themselves 
to the hot sun; which greatly increases the influence of low temperature, in 
the following night and morning. In addition to all this, damp south-west 



816 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

and north-east winds, about the time of the vernal equinox, act with sinister 
effect on the inadequately protected surface. 

The required treatment of vernal intermittents, is somewhat intermediate, 
between that of autumnal and that of winter cases. In spring, the returning 
solar heat quickens the liver into action, and bilious appearances are then 
more common than in cold weather ; the appetite oftener fails, and nausea, 
with other signs of gastric derangement, occurs in a greater number of cases. 
Hence, active evacuation of the stomach and bowels, is useful in many cases, 
and in some, almost indispensable. With this preparation of the system, or 
without any, in cases of a simpler kind, the antiperiodics may be adminis- 
tered, as in winter intermittents; and generally with the same immediate 
advantage. Now and then, however, a case will prove refractory, and con- 
tinue until arrested by the heat of the summer solstice. 

III. Change of Locality. — Some persons are so susceptible to the 
impress of the remote cause of intermittent fever, or the habit of recurrence 
is so readily and firmly established in their systems ; that as long as they 
continue in an infested locality, the disease will set all the efforts of art at 
defiance. Change of place must, then, be submitted to, or the constitution 
will be ruined. In this, two objects should always be had in view : First. 
To seek a locality where the Fever is not endemic. Second. To reach a 
cooler climate, by change of latitude, or change of elevation. The former 
end maybe accomplished by entering the depths of a city; by sojourning 
on the sands of the Pine woods ; by wandering in the desert west of the 
Mississippi, or, emigrating to Santa Fe ; all, without reference to a cooler 
climate. The latter end, is attained by ascending the Appalachian Moun- 
tains, where the Fever is nearly unknown, and the air invigorating. Of the 
regions fitted for this purpose, one of the most eligible, is that around 
Chautauque Lake, described at page 397. But all the benefits of mountain 
air may be enjoyed, without ascending above the mean level of the Valley, 
six hundred feet — by going northerly. To this end, a voyage up the Mis- 
sissippi, and a summer residence in the neighborhood of the Falls of St. 
Anthony ; or a voyage to Mackinac and Lake Superior ; or down the St. 
Lawrence to Quebec, and the deep chasms of the Saguenay, in the latitude 
of forty-eight degrees, may be performed with great facility. As soon as the 
patient reaches a region in which the Fever is not endemic, he feels that his 
redemption has begun ; and, in a few weeks, finds himself quite restored. 
In the autumn of the next year, however, he may experience a new attack, 
when he should, if practicable, change his residence for a city or a colder 

climate. 

When the constitution of a citizen of the south, has, by fever, or climatic 
influences, become seriously enervated, it is sometimes necessary to seek a 
colder climate, in winter, for the purpose of invigorating his constitution ; 
that of the south being too mild for that purpose. By going north, in sum- 
mer, he may, it is true, escape the Fever; but the heat of that season is there, for 
a while, high, and he may return without all the reinvigoration that is 
desired. Under such circumstances the influence of cold is necessary. With 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 817 

this conviction, Doctor Cartwright, of Natchez, not long since, spent the 
greater part of a winter, in the latitude of St. Louis, Louisville, and Cin- 
cinnati ; fearlessly exposing himself, as he informed me, to the most rigorous 
winds ; and returned home with a renovated constitution. 

IV. Popular Empiricism. — Where agues prevail, many cases, not sub- 
jected to enlightened medical treatment, become chronic, and are at last 
broken up by some sudden impression on the nervous system. I refer to 
these experiments, not to legitimate them in our catalogue of remedies, but 
as throwing light on the pathological condition of the system ; — as evincing 
that the disease, when thus prolonged, becomes a neurosis. 

A case of the kind we are considering, is sometimes, permanently ar- 
rested, by a violent emetic, taken just before the chill. It imparts a shock 
to the nervous system, which destroys the disposition to recurrence. A 
countryman informed me, that, he stopped a tertian ague of eleven months 
duration, by taking, just before the fit, a quantity of gunpowder, mixed 
with rum. It produced on his system a powerful impression ; and excited a 
profuse sweat, which continued for twenty-four hours, after which, the dis- 
ease did not return. A very copious perspiration, produced by other means, 
has sometimes succeeded. The same beneficial result has, in other cases, 
been attained, by rapid riding on a hard-trotting horse, just before the par- 
oxysm. The sudden affusion of very cold water has produced the same 
result. Doctor Joshua Martin, of Xenia, Ohio, knew the disease perma- 
nently cured, in a small boy, by ' standing' him on his head, at the access of 
the fit. Here was both a corporeal and mental effect. In many instances 
the recurrence has been arrested, by means which acted entirely on the ima- 
gination and feelings. Of this kind are various loathsome potions, which 
the patients have swallowed with disgust ; and different charms or incanta- 
tions, which raise powerful emotions, that change the innervation, and de- 
stroy the habit of recurrence. 

V. Salutary Effects of Chronic Intermittents. — It has often 
been said, that protracted agues sometimes cure chronic diseases, and im- 
prove the health. That one disease may supersede another, from incom- 
patibility of action, is certain ; but I have not met with facts, which establish 
the remedial influence of intermittent fever. On the contrary, impairment 
of the constitution, has been the general result of protracted cases. 

The alleged benefit to the consumptive, of a sojourn in localities produc- 
tive of ague and fever, will be discussed hereafter ; and I will only remark, 
in this place, that I once saw a palluclal intermittent, unite itself with hectic 
fever ; but not to the end of effecting a cure. 



818 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 



CHAPTER X. 

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY, AND CONSEQUENCES OF AU- 
TUMNAL FEYER. 



SECTION I. 

MORTALITY OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

A simple intermittent fever, even when left to take its course, rarely, per- 
haps never, proves directly fatal ; but it may derange the structure of some 
organ, or generate a kind of cachexia or spansemia,* from which, as patholo- 
gical causes, other, and at last fatal consequences may follow. 

Many simple remittents, in the new settlements, are allowed to run their 
course without the superintendence of a physician; though seldom without 
some kind of medical treatment. In the early settlement of Kentucky, and 
Ohio, this was oftener the case, than in any of the new settlements of the 
present day ; for considerable districts of country were, then, without phy- 
sicians. In the former state, more than fifty years ago, I saw numerous 
cases, for which but little was done. In reference to these, as they occur 
in the middle latitudes, it may, I think be said, that they are not often mor- 
tal; but sometimes run a course of ten or fifteen days, and gradually cease, 
or degenerate into agues. 

Inflammatory intermittents, demand the interposition of art, to bring 
them to a favorable termination. Left to themselves, it is true, they will 
not in general destroy life, immediately; but the persisting inflammation of 
some vital organ, may at last give a fatal termination. Under a well known 
treatment, however, such cases may generally, be cured. 

It is otherwise, with inflammatory remittents, which, in their advanced 
stages, often take on a typhous character, and prove fatal. Of the propor- 
tion who die, it is impossible to speak. I have proposed to our brethren, in 
various places, to send me returns of the annual, relative mortality from the 
different diseases, occurring in their practice ; but the amount of material 
thus obtained, is, as yet, too small to justify its presentation. I do not 
believe, that simple and inflammatory remittents, are more fatal in the 
south, than in the higher latitudes ; but the mortality from them is greater, 
because they occur more frequently. 

Malignant intermittent fever, is always mortal when not arrested by art ; 
and many die from it every autumn, its true character not being perceived 
in time, or the patient residing beyond the range of enlightened medical 
practice. Where this variety prevails, therefore, it constitutes, in autumn, 

* From Aima, blood, and spanos, poor — poverty of the blood: Simon's Animal 

Chemistry. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 819 

the chief outlet of human life ; notwithstanding a successful mode of treat- 
ment has been discovered. 

Malignant remittents are not so common as interarittents, but more diffi- 
cult of cure, and, therefore, much oftener fatal. 

In traversing the Interior Valley, from north to south, we find, that the 
number of deaths from autumnal fever, as compared with the number from 
all other diseases, constantly increases. In the higher latitudes, the preva- 
lence of this fever is less, the variety of diseases greater, and the deaths 
distributed more equally through the year. In the south, the chief mor- 
tality is from July to November ; though, in certain winters, large numbers 
die of pneumonia, engrafted on constitutions, enfeebled and deranged, by the 
insalubrious air of the previous autumn. Still, it may be affirmed, that below 
the thirty-third parallel, the inhabitants enjoy more uninterrupted health, 
for eight months of the year, than in any other part of the Valley ; and 
hence it was not without reason, that the distinguished Professor Caldwell, 
several years since, attempted to show, that taking the year round, New 
Orleans was the healthiest city on the continent. 



SECTION II. 

CONDITION OF THE BLOOD IN AUTUMNAL FEVER. 
Observation has established the fact, that the blood, in our autumnal fevers, 
may, or may not, show the buffy coat. In my own practice, it has been 
much oftener absent than present, and I have seldom seen it cupped. In 
most cases, the amount of fibrinous crust is not great; and, in the majority, 
it shows itself only in islets, or patches, which are sometimes indistinct. 
With these observations, I have found those of a great number of the 
physicians in the middle and higher latitudes of the Valley entirely corres- 
pondent. It is obvious, then, that a state of hyperinosis,* is not essential 
to these fevers ; and that when it does exist, and, is made manifest by sizy 
blood, it is at once the effect and sign of an accidental inflammation. In 
general, the clot is large and soft, resting on the bottom of the bowl, and 
not swimming in serum, because the contraction has not been close enough, 
to press out that fluid, in large quantities. This may, in some cases, arise 
from the plethora of the patient before his attack, in which condition the red 
corpuscles are increased in quantity ; in others, there may be a state of hy- 
pinosis,f or deficiency of fibrin .$ In reference to the former, I may say, that 
men of a sanguineo-lymphatic temperament, the usual subjects of plethora, 
are oftenest the subjects of autumnal fever. The serum in this disease, is 
sometimes yellow from the coloring matter of the bile; but I have not 
found it bitter. 

*From hyper, excess, and is-inos, the fiber of the flesh. f From hypo, deficiency, and 
is-inos: Simon. 

t Essay on the Blood in Disease : Andral. 



820 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

I do not know, that any experiments have been made on the relative pro- 
portion of the proximate elements of the blood, in our autumnal fever. An- 
dral and Gavarret, in the hospitals of Paris, made such experiments on the 
blood of seven patients, laboring under intermittents of long standing; and 
found the mean proportion of fibrin to be three and a third of one thousand 
parts, the normal quantity being three. As many chronic cases of the 
Fever, are made such by inflammation of some organ, we may presume, that 
in these cases some were complicated with such inflammations. As to the 
other proximate elements of the blood, the solid residue of the serum, was 
eighty parts in the thousand, the natural proportion ; but the blood-corpuscles 
were, on an average, one hundred and four parts in a thousand, while one 
hundred and twenty- seven, is the normal number. Thus, it appears, that 
protracted intermittents, produce impoverishment of the blood — spanaemia — 
the condition present in chlorosis; and this accounts, in part, for the peculiar 
hue and puffy visage, of old ague patients, who so closely simulate chlo- 
rotics, in their appearance. 



SECTION III. 

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY OF INTERMITTENT FEVER. 

It has been already said, that our simple intermittents do not prove fatal ; 
how then can we know, by anatomy, whether any single organ always suf- 
fers? If any one be invariably affected, it is, undoubtedly, the spleen, if 
we may depend on what is presented by patients laboring under chronic and 
relapsing agues. Our inflammatory intermittents, moreover, but seldom 
prove mortal; but they often show signs of splenitis; and when the subjects 
of them die, subsequently, of other diseases, it is common to find vestiges 
of serous splenitis, in old and firm patches and bands, of coagulated lymph; 
which sometimes distort the organ, and at other times compress it, and, by 
limiting its circulation, produce a state of atrophy. During the ten winters 
in which I delivered clinical instruction in the Louisville Commercial Hos- 
pital, my colleague, Doctor, now Professor Bayless, and myself, met with 
many examples of what is here described; the patients having died of other 
maladies than intermittent fever. 

The anatomy of our malignant intermittents ought to be well known, but 
it is not; for in the country, the prejudices of the people against post mor- 
tem inspections, especially after death from common diseases, is almost un- 
conquerable ; and in our cities the disease scarcely ever occurs. It must 
be confessed, moreover, that from want of practice in dissections, many of our 
brethren, living in new and remote settlements, infested with this fever, are 
not as well prepared to report on morbid appearances, as some of those who 
have greater opportunities of cultivating pathological anatomy, in places 
where the Fever seldom occurs. In traveling, I was only able to collect the 
subjoined observations. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 821 

1. Assistant Surgeon Holmes, gave me the following case. A soldier, in 
Florida, of intemperate habits, but vigorous constitution, died in sixteen 
hours, that is, in the first fit of a malignant intermittent. The chief signs 
of congestion during life, were in the chest, the parietes of which, displayed 
an ecchymosed appearance. Blood could not be obtained by venesection. 
Eight grains of tartar emetic operated as a cathartic ; after which he took 
large doses of the sulphate of quinine. On examination after death, the 
mucous membrane of the stomach was found healthy; that of the bowels 
had more or less congestion; the liver showed signs of the same condition; 
and the spleen was double its natural size; but healthy in texture and ap- 
pearance. The cavities and substance of the heart were engorged, and the 
lungs were loaded with blood. The brain was not examined. This indi- 
vidual had probably experienced a previous attack of intermittent fever, 
which produced the enlargement of the spleen, and hence its natural ap- 
pearance, except in size. The fatal congestions were in the lungs, as the 
symptoms indicated. 

2. Another case from the same gentleman : A soldier, who had labored 
under chronic diarrhoea, was taken in the morning, and died at night. His 
brain seemed to be deeply implicated; as he experienced numbness, had a 
vacant gaze, lost the power of speech, and became insensible ; but still con- 
tinued to sit up, until he was about to expire. He was cupped on the neck, 
had a stream of cold water poured on his head, while his feet were immersed 
in a hot bath, and took large doses of the sulphate of quinine and carbonate 
of ammonia — all without effect. Post mortem appearances. — The external 
parts of the head were in a state of congestion, and the brain was covered 
with engorged vessels, but its substance showed very little hypersemia. The 
lungs were moderately engorged. The stomach and bowels showed traces of 
inflammation. As this patient had labored under chronic diarrhoea, it may 
be presumed that the latter condition existed before the fatal attack. 

3. The following observation was given me by Doctor Boling and Doctor 
Baldwin, of Montgomery, Alabama : A man had the characteristic symp- 
toms, but the fits were so mild, that he rose from his bed, and ' kept about' 
between them, for five or six days. The fatal paroxysm then came on, 
and he died in twenty-four hours. During the disease, his tongue was dry, 
smooth in the middle, furred on each side, and red at the edges and tip. 
Post mortem appearances. — His stomach was empty. In its greater curva- 
ture, near the pylorus, patches of hyperemia, with softening. The small 
intestines, ^particularly the lower part of the ilium, exhibited the same 
appearance. The spleen and liver were healthy. 

4. I am indebted to Doctor Sims, of the same city, for the following : A 
man, not attended by him, was said to have died in the second or third par- 
oxysm, with the usual symptoms. The dissection was commenced before the 
body had entirely lost its heat. The lungs, liver, and spleen, with all the 
venous trunks connected with them, were distended with uncommonly dark 
blood. The stomach contained the medicines, not spread over it, but was 
natural in appearance, and so were the bowels; but near the ilio-ececal 



822 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

valve, there was a quantity of black, tar-like matter, similar to the contents 
of the gall-bladder. 

5. Doctor Pennick, of Wetumpka, Alabama, observed the following case : 
A man was taken with what appeared to be an ordinary chill, but became 
dizzy; and falling, cut his scalp through to the skull. In the first fit, his 
breathing was embarrassed ; in the second, it became stertorous, and he 
died. On examination, his brain was found in a state of congestion, with 
serum in the ventricles. The mucous membrane of the stomach, exhibited a 
spot of a dark, modena-red color, and that of the bowels, two others of the 
same kind. 

6. Several physicians, of Greensboro', Alabama, in the course of their 
joint conversation with me, on malignant intermittents, mentioned two post 
mortem inspections, which they had witnessed. In one, there was consider- 
able engorgement of the brain ; in the other, a great congestion and enlarge- 
ment of the spleen. The splenic region was tender, before death. No 
other morbid appearances, were recollected. 

7. Doctor Haywood, of Tuscaloosa, in the same State, informed me, that 
he had made a number of dissections of persons dying of this fever, in 
which he could detect no morbid appearance, except, in a part of them, a 
slight hypersemia of the mucous membrane of the stomach, which he sup- 
posed to have been produced by medicines. 

8. Doctor Echols, of Selma, in the State just mentioned, informed me, that 
he had examined several who had died of the disease, without finding any 
morbid appearances, except enlarged spleens in a part of them. 

9. Doctor Christian, of Memphis, Tennessee, had examined a few subjects, 
in which he found the stomach but little altered; in one case (which must 
have been protracted), the liver was suppurating; in others that organ was 
enlarged ; in most of them the spleen and brain were engorged. 

10. Doctor Frye, of Peoria, Illinois, had examined two subjects, dead from 
the same fever. One of the patients had labored under incessant and 
uncontrollable vomiting. The stomach and liver were found in a state of 
congestion. The spleen was enlarged and softened. 

11. Doctor Ridgely, of Cincinnati, examined the abdominal organs of a boy 
five years old (see page 764), who died of the Fever, and found the stomach 
and bowels free from lesion ; the liver was unusually firm, and of a leaden 
hue ; the spleen enlarged, engorged, and of a dark color. 

12. A gentleman, living in the interior of Indiana, had his constitution 
impaired by several attacks of the Fever. Three years elapsed without any, 
though he continued in the same locality ; but he was none of the time in 
perfect health. He then undertook a summer visit to Cincinnati ; and, on 
the way, had a malignant paroxysm. On reaching the city it recurred, and 
Doctor Ridgely was called in. He found the skin of the patient cold, and 
of a dark and dirty copper hue, which it had exhibited for sometime before ; 
his pulse was feeble and rapid ; his mind wandering, with short periods of 
drowsiness. In a few hours he expired. A post mortem inspection revealed 
the following lesions: The lungs slightly engorged; heart softened and 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 823 

apparently atrophied; mucous coat of the stomach and bowels softened; 
liver somewhat enlarged, tender, and friable ; spleen enlarged, and almost 
decomposed into a grumous mass. Finally, a most offensive putrefaction fol- 
lowed in a few hours after death. In this case, no doubt, many of the 
lesions had been produced by previous attacks of the Fever. 

Although these observations offer very little that meets the demands of ex- 
act pathology, seeing that the brain and spinal cord, with a few exceptions in 
favor of the former, were not examined, and that the lesions of the other 
organs are given in a vague and general manner, still they are not altogether 
valueless, and we may devote a paragraph to their generalization. 

1. In several cases, very few traces of disease were found. The patients 
died from nervous depression; and whatever congestions may have been 
formed, nearly disappeared, while the patient was in articulo mortis. 

2. In the cases in which the brain was examined, it was generally found 
in a state of congestion; which is, perhaps, its invariable condition in 
soporose cases. 

3. In the first ease, characterized by pulmonary symptoms, the lungs were 
found in a state of great congestion ; and, in several others, they were more 
or less in that condition. 

4. The stomach and bowels in each patient were in nearly the same degree 
of lesion ; but in none were the traces of disease great. In several those 
organs were natural ; in about an equal number more or less congestion 
existed ; but in two or three only was it regarded as inflammatory. 

5. The liver, in several of these subjects, exhibited signs of congestion ; 
in others it was quite natural; in one suppurating; in another dense to the 
touch ; both of which conditions probably existed before the attacks, of which 
the patients died. 

6. The spleen was, on the whole, oftener affected than any other organ; 
but in one case it was reported natural; in several, not mentioned; when 
we may presume it was in the same condition; in a majority of the subjects, 
it was engorged and enlarged. 

To sum up, we may say, that the signs of inflammation were few and uncer- 
tain ; that passive congestions were common; that they occurred in the 
brain and lungs, but still oftener in the abdominal organs ; above all, in the 
spleen ; but that no organ was always affected, and consequently that none, 
according to these observations, is the invariable and characteristic seat 
of lesion. 



SECTION IV. 

PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY OF REMITTENT FEVER. 
I. A remark already made, concerning our knowledge of the lesions of 
structure in simple intermittents, is, to a certain extent, applicable to simple 
remittents. As they generally terminate in health, we can only judge from 



524 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book u. 

the symptoms, what organ or organs are especially affected. In many cases they 
degenerate or change into agues ; and in time bring about the visceral 
derangements, consequent on chronic intermittents. But simple remit- 
tents have a mode of termination which distinguishes them from all 
intermittents. It is the typhous state or stage. In this metamorphic fever, 
the brain is always affected, either with simple hypersemia, mere irritation, 
or inflammation. When coma, supervening at an early period of the change, 
is the prominent symptom, the first of these pathological conditions, is per- 
haps predominant ; when the supervention of cerebral symptoms has been 
sudden ; and they consist of coma- vigil and delirium, with feeble and fre- 
quent pulse, active subsultus tendinum, and a locomotive propensity, the 
second or irritable state of the brain exists; when the vigilance becomes 
morbid, with wild, loquacious, and singing delirium, cold feet, hot forehead, 
red eyes, contracted pupils, pulsating carotids, and more or less subsultus, 
with efforts at locomotion, inflammation may be assumed to exist ; yet I 
have seen these symptoms, not excepting a closely contracted pupil, imme- 
diately relieved, and recovery follow a large dose of laudanum ; proving that 
they may depend on irritation only. Nevertheless, it may, I think, be 
received as a fact, that when patients die in what is called the typhous stage 
of simple remittent fever, it is generally from cerebritis ; and that, after 
death, the principal lesions would be found in the brain, in the form of 
hyperemias, and serous or fibrinous secretions ; to which softening, perhaps, 
may sometimes be added. This cerebritis, however, cannot be admitted as 
an original affection, characteristic of the Fever, 

But we must turn from the brain to other organs. The lungs, it is well 
known, are liable to inflammation in this fever ; and instead of occurring 
late in the disease, like cerebritis, it generally arises at an early period. 
Such inflammation may prove fatal; and then a post mortem inspection will 
show the lesions resulting from bronchitis or pleurisy ; but more frequently 
still those of pneumonia, such as sanguineous engorgement and hepatiza- 
tion. But they cannot be regarded as constant, essential, or characteristic 
of autumnal fever; for, first, a vast majority of cases, even those which 
prove fatal, do not present a single symptom of pulmonary inflammation ; 
and, second, this inflammation, in most instances, is the undoubted effect of 
the sudden changes of weather in the latter part of autumn ; and must, 
therefore, be taken as the offspring of an incidental cause, acting subse- 
quently to that which produced the Fever. 

We are, thus, driven to the abdominal viscera, in our search after a lesion 
which may enter into the definition of remittent fever ; and, which, being 
shown by symptoms during life, must be found by dissection after death. In 
all times and places, it has been observed, that this fever is accompanied, 
from the beginning, with functional derangements of the abdominal organs; 
and, in many cases, there are unmistakable symptoms of inflammation. 
The functional disturbances are found chiefly in the liver, stomach, and duo- 
denum. To speak of functional disorders of the spleen, when we know not 
what its function is, would be an absurdity. Should the life of the patient 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 825 

be destroyed, while mere functional derangements prevailed, no morbid 
appearances might be found after death. They are but perturbations of the 
innervation, which carry into the circulation and secretions an altered action, 
different from that of inflammation. In simple remittents these disruptions 
of function may continue without generating derangements of structure, 
until the fever spontaneously ceases, or is reduced by art ; in the highest 
grade of malignant remittent fever, the irritation and prostration of the 
whole nervous system may be so intense as to destroy life in two or three 
paroxysms, leaving no lesions of structure to be revealed by the knife. 

But abdominal inflammation does occur in both inflammatory and malig- 
nant remittents. Moreover, it often commences with, or early in the Fever, 
and declares itself by legitimate signs. It arises independently of any co- 
operative or exciting cause; and, therefore, results from the same agency 
with the Fever. Finally, by its ravages, it shows itself, to the anatomist 
after death. But is it always in the same part? It is not. There are 
three organs in which it is chiefly found. They are the spleen, gastro-duo- 
denal mucous membrane, and liver. Occasionally it invades the whole at 
the same time ; but oftener limits itself to two, and, in many cases, affects 
one only. None of them is affected in some cases; and, therefore, there is no 
inflammatory lesion in the abdominal viscera, which constitutes a peculiar 
anatomical character of remittent fever ; any more than there is an ever 
present uniform lesion in those who die of intermittent fever. But we 
must proceed to inquire into the evidences afforded by autopsic examinations. 

II. Post Mortem Revelations. — The facts supplied by our Valley, for 
illustrating the pathological anatomy of remitting fever, are still fewer than 
for our intermittents. I am compelled, therefore, to look abroad; but, am 
sorry that in doing so, I cannot find materials for a very full and satis- 
factory history. 

At all times, occasional examinations have been made in Europe, the 
Atlantic States, and the Interior Valley ; but they only announced, in gen- 
eral terms, the existence of congestion, softening, and inflammation, found in 
different cases, in all the organs of the cranium, thorax, and abdomen. A 
series of careful post mortem inspections, by an able pathologist, was still 
wanting; and, a few years since, Doctor Stewardson undertook to supply 
the desideratum.* His dissections, seven in number, were made in the 
Pennsylvania Hospital, in the months of August, September, and October, 
which constitute the true period of prevalence of this fever. 

The following is his summary of the pathological appearances : 

" Brain. — This organ was examined in only five of the cases. The sub- 
arachnoid effusion was either entirely wanting, or moderate, except in one 
ease, where there was a considerable quantity of reddish serum. In the 
same case the ventricles contained an ounce of bloody serum, whilst in two 
of the others they were empty, in a third nearly so, and in the fourth contain- 
ed scarcely a drachm of fluid. In one the walls of the ventricles were of a 



^American Journal of the Medical Sciences, for 1841 and 1842. 
53 



826 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

yellow color. The pia mater was deeply injected in one case, in which also 
there appeared to be a slight effusion of blood into the cells in a small cir- 
cumscribed space ; its veins much distended posteriorly in another. The 
cortical substance was of a deep shade in two cases, and in none is it men- 
tioned as being paler than natural or presenting other alteration. In two 
cases the medullary substance was natural ; in a third it felt pasty without 
giving the sensation of softness ; while in a fourth it was soft and pasty, 
being at the same time dry and of a milk-white color, with few bloody points. 
In a fifth its color was a dirty white, mixed with a faint reddish brown, its 
consistence natural, with the exception of slight central softening. The 
same condition was presented by the cerebellum, which was natural in three 
other eases ; its condition not noted in the fifth. 

" The above alterations are similar to those found in other acute diseases, 
and must be regarded as slight and comparatively unimportant, if we except 
the individual in whom there was large bloody effusion in the ventricles, etc., 
and whose case will be reported further on. 

" Respiratory Apparatus — Pleura. — Old adhesions were found in a 
few cases, but very limited in extent. In two instances there was effusion 
in each pleural cavity, of about half a pint of a reddish brown or bloody 
fluid. In both of these cases the heart was flaccid, its lining membrane 
deep red or reddish brown, and in one the pericardium also contained several 
ounces of bloody serum. The lungs, on the contrary, in one of these cases, 
were healthy, in the other, very dark, deeply congested, without hepatiza- 
tion. It is most likely, then, that the pleural effusion was the result rather 
of an altered condition of the blood, combined, perhaps, with some softening 
of the tissue, than upon obstruction to the pulmonary circulation. That 
pleural effusion was generally absent or slight in the other cases, I have little 
doubt, but its absence is not positively noted. 

"Lungs. — Of the six cases in which these organs are particularly de- 
scribed, hepatization was found in one case only, and that at the summit 
merely of the middle lobe. They were generally more or less supple and 
crepitant, sometimes dark posteriorly; in one instance yellowish in the upper 
lobes, but deep reddish brown in the lower, in which case also spumous fluid 
of corresponding color, but most abundant in the lower lobes, issued from 
the several parts when squeezed. Indeed these organs presented nothing 
particularly remarkable, except in one instance (Case III), where they were 
highly congested, their color throughout nearly their whole extent being very 
dark, almost black, and the tissue but slightly crepitant, though not granu- 
lated or very easily penetrated. 

" The condition of the lungs, then, was much the same as in most other 
acute diseases, not especially seated in these organs. It is worthy of remark, 
that in no instance were there any of those heemorrhagic masses frequently 
occurring in the yellow fever, according to the description given us by M. 
Louis, while, in both, hepatization was very rare. 

"Circulatory Organs. — The pericardium contained a small quantity of 
serum in one case, and several ounces of bloody serum in another. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 827 

" Heart. — This organ was flabby in three of the six cases in which it is 
particularly described, and combined with this flabbyness, there was dimin- 
ished consistence at least in two cases. In the same three cases its lining 

o 

membrane was reddish brown, deep red, or violet; in two of these the color- 
ing being deepest on the right side and in the neighborhood of the valves, 
and extending into the pulmonary artery and aorta. In the other three cases 
the heart presented nothing remarkable ; in all, its valves were supple, and 
in one case of a yellow color. The aorta was of a bright or lemon yellow 
in two cases. 

" In the five cases in which the state of the blood is mentioned, this fluid 
was found in the cavity of the heart. In one case there were black 
coagula mixed with red serum ; in the others fibrinous coagula, soft in two, 
semi-transparent and greenish in another, and generally small. No large, 
firm, fibrinous^coagulum was found in a single instance. Although it is im- 
possible to say, at present, whether or no blood in remittent fever presents 
any characters which are absolutely peculiar, it is perfectly evident that it is 
the seat of morbid changes which deserve especial attention. 

"Abdomen. — A few ounces of a bister-colored fluid were found in the 
peritoneal cavity in one case; in another a part of the peritoneal coat of the 
gall bladder, and of the neighboring folds of the small intestine were of a 
rose color, and covered with false membrane. The omentum, and many of 
the folds of the small intestine, are noted in one case as olive-colored, there 
being no effusion in the cavity ; in another the intestines were of a dingy 
ash color, and pasty feel. 

" Liver. — Enlarged in three cases, and in one of them to a great degree; 
in the others it was of natural or moderate size. The consistence of the 
organ appears to have been generally diminished, being flabby, or softened, 
or both, in four cases, a little soft in a fifth, and moderately firm, but still 
readily penetrated by the finger, in a sixth ; in the seventh the consistence is 
not mentioned. 

" The color was nearly the same in every case, but very different from 
natural. In most of the cases the liver is described as being of the color of 
bronze, or a mixture of bronze and olive ; in one as a dull lead color exter- 
nally, internally bronzed with a reddish shade; in another as between a 
brown and an olive, the latter predominating ; and finally, as a pale slightly 
greenish lead color, with a tinge of brown, in one instance. Few things 
are more difficult than a description of color. The most correct idea of that 
before us would perhaps be conveyed by stating its predominant character, 
the same in every case, to be a mixture of gray and olive, the natural reddish 
brown being entirely extinct, or only faintly to be traced. This alteration 
existed uniformly or nearly so throughout the whole extent of the organ, 
except in a single instance, where a part of the left lobe was of the natural 
reddish brown hue. As the alteration of color pervaded both substances, 
the two were frequently blended together, and the aspect of the cut surface 
remarkably uniform. In one case, however, there was a marked distinction 
of color, the olive being predominant in the parenchyma, the brown in the 



828 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

acini. Of the four cases in which these characters are mentioned, the cut 
surface is described as smooth in three, of a shagreened appearance, and 
rough in the left lobe, in the fourth. This last character was evidently 
dependent upon hypertrophy of the lighter colored substance, which existed 
also in another instance, both cases, however, being examples of a very pro- 
tracted form of the disease. 

" The nature of the lesion of the liver above described, characterized 
essentially by a peculiar alteration of color, is not easily determined. That 
it is the result of inflammation will hardly be contended, and even if attended 
with congestion (which I think very doubtful), this could not account for 
it, as congestion is frequently present in other diseases where no such alter- 
ation of color is observable, and where, on the contrary, its effect is to pro- 
duce a deeper red. Some, perhaps, will look upon it as dependent upon the 
infiltration of bile into the tissue of the organ, but still it will at once be 
perceived that this presupposes a peculiar alteration of the bile and liver, 
inasmuch as the appearance presented is not found in other diseases, at least 
so far as I am aware. In saying that this lesion is found in no other disease, 
I wish to be understood as excepting those cases of pernicious and other 
intermittents, which prove fatal in the early stage, or before giving rise to 
well developed cirrhosis, abdominal effusion, etc. Indeed, I think it highly 
probable that the same alteration of the liver will be found to exist in inter- 
mittents which thus prove fatal; an opinion confirmed by the case last detailed. 
In speaking, therefore, of this alteration being peculiar to remittent fever, I 
I wish to be distinctly understood as not excluding intermittent fever, which, 
in my opinion, is essentially the same disease. 

" The lesion in question, then, being peculiar to the disease before us, and 
the only one which is so (all the other lesions being common to it and other 
diseases), and at the same time being found, as already observed, in every 
case, we are obliged to admit that it constitutes its essential anatomical 
characteristic, or at least that such is the conclusion to be derived from the 
cases before us. Their number, I am aware, is insufficient to establish such 
a point conclusively, and it therefore remains for future observers to determine 
whether or no the lesion we have described belongs to the disease under 
all circumstances. That such will be found to be the case, I confess, seems 
to me very probable, when I recollect that the cases we have been examining 
were distributed over three successive seasons, and originated, not in a sin- 
gle locality, but in different and widely separated places, and also that by a 
reference to the description of authors, it is apparent that a similar condition 
of the liver has been frequently observed by them, without, however, attract- 
ing that attention which it seems to me it demands. 

" Whatever may be the results of future observation in reference to the 
constant occurrence of this lesion, and even if the conclusion to which I have 
arrived, that it constitutes the essential anatomical characteristic of remittent 
fever, be found erroneous, owing to its absence in a certain portion of cases, 
it is still worthy of attention. It certainly constitutes a most peculiar and 
important anatomical feature of the disease. Its connection with certain 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 829 

symptoms during the early and middle period of the disease, its tendency to 
pass into cirrhosis in protracted cases, and thus lay the foundation of certain 
chronic organic alterations, abdominal effusion, etc., and the assistance it 
must afford in determining in fatal cases the diagnosis between remittent and 
other fevers, are sufficient to convince us of its claims upon our attention. 
The striking difference between it and the alteration of the liver which 
belongs to yellow fever is particularly interesting, especially as it was found 
quite as strongly marked in the case which most nearly approached to the 
latter disease, as in any of the others. While in remittent the liver is of a 
dull bronze or between a gray and olive, in yellow fever it is pale and of 
various shades of yellow, as straw-yellow, gum -yellow, etc. In typhoid 
fever the liver appears to present no other change of color than what arises 
from an increase or diminution of the red tint, being sometimes of a darker 
red, at others paler than natural." 

After Doctor Stewardson, Doctor Power made a number of autopsic 
observations, on the same fever, in the Baltimore Almshouse. He found 
the spleen, in every case, enlarged and softened. The liver, was generally, 
large, soft, and friable ; but not in a state of congestion. Its color, in differ- 
ent cases, was grayish-bronze — slaty-bronze, and dark slaty-gray. 

Doctor Swett, has since extended these researches, in the New York Hos- 
pital.* His cases, five in number, were from the south and west ; but not, 
in general, as well marked as those of Doctor Stewardson. The brain, in 
most of the subjects, was healthy, although they had delirium and coma 
during life ; the heart was either natural, or flabby and softened ; in two 
cases the lungs showed signs of pneumonia; and taking the whole of the 
cases together, he found more decided evidence of inflammatory action in 
them than any other organ. Referring to the stress, which Doctor Stew- 
ardson had laid on the pathological condition of the stomach, and bowels, 
as suggesting, that mucous inflammation is an important and frequent fea- 
ture of the Fever, Doctor Swett remarks — " I am unable to confirm this 
opinion. Most of the changes that I have observed in the mucous mem- 
brane of the stomach, have appeared to me of a chronic nature; and prob- 
ably long antecedent to, and entirely independent of the acute disease. I 
refer, particularly, to the thickened and mammillated condition of the organ. 
The injection of the mucous membrane, although present in all the cases to 
a certain extent, did not appear to me, beyond what is commonly noticed in 
other acute diseases, and might, in some cases at least, be referred distinctly 
to simple post mortem venous congestion. The symptoms during life, appear 
to me, to strengthen this idea. The patients very seldom complained of 
pain in the region of the stomach, and although slight tenderness on pres- 
sure was frequently noticed, yet this did not exceed, I think, what is noticed 
with equal frequency, in other febrile affections." 

" Doctor Stewardson, also remarks, that traces of inflammation exist on 
the mucous membrane of the duodenum, and notices particularly, an enlarged 

* American Journal, Medical School, for January, 1845. 



830 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

condition of the mucous follicles. This view, also, I have Tbeen unable to 
confirm." * * * " The mucous membrane of the intestinal canal, exclu- 
ding the evidences of chronic disease, or of disease that had probably for a 
long time ceased to exist, was found healthy. The symptoms during life 
confirmed this opinion. The absence of diarrhoea, of abdominal pain, and 
tenderness, of tympanitis, the ease, and even the feeling of relief with which 
purgatives acted, all go to prove the absence of at least, inflammation in 
those important organs." 

In every subject, the spleen was more or less enlarged, and engorged — in 
some softened. The state of the liver will be best given in his own words. 
" Tt will be perceived that, in the five cases above detailed, the peculiar con- 
dition of the liver, which Doctor Stewardson has assumed as the anatomical 
characteristic of remittent fever, was uniformly found." * * * " Two 
important considerations naturally present themselves here. First, what is 
the nature of this condition of the liver ? The only positive change that I 
have been able to observe, is that of color — the slaty, and bronze tint ex- 
ternally, the olive tint internally. It is true that a slight degree of soften- 
ing of the tissues seems to exist, in connection with this change of color, 
but this has, in all my cases, been very moderate in degree, and, in one of 
the best marked cases of the disease, extremely doubtful. All will admit, I 
think, who have examined such cases, that there is no evidence of inflamma- 
tion in the changes noticed, for although some degree of capillary injection 
existed in two of the cases, yet in the remaining three it was entirely absent. 
The natural size of the liver, the absence of lymph or pus, the small quan- 
tity of blood yielded by pressure, as well as the local symptoms during life, 
especially the absence of pain and tenderness over the region of the liver, 
tend to confirm the same idea. It appears to me, not an unreasonable con- 
clusion, to suppose that the change of color is produced by the action of the 
bile, especially, when we remember the appearance of this secretion as ob- 
served in the gall-bladder. 

"Another important fact to establish is, whether this appearance of the 
liver may not be found in other diseases, and particularly in other forms of 
fever. This question can only be settled by long and multiplied observation. 
I can only say that, in six fatal cases of continued fever, four of which ori- 
ginated on ship-board, and two in this city, no such condition was found, 
and that, after careful examination with this object in view." 

My own occasional autopsies, have afforded results, which correspond very 
well with those which have been detailed ; but I must confess that my at- 
tention was not attracted to the peculiar color of the liver, first distinctly 
pointed out, I believe, by Doctor Stewardson ; though a modification of 
color in that organ, had been often mentioned before. Doctor Swett has 
intimated, that such a change might be looked for, in the organ which se- 
cretes the bile. "We know, that green discharges are not uncommon, and a 
bluish fluid is occasionally ejected. Doctor Hollingsworth, of Mississippi, 
has communicated to me a case, in which, for many days, the patient con- 
tinued to have copious evacuations of that hue. As the febrile action in 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 831 

this fever is of a peculiar kind, it is reasonable to suppose, that the organ 
charged with forming the yellow coloring matter of the bile, may produce 
a tint of a different kind. Thus, the change of complexion, does not, ne- 
cessarily, require us to infer a structural lesion of the liver. In fact, apart 
from the altered hue, the liver is, apparently, much less affected than the 
spleen. Another evidence, that it is not always deeply implicated, is to "be 
found in the fact, that during many remittents, there are daily discharges of 
healthy -looking, yellow bile; and, that during convalescence, the organ 
generally acts very well ; finally, that fewer hepatic, than splenic diseases, 
follow on the Fever. The results which have been recounted, show that the 
spleen is, generally, if not always, involved ; and the mucous membrane of 
the stomach and bowels very frequently. 

But the admitted ravages of inflammation, are neither constant nor stri- 
king : — not sufficient, I think, in most instances, to account for the death of 
the patient ; unless we include among them, all cases of congestion and soft- 
ening ; which would certainly be gratuitous. Passive hypersemia, is an un- 
questionable pathological fact ; and fever softens every tissue of the body. 
To the latter type of morbid action, we may refer the soft and flabby state 
of the heart, not less than of the liver, spleen, and mucous membrane of the 
stomach, and duodenum. In a case communicated to Doctor Stewardson, 
by Doctor Howland, of Baltimore, the spleen did not bear lifting, any better 
than a clot of drawn blood bears it ; and many others have observed the 
same phenomenon; which indicates a decomposition of the vascular and 
fibrous tissues of the organ. The soft and pulpy state of the mucous mem- 
brane, with but little appearance of hyperemia, is doubtless, of a febrile, rather 
than phlogistic origin. In a post mortem examination, by Doctor Harper, 
which I attended, at the Vicksburg Hospital, in 1844, the mucous mem- 
brane of the stomach, was soft, tender, thickened, and easily detached ; but 
there was only here and there a spot of hyperemia. It is worthy of remark, 
that the duodenum in this case, was sound. 

We may, on the whole, conclude, that although, more or less inflammation 
arises, perhaps in every severe and protracted case of this fever, and may 
often be the cause of death, it is not necessary to the existence of the Fever ; 
which in many cases proves fatal, independently of the lesions, which in 
others it produces. 



SECTION V. 

CONSEQUENCES OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 
I. Chronic action oe the Cause of Autumnal Fever. — This seems 
to be a suitable place, in which to inquire, whether the cause of autumnal 
fever can act upon the system, to the production of morbid conditions, other 
than the Fever itself. There are etiological agents, as the variolous poison, 
which either produce no effect, or occasion a full development of the disease ; 
there are others, equally specific, as that of epidemic cholera, which affect the 



832 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

system with every grade of violence, from the slightest diarrhoea, to mortal 
collapse ; finally, there are others still, as vicissitudes of weather, which pro- 
duce in one person catarrh, in a second, tonsilitis, in a third, rheumatism, in 
a fourth, a fit of dyspepsia. There is, then, no objection, a priori, to the 
opinion, that the cause of autumnal fever may exert injurious influences of 
a lower grade, and a different kind, from that Fever. Whether such he the 
fact, can only be known by observation. 

That the agent we are now considering, can act in a gradual and feeble 
manner, to the end of slowly developing intermittent maladies of a mild charac- 
ter, is what I can testify ; and as the consequences of autumnal fever, as found 
in different parts of the body, we' may, I think, conclude, that the slow and 
insidious operation of the noxious agent, may generate various diseases, or 
at least, diatheses and predispositions to them. But for the full illustration 
of this subject, a more ample store of facts, than I possess, is required. 

Over most of the Interior Valley, a ruddy complexion is rare; and often 
replaced by a slight turbid hue, or a tinge of sallowness. "When standing 
before the medical classes of Lexington, Louisville, and Cincinnati, com- 
posed chiefly of young men between twenty and thirty years of age, I have 
seen very few, with plump and rosy cheeks. In general, the malar bones 
appear prominent, from defective cellular development of the cheeks. These 
deficiencies exist in various degrees ; and are greatest among the people in 
what are called malarial districts. "When we mingle with them, we see con- 
clusive evidence, that their physiology is not sound, although they may re- 
gard themselves as in health. Those of the worst aspect, have generally 
experienced one or more attacks of fever, which have left them infirm ; but 
others have never suffered from that disease, and yet they are not vigorous, 
in appearance or reality. They who have constantly breathed the atmos- 
phere of such localities, and have suffered attacks of fever while young, are 
often stunted in their growth, and never reach the port or portraiture of per- 
fect manhood. But before we ascribe these effects to an empoisoned at- 
mosphere, only, we must recollect that heat and moisture generally prevail 
in such localities; and grant, that an undefinable portion of the injury, 
should be attributed to them. 

If we admit the reality of what has been set forth, and connect with it, 
a periscope of the Valley, but recently become the abode of civilized man — 
as yet, in its oldest settled portions, but in the transition state — many parts 
abounding in swamps — others intersected with alluvial streams, and almost 
everywhere overshadowed with forests, we may presume, that a national physiol- 
ogy, with its peculiar infirmities and predispositions, is, or must, necessarily, be 
the consequence. This, if I mistake not, is actually the case at the present 
time ; and constitutes a reason, why bloodletting and other active evacuations, 
are not borne as well, by those who live in low paludal districts, as those who 
inhabit higher and dryer localities. In the former, many diseases, not inhe- 
rently periodical, display more or less of that type ; evincing that the con- 
stitutions of the inhabitants, have been acted upon by the cause of autum- 
nal fever. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 833 

II. But we must inquire whether the people in such places are liable to any 
actual diseases, periodical fevers excepted, which may be regarded as the 
products of the conditions under which they live. 

Comparing the early and the latter frequency of biliary derangements, in the 
same localities, it seems to me, that with the progress of cultivation, and the 
density of population, the present has a decided advantage over the past; and 
a comparison of country and city, leads to the same conclusion. In former 
times, I have witnessed, more than once, an epidemic jaundice, in autumn, 
which it appeared natural to refer, to the cause which produced fever, in that 
season. Dyspepsia has, also, seemed in many cases, to be the offspring of 
the same agency. Chronic, or subacute hepatitis, I am almost convinced, 
has often been generated by the same agencies ; and it is an admitted fact, 
that the spleen may become enlarged in these localities, without the previ- 
ous occurrence of a single paroxysm of fever. 

Finally, not to press a debatable principle to its utmost limits, I will 
only add, that neuralgias, and many irritations and oppressions of the brain 
and nervous system, unattended with pain, appear to be insidiously gener- 
ated by the same influence ; in illustration of which, I may introduce the 
following statement, made out from memoranda handed me by a gentleman 
of this city. 

Mr. N. L., who had, for many years, resided in the eastern part of the 
city, near the junction of Deer Creek with the Ohio River, and, conse- 
quently, in what is called a malarial atmosphere ; became affected with dys- 
pepsia, from which he had been exempt through the earlier period of life, 
when that disease generally occurs. His feelings became depressed and 
irritable, his strength declined, and he gradually lost much of his flesh. At 
length, under a full and nutritious diet, and the daily use of wine or brandy, 
those symptoms were removed; and he recovered his cheerfulness, strength, 
and flesh. Some time afterward, however, he began occasionally, to expe- 
rience, in the night, the premonitory feelings of a paroxysm of dyspepsia, 
succeeded in the morning, by vertigo, and a momentary loss of conscious- 
ness, followed by transient perspiration. These fits usually returned several 
times for a day or two, when a slight diarrhoea would supervene, and termi- 
nate the attack. After seven or eight months, it struck him, that the dis- 
order had been recurring at regular periods ; whereupon he determined to 
record the times of future returns, and soon found the periods to be, invari- 
ably, of thirty days. Becoming familiarized to them, and being a man of 
talents and observation, he noted, that every paroxysm was ushered in by a 
peculiar vision of the mind, so that, at length, he would exclaim, ' there is 
the same strange idea,' but the instant it was gone, • he never could have 
the least recollection of what it was.' This continued for more than a year. 
Medicines then checked the paroxysm for one or two monthly periods, when 
it recurred, as severe as before, every twenty-one days, and continued at 
that rate, for five or six months ; when, under the use of medicines, the re- 
currence came to be on the sixteenth day, the violence of the fit remaining 
the same. Throughout the second night after the access of the paroxysm, 



834 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

he would invariably lie awake, but was calm in mind, and without fever, 
For more than two years, he continued to note the recurrences of the fit, and 
found them constantly on the sixteenth day. During that period, as soon as 
the paroxysm was gone, he felt well, and his mind was clear and active ; but 
gradually, it became so enfeebled and gloomy, that he made no further 
records. After about five years, the fits began to abate in violence; and to 
become irregular in recurrence, sometimes not returning for six weeks. At 
the present time, when he is sixty-five years of age, they still recur, but with 
great mitigation. He is never kept awake through the night, nor does he 
any longer lose his consciousness. His health, is otherwise, good, and no 
impairment of memory or intellect seems to have been produced. 

III. Consequences of Autumnal Fever. — The reader will perceive, that 
a distinction is made between the slowly developed effects of the agent 
which produces autumnal fever, and the morbid states or consequences which 
follow it. As an illustrative contrast, I may anticipate what must be re- 
peated hereafter, and say, that yellow fever, even when not skillfully treated, 
leaves but few vestiges behind. Death, or sound, even improved, health, is 
the fate or fortune of the patient. It is far different with the subject of 
autumnal fever. When combatted with skill, in its early stages, his recov- 
ery, it is true, may be perfect, and this, in mild remittents, may be the case, 
if no medical aid be administered ; but no fact is better established, than 
that many cases are followed by consequences, from which patients slowly 
recover, or finally die. Some of these lesions are found in the innervation; 
and manifest themselves as neuralgias in various parts of the body ; others 
exist in the blood, which remains impoverished ; others in the exhaient and 
absorbent vessels, generating dropsies; others in the stomach and bowels, 
originating dyspepsia, diarrhoea, or constipation ; others in the liver, which 
may remain torpid or inflamed, with an attendant jaundice ; lastly, others in 
the spleen, left inflamed or enlarged and softened. These various secondary 
and tertiary lesions, must be studied, to complete the pathological and thera- 
peutic history of the Fever ; and to them we must now give attention, 
beginning with the most frequent and formidable — the disorders of the spleen^ 



part i,] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 835 



CHAPTER XL 

CONSEQUENCES OF AUTUMNAL FEVER. 



SECTION I. 

DISEASES OF THE SPLEEN :— GENERAL VIEWS. 

I. It is, I think, an unquestionable fact, that a vast majority of the people 
of this country, if not of our race, live and die, without experiencing any dis- 
ease of the organ we are now considering. Abuses of diet, which carry a 
morbid condition into the alimentary canal, liver, kidneys, heart, and brain, 
do not, as far as we know, often disturb the spleen. Alcoholic potations, 
which light up inflammations in the same organs, and above all in the liver, 
leave the spleen unaffected. Vicissitudes of temperature, which inflame all 
the pulmonary tissues, the peritoneum, and the joints, are not known to oc- 
casion splenitis. All the viscera enumerated, may, moreover, be inflamed, 
or otherwise diseased, without necessarily carrying into this deeply caverned, 
and unsocial organ, any recognized, sympathetic disturbance. 

This exemption, from the sinister influence of many external and patholo- 
gical causes, may, perhaps, be ascribed, in part at least, to the following 
causes : 

1. The organ is placed more beyond the influence of external agents than 
any other abdominal viscus, except the pancreas ; which, at the same time, 
it may be remarked, is still more exempt from disease than the spleen. The 
spleen is also more secluded from outward influences, than the lungs, heart, 
and brain. 

2. Its tissues are few and simple, consisting chiefly, of arteries, veins, a 
fibrous, or cellulo-fibrous membrane, containing a red pulpy matter, and an 
external fibro-serous tunic . Now the simpler the structure of an organ, ceteris 
paribus, the fewer are its diseases. 

3. The few nerves which enter it, upon the vessels, are derived from the 
system of the great sympathetic, and do not bestow on it much animal sensi- 
bility; nor establish between it and the other organs of the body any lively 
sympathy. 

4. Compared with most of the organs, its function is, manifestly, more 
simple than theirs. What that function is, we do not know ; but, it is, evi- 
dently, limited to the blood ; which it is either designed to receive and re- 
tain, from the other organs in certain excited states of the circulation, as sug- 
gested long since by Doctor Rush; or it works out some change in the 
constitution of that fluid, or both ; functions, especially the former, requi- 
ring far less complication of structure, than the office of the liver, lungs, or 
brain. 



836 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ft. 

II. I shall not stop to inquire into the relative influence of these different 
anatomical and physiological reasons, for the comparative exemption of this 
organ from original disease ; but proceed to remark, that while this exemp- 
tion is a fact, that must be admitted, there are three forms of fever, 
which carry disease into that organ. I say three forms, for all fevers do 
not. Thus, most or all, of the phlegmasia, may run on with extreme violence 
for many days, or, in a subacute grade, for weeks, without occasioning dis- 
order of the spleen ; while, on the other hand, two of the forms of fever to 
which I allude, very often, and the third, almost constantly, affect it; they 
are yellow, typhous, and autumnal fever. 

1. Dissections have shown, that the spleen is sometimes enlarged, and 
softened in yellow fever, but these lesions are not even so frequent as in 
typhous and autumnal fever. 

2. The typhoid fever of the French writers, occasions derangement of the 
spleen, as one of its most common characteristics. They are not generally 
known, however, during life, though sufficiently manifest after death. They 
have not only been observed in Paris, but in various parts of the United 
States. They consist of enlargement and softening, without, in most cases, 
many of the more common and certain signs of inflammation; neither pus 
being found within, nor coagulating lymph without the organ. The variety 
of fever, properly denominated typhous, also presents us, in fatal cases, with 
lesions of the spleen, though less frequently, and strikingly, than the typhoid. 

It is worthy of remark, that yellow and typhous fevers, do not, in cases of 
recovery, leave behind them, as consequences, either splenitis or enlargement 
of the organ; showing that they affect it differently from autumnal fever. 
I have never yet seen an enlarged spleen, following on any form of typhus. 
There is nothing, then, to be said as to the treatment of diseases of the 
spleen, consequent on these continued fevers. 

3. The great source of diseases of the spleen, in this country, is well known 
to be autumnal fever. In the present state of our knowledge, it would, per- 
haps, be most proper to content ourselves with the knowledge of this con- 
nection, as a fact, and not attempt to speculate upon it. Nevertheless, it 
can do no harm to review the suggestions which have been made, if we do 
not rest any treatment upon a mere hypothesis. 

a. It has been conjectured, that autumnal fever commences in the spleen; 
whence a morbid action spreads itself throughout the organism. But if this 
were the case, we ought to find that organ diseased before any other ; which, 
as far as we can judge by symptoms, is not the case. As remittent fever, 
moreover, is generally more violent and dangerous than intermittent, the 
signs of disease in the spleen should be more decided in the former than the 
latter ; which we all know is precisely the reverse of the fact. Finally, the 
manifestations of splenic disease, are often greatest on the decline of the 
Fever, which is directly opposed to what should be the case, if the Fever 
arose from the disease of that organ. 

b. It has been conjectured, that in these fevers, the spleen becomes invol- 



part i.J INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 837 

ved, during the cold stage, from a recess of the blood from the exterior parts 
of the body, and its accumulation in the portal circle. Such a destruction 
of the equilibrium of the circulation, must be admitted as a pathological 
fact ; and that it is a cause of the disorders of that organ, may be inferred 
from another fact, which is, that remittents, in which the cold stage is less 
violent and protracted than in intermittents, disorder the spleen much less, 
than the latter. On the other hand, however, typhoid fever injures the 
spleen frequently and seriously, although it be a continued fever; and, of 
course, is exempt from those periodical revulsions, which characterize intermit- 
tents ; and hectic fever, attended with protracted diurnal chilliness, contin- 
ues for a long time, without occasioning disease of the spleen. 

c. A third hypothesis, is, that malaria, or whatever may be the remote 
cause of autumnal fever, has a specific tendency to act on the spleen ; just as 
the remote cause of typhoid fever directs its influence on the glands of Peyer, 
and the remote cause of plague, on the ganglia and other organs of the 
axilla and groin. I think it can scarcely be doubted, that this is a reality. 
For, first. The great frequency of splenic disorders in autumnal fever, 
would seem to prove it. Second. The influence of the sulphate of quinine, 
in removing some of them, looks to the same conclusion. Third. In paludal 
districts, the spleen sometimes becomes disordered, by the slow or feeble 
action of some agent, the individual never having had an attack of either 
intermittent or remittent fever. 

d. It is well known, that diseases of the spleen, are almost incurable 
while the individual continues to reside in the locality which generated them; 
but are curable, and sometimes spontaneously cease, when he seeks a more 
salubrious residence. 

On the whole, we may, perhaps, combine two of these hypotheses and say, 
that the spleen is not only engorged during the cold stage, but that it is 
the nature of the remote cause of autumnal fever, to determine a morbid 
influence on that organ, more than any other ; and hence the frequency of 
its disorders in autumnal fever. We must not, however, lose sight of the 
fact, that we are entirely ignorant of the function, which is performed by or 
in, the red pulpy matter of the spleen ; that we know nothing of the rela- 
tions which it bears to the blood ; nor of the influence of the remote cause 
upon the blood; and, therefore, that the disorders of the organ may, possi- 
bly, be induced through those humoral elements. 

In persons of strumous habit, the spleen is apt, like almost every other 
organ, to become the seat of tubercle ; but passing this by, we may say, 
that almost every case of disease of that viscus, known to us in this country, 
grows out of autumnal fever ; and, in what I shall say through the remainder 
of this section, I propose to limit myself to its disorders consequent on that 
fever, most of which, moreover, connect themselves with the intermittent 
form. 

III. Simple intermittents, if protracted, scarcely ever fail to disorder the 
spleen. Such disorder at first shows but few signs of an inflammatory charac- 
ter, presenting nothing but enlargement; but, in the succeeding winter, under 



838 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

vicissitudes of temperature, inflammation may be superadded. Of the true 
nature of this simple enlargement, we know nothing very positively ; but it 
must consist, I think, either in an increase of the peculiar pulpy matter of 
the organ, with increased development of the fibrous structure ; or the accu- 
mulation and stasis of the blood, or both. To the former, only, should the 
term hypertrophy be applied. The latter is a species of permanent erec- 
tion, and I presume it is by far the more common of the two. I once sup- 
posed, it might sometimes be a hydropic condition of the organ, or a secre- 
tion of serum into the cells of the spleen, where it would be colored by the 
red pulpy matter; but can cite no facts in support of this conjecture. 

During the paroxysms of a malignant intermittent, this organ suffers se- 
verely. This is proved by two facts. First. Those who recover are often 
left with enlargement of the spleen, although they might have had but two 
or three paroxysms. Second,. The organ in those who die, is almost always 
found more or less swollen, greatly softened, and sometimes almost diffluent; 
but it rarely exhibits any acknowledged vestiges of inflammation. 

Inflammatory intermittents generate most of the cases of splenitis, with 
which we meet. This inflammation may be accompanied by manifest swel- 
ling of the organ, or exist without it — it may, again, be either serous or 
parenchymatous. It may invest the organ with bands of lymph ; or fill it 
with factitious tissue, thereby hardening it ; may soften it in the absence of 
such tissue ; or may end in suppuration. It may manifest itself, during the 
Fever, as a decided complication, and cease with it ; or, escaping observation 
in the midst of the general overthrow of the functions, may attract our at- 
tention, for the first time, when the patient has begun to convalesce. In 
whatever stage of the Fever, or the convalescence, it may be developed, its 
diagnosis is essentially the same. This, when enlargement and inflammation 
are combined, is comparatively easy ; but when inflammation exists without 
enlargement, the diagnostic difficulty is sometimes considerable. 

We come now, to consider the symptoms and treatment of splenitis. 



SECTION II. 

SPLENITIS. 

I. Symptoms. — These, as they occur during an attack of inflammatory 
intermittent fever, have been stated on page 752, and therefore, a brief re- 
cognition will, now, be all that is necessary. The characteristic symptoms 
are pain, not often very acute, in the left hypochondrium ; tenderness or 
soreness on pressure, over the intercostal spaces, or below and behind the 
cartilages of the ribs ; frequently, a hacking cough ; a sense of oppression 
and anguish in the region of the diaphragm ; sometimes a hiccup — two 
examples of which were mentioned to me, as occurring in their practice, by 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 839 

Doctors Henry, and Merriman, of Illinois; in violent cases, a pain in the 
left shoulder, of which, Professor Gross* has met with one example ; and 
I have myself seen two or three ; finally, more or less fever, according to the 
degree of inflammation. To complete the diagnosis, the absence of several 
symptoms, must be noted. The stomach and bowels are much less affected 
in splenitis, than in hepatitis ; there is no expectoration, and the respiratory 
murmur, can be heard over the splenic region ; but when the organ is enlar- 
ged, which is almost invariably the case, there is a dull sound under percus- 
sion ; finally, the patient can lie on the opposite side, much better than in 
hepatitis. 

II. Morbid Anatomy. — Splenitis may be either capsular or parenchy- 
matous. I know of no distinguishing symptoms ; but, from analogy, we may 
presume, that the former variety is accompanied by greater pain and tender- 
ness, than the latter. The effect of the first, is to throw out coagulable 
lymph ; which more or less invests the organ, producing, by its contraction, 
deformity and, sometimes, atrophy of that organ, examples of which I have 
seen in the Louisville Hospital. The effect of the second, in some cases, is 
induration of the organ from infiltrations of lymph ; in others, softening, or 
suppuration. 

Occasionally, the spleen becomes adherent to the diaphragm ; the inflam- 
mation may then permeate the latter, and enter the pleura and lungs, which 
will attach themselves to it above. Thus, splenitis, diaphragmitis, pleurisy, 
and pneumonia, may finally coexist; and, if the physician should not be 
called till the last is established, he might pronounce it the only disease. 
This extension of the inflammation to the diaphragm, explains the produc- 
tion of cough and hiccup, in splenitis ; and affords a beautiful example of the 
influence of an inflamed surface, in exciting its own morbid condition in 
another surface, with which it is in contact. 

III. Exciting Causes. — The cases of splenitis now under consideration, 
are those which follow on autumnal fever, especially inflammatory intermit- 
tents. Beginning in the early stages, the inflammation may survive the 
cessation of that fever ; but in other cases, the organ is only brought into a 
state of sanguineous engorgement by the Fever, and the inflammation is 
awakened by an exciting cause. This is generally one of those sudden chan- 
ges of weather, which are so frequent in our middle and higher latitudes, 
where it is more common than in the South. Being thus awakened, it gen- 
erally occurs late in autumn, and through the following winter. But violent 
exercise may start the inflammation, when the organ is in a state of conges- 
tion. Lastly, an accidental blow or a fall, on the left side, may bring out 
the same result. 

IV. Treatment. — The fever which accompanies splenitis, very commonly 
displays a remitting type; and this paroxysmal character has often restrained 
the physician from active antiphlogistic measures, when they were impera- 
tively demanded. In our warmer climates it may not be admissible, in most 

* Pathological Anatomy, Second Edition, p. 677. 



840 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

cases, to employ the lancet ; but, in the cold and variable, venesection is 
indispensable ; the blood is sizy, and much relief follows its detraction. A 
case in the Commercial Hospital, of this city, during the present winter, 
required no less than four bleedings, after each of which the symptoms were 
mitigated ; and the swelling of the organ, which was so great as to cause a 
bulging out of the cartilages of the ribs, was, also, diminished by every 
operation. In mild cases, and especially, when the constitution is much 
broken down, cupping over and below the ribs, may answer the end proposed 
by the loss of blood ; after which the counter irritation of a large blister will 
be useful. In acute cases, calomel, in two grain doses, may be given every 
two hours, for a few days, the bowels having been previously evacuated, or, 
in its stead, active chologogue and hydrogogue purging may be effected by 
the compound power of jalap, infusion of senna with sulphate of magnesia, 
or pills, composed of calomel or blue mass, compound extract of colocynth, 
and squill, in equal parts. In the south, however, and, in very paludal local- 
ities further north, these medicines must be administered with some reserve. 
At a comparatively early period, the sulphate of quinine is demanded. At 
first it should be given in combination with nitrate of potash or muriate of 
ammonia, in the proportion of five grains of the former to fifteen of the 
latter; but, as the inflammation declines, opium, in the quantity of half a 
grain or a grain, may be substituted for the latter, under which treatment 
the swelling and inflammation will, in general, rapidly abate. 

Subacute splenitis is often attended with fever, and the local symptoms are 
such as to suggest a mild inflammation. Such cases do not require the 
lancet, but cupping will always be proper. As to the remainder of the 
treatment, it should be a diminutive of that for the acute form. 



SECTION III. 

SUPPURATION OF THE SPLEEN. 

Parenchymatous splenitis frequently terminates in suppuration. A want 
of acute sensibility, in the interior structure of the organ, prevents a degree 
of pain sufficient to alarm either the patient or the physician ; and, in many 
cases, the fever is inconsiderable, and hence the inflammation is left to pur- 
sue its course. I once supposed hepatic abscesses commoner than splenic ; 
but more extensive inquiries have shown me the reverse. In my inter- 
course with physicians, I have collected the following facts : 

Doctor Flournoy, of Lexington, Missouri, has met with two cases. The 
pus was discharged into the bowels. In one, when the patient continued in a 
recumbent posture for sometime, a swelling in the direction of the left hy- 
pochondrium would manifest itself; on pressing which, the flow of pus into 
the bowels could be heard; and, in a few minutes afterward, there would be 
a discharge, per anum, of that fluid — the tumor having disappeared. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 841 

patient seemed every way convalescent, when, from indulging in a large meal 
of meat ; fever and ' colicy pains ' supervened, and he died in two days. A 
hasty post mortem inspection showed, in place of the organ, only a small 
sack ; the aperture from which into the bowel, no doubt the colon, was not 
found. 

The other case was marked by this peculiarity. A tumor formed; a dis- 
charge of pus took place from the bowels, and the swelling abated ; the dis- 
charge from the bowels ceased, the swelling rose higher than before, pointed 
externally, was opened with a lancet, and several ounces of pus escaped, 
after which recovery took place. 

Doctor Twyman, of St. Charles, in the same State, has seen two cases of 
splenic suppuration. One occurred in a child, three years old, and the dis- 
charge was into the bowels. In the other case, the abscess pointed exter- 
nally, and was opened below the cartilages of the ribs — both recovered. 
The Doctor has been informed of another in the neighborhood of St. Charles, 
which terminated in the same manner with the last. 

The following case was given me by Doctor Henry, of Springfield, Illinois. 
Although the subject of it lived in a region where autumnal fever abounds, 
he was not known to have had that disease. He was a robust man, who had 
been subject, for several years, to attacks of what was called colic ; when, 
in the winter of 1842-3, immediately after one of them, a painful swelling 
rose rapidly in the left hypochondrium, for which his physician bled him once, 
and purged him. The cathartic operated kindly, but afforded no relief. 
After a while, Doctor H. was called in, and found the left side of the abdo- 
men much enlarged, and both sides tense and tender. A fluctuation was 
obscurely perceptible on the splenic side, and the attending physician was 
treating him for ascites. He had a considerable degree of dyspnoea, a dry 
hacking cough, and would ' hiccup hj the hour/ His stomach had been irri- 
table, but was not so at that time. Every morning, he had a slight chill, 
for which his physician had administered sulphate of quinine. Doctor H. 
did not advise any active treatment, but rather to wait and watch the pro- 
gress of the disease. In a month, a sudden and copious discharge of pus 
and blood, came on from the bowels, with subsidence of the swelling ; and a 
perfect recovery followed. 

Doctor Boone, now of Chicago, Illinois, saw, at Hiilsboro', in that State, 
a case of splenic abscess following on intermittent fever, which pointed ex- 
ternally, was opened, and the patient recovered. 

Doctor Christian, of Memphis, Tennessee, met with a case, preceded by 
intermittent fever, in which the organ was greatly enlarged, and an abscess 
pointed in a mammary form, on the left side of the navel. It opened spon- 
taneously, and discharged, at least, two quarts of pus, after which the patient 
recovered. 

Doctor Shanks, of the same city, saw two cases, in which an accidental 
blow given to the spleen, when enlarged from intermittent fever, brought on 
suppurative action, with a discharge of pus by the bowels. Both the patients 
died ; but no post mortem inspection was made. 
54 



842 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

Doctor Frazier, of the same place, related the following: A river-man, 
who had been often affected with intermittent fever, suffered an injury of the 
ankle, which rendered amputation necessary. Two weeks after the operation, 
he died. On examination of the body, an abscess of the spleen, without 
any enlargement of the organ, was found. The character of this case is 
ambiguous, as the pus might have been, and probably was, absorbed from the 
stump and deposited in the spleen — an example of the cold abscess, of the 
surgeons. 

Of these eleven cases, the discharge of pus in six, was by the bowels ; in 
three externally; in one by both modes ; and in one no evacuation took place. 

It deserves remark, that none of the abscesses made their way into the 
stomach, peritoneal cavity, or lungs. It should likewise be noted, that the 
discharge of pus was not followed by hectic fever ; and that all the patients 
recovered except one, who fell a victim to the indulgence of his appetite 
during convalescence; and two, who had suffered external injury. Lastly, 
all the cases occurred north of the thirty-fifth degree, and most of them 
above the thirty- eighth. Not one case was mentioned to me south of the 
former parallel of latitude ; and hence, we may conclude, that suppuration 
of the spleen is a northern rather than a southern disease ; we are also ad- 
monished, by the issue of two cases, that those who have enlargement of the 
organ, are in danger from mechanical injuries. 

The treatment of suppuration of the spleen, after the discharge of pus 
has commenced, must, of course, be restorative, and consist of nutritious 
diet (all inordinate indulgencies being avoided) ; the bark, rendered still more 
necessary than in ordinary suppurations, from the peculiar diathesis of the 
patient ; elixir vitriol, in combination with that medicine ; the blue pill, as 
an aperient, when one is required; opium, especially at night, and flannel 
next the skin. 



SECTION IV. 

ENLARGEMENTS OF THE SPLEEN. 

I. By enlargement of the spleen we are not to understand the swelling 
which accompanies splenitis, which may be inconsiderable, especially when 
the inflammation is serous. The enlargement, which now occupies us, may 
exist independently of inflammation, and certainly does not arise from it. 
The same pathological cause, which produces enlargement, may, also, gener- 
ate inflammation ; but, in many cases, it does not ; in all, however, it so pre- 
disposes to that disease, that slight exciting causes may bring it on. In- 
flammation is, then, a contingent of enlargement. Now and then it is acute, 
and may, perhaps, prove fatal; but I have not witnessed such a termination. 
More commonly, however, it assumes a chronic form, or returns at irregular 
intervals, in a subacute grade. 

II. Enlargements of the spleen are spoken of, by some pathologists, as 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 843 

hypertrophies. But this is a misapplication of the term. The augmenta- 
tion of size, which can "be brought about, in a few days, by a pathological 
cause, cannot, with propriety, be called an increase of growth. As well might 
we call anasarca, a hypertrophy of the cellular membrane. The spleen is, 
undoubtedly, a peculiar variety of erectile tissue ; and when it becomes sud- 
denly enlarged, we are bound to regard the material which gives it distension 
as blood. It may be alledged, however, that it is not blood, but an increase 
of the peculiar, pulpy matter, which, at all times, fills the areolar structure 
of the organ ; but it seems contrary to analogy, that a pathological condi- 
tion should augment the product of the healthy function of an organ. The 
rapid reduction, in bulk, which recent enlargements of the spleen sometimes 
undergo, is another argument for the theory of simple congestion and stasis. 
If the contents of the splenic sack be examined, when the organ is in such a 
state, we, of course, have a mixture of black or stagnant blood, and the pecu- 
liar pulp of the organ, with its Malphigian corpuscules. Under this exces- 
sive distension and immersion, for sometime, in the same blood, the internal 
fibrous structure will, of course, lose much of its cohesion ; and the whole 
substance of the organ, when its capsule is penetrated with the finger, be 
found almost as tender as a coagulum of blood ; and this, as we have seen, is 
the condition of the organ in many who die of autumnal fever. 

III. But enlargement very commonly remains long after the fever, which 
occasioned it, has been cured. On what then does it depend? Doubtless, 
in some cases, it depends on the coagulation of the blood, whereby its 
fibrinous portion, in detached or adherent filaments, is mingled with the more 
fluid portions; and, sometimes, on the infiltration of coagulating lymph, 
from subacute, parenchymatous inflammation; giving increased density to the 
organ, and rendering its reduction to the original size an impracticable under- 
taking. But, in most instances, it would seem there is nothing more than a 
loss of contractility in the areolar and vascular tissues, by which it continues 
to receive and contain a large quantity of blood, as in the following 

Case. — Doctor Hurlbert, of Ottawa, Illinois, in the year 1838, was called 
to see an Irish immigrant, who had been a soldier in the "West Indies; while 
there, he suffered from intermittent fever, and the enlargement of the spleen 
which followed, had continued for fifteen or twenty years. The organ pro- 
jected across the abdomen to the right iliac region. When the Doctor 
arrived, the patient had high fever, with hard pulse, abdominal tenderness, 
pain in the left hypochondrium, irritable stomach, and some difficulty of 
breathing — in short, labored under acute splenitis. He was bled five times, 
blistered, and took freely of calomel and diaphoretics, which subdued the 
inflammation. During his convalescence, the swelling of his spleen began to 
abate ; and two years afterward, when the Doctor saw him, it was entirely 
gone. It can scarcely be supposed that this reduction would have taken 
place, if the organ had been hypertrophied or undurated, for fifteen or twenty 
years. 

IV. I have already referred to two cases of suppuration, in enlarged 
spleens, from blows on the left hypochondrium. It remains, now, to add 



844 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

that such violence may occasion a rupture of the organ, and the consequent 
death of the patient, as appears from the following — 

Case. — An Irishman, who had labored on the canal, between Lake Mich- 
igan and the Illinois River, for a twelve month, during which he had expe- 
rienced several attacks of intermittent fever, came to Peoria, Illinois, in a 
state of emaciation, but with a tumid abdomen. His complexion was of a 
greenish-fellow tint ; while the whites of his eyes showed a bluish tinge. 
In a quarrel, he received a kick on the region of the spleen, which he survived 
four days. Doctor Dickinson and Doctor Tucker made a post mortem 
examination. The intestines were adherent from recent inflammation. The 
spleen was six or seven times its usual size ; some parts of it were in a state 
of induration, and of a greenish-yellow color; others were softer and darker. 
It was ruptured, and a quantity of blood had escaped into the peritoneal cavity. 

But the rupture may be spontaneous, as appears from the following — 

Case. — A patient of Doctor Cross, in the same town, had intermittent 
fever for eight or ten days, from which he recovered. About a month afterward, 
he was attacked with ague, of which he had several relapses. On a certain 
morning, while walking about, he was attacked with a chill, followed by fever. 
He took a cathartic, and on rising, during the hot stage, he fell down and 
expired. Twenty hours after death, his body was examined. The spleen 
presented a large circular and ragged aperture ; and was so tender that it 
could not bear its own weight. About a gallon of blood, taking that which 
had already escaped into the peritoneum, with what was forced by compres- 
sion, made the quantity which the organ had contained. 

V. In its early stages, enlargement of the spleen may be detected by 
dullness of sound, on percussion, over the false ribs of the left side, the 
respiratory murmur of that region being unaltered. But, that this sign may 
lead to a false diagnosis, I was lately taught by the subjoined — 

Case. — I was called into consultation by Doctor Dodge, of this city, on a 
patient who labored under cerebral inflammation, of which he died. In 
attempting, by percussion and auscultation, to ascertain whether his disease 
might not be complicated with pneumonia, we found a manifest dullness over 
the left hypochondriac region; but the respiratory murmur was enfirely 
normal. We, of course, concluded that, from an attack of autumnal fever 
at some former period, he had an enlargement of the spleen, though not 
great enough to project below the ribs; but to our surprise, on examining 
the body after death, we found the left lobe of the liver so hypertrophied, 
that it was jammed against the spleen, which had its natural size. 

After the tumor has advanced below the cartilages of the ribs, it cannot 
be confounded with any other swelling, except that attendant on suppura- 
tion of the kidneys, from which it may be distinguished by the previous 
history. 

The subject of enlarged spleen is, generally, more or less emaciated in 
his limbs, while his abdomen is tumid. His complexion is wan ; yellowish, 
but less so than in affections of the liver ; indistinctly greenish, or chloro- 
tic, dirty leuco-phlegmatic ; or, finally, that of cancerous cachexia. The 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 845 

whites of the eyes have not the sallowness produced by liver disease. This 
change of complexion, deserves to he taken into account in our investigations 
into the functions of the spleen. Is it probable that the organ exerts any in- 
fluence on the hepatosis of the blood ? That the blood is in a pathological 
condition, cannot, I think, be doubted; not only from the altered complexion 
of the patient, but from the haemorrhages from the stomach and bowels, to 
which he is liable. I knew a gentleman with enlarged spleen, who had two 
copious haemorrhages of this kind; and a number of our physicians have 
witnessed the same thing. As illustrating this assertion, and showing, at 
the same time, two other interesting facts, I will cite a case given me by 
Doctor Wallace, of Akron, Ohio. 

Case. — A man experienced an attack of remittent fever, with relapses, in 
an intermittent form, and was severely salivated. There followed on this 
treatment, so great a susceptibility to the action of all mercurial prepara- 
tions, that for years afterward, he could detect the smallest quantity, admin- 
istered to him, by the constitutional irritation, morbid vigilance, and diarrhoea, 
that would inevitably follow. When exposed to a cold and damp atmos- 
phere, his spleen would suddenly swell, so as to bulge out below his ribs ; and 
in the course of the following night, under the influence of opium, and dia- 
phoretics, it would recede. He was never without tenderness in the splenic 
region ; but had no dropsy. He used iodine with some benefit, but, while 
his health seemed to be gradually improving, he died, suddenly, of haemor- 
rhage from the stomach and bowels. 

Of the influence of enlarged spleen, in favoring relapses in intermittent 
fever, I have already spoken. Some patients have observed, that active exer- 
cise was followed by a return of the Fever. The connection between this 
affection of the spleen, and dropsy, will be considered, in another section. 
In many cases, the appetite of the patient, and his digestion, are very tol- 
erable ; and he regards his 'ague-cake,' as a mere inconvenience. In some 
instances, however, it becomes a burden, for it may extend into the right 
iliac region, and rest upon the brim of the pelvis. In general, the enlarged 
spleen does not leave its position ; but, a short time since, Doctor Moffit, one 
of the house physicians of the Commercial Hospital, in this city, called my 
attention to a patient, who some years before had suffered from intermittent 
fever, in whose abdomen there was a hard, spleniform tumor, three or four 
times the size of the spleen, which could be moved to any part of the abdo- 
men, though it inclined to the left side; and could be nothing else, I think, 
but that organ in a state of dislocation. 

VI. Treatment. — "When the symptoms of splenitis are present, the ap- 
propriate antiphlogistic treatment, must be first employed ; under which the 
enlargement sometimes rapidly diminishes. But the majority of cases do 
not thus yield ; and then the practice becomes in a great degree empirical, 
consisting of various therapeutic agents, which we must consider, seriatim. 

1. An occasional emetic is beneficial. It agitates the affected organ, and 
thus promotes the circulation of its stagnant blood ; increases the activity of 
the absorbent vessels; determines to the surface of the body; and prepares 



846 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

the stomach for the reception of other medicines. But the loss of density and 
strength, in the capsule and fibrous texture of the spleen, is sometimes so 
great, that in vomiting, a rupture might occur ; and, therefore, emetics should 
not be ordered, without care and circumspection. 

2. Cathartics are not liable to that objection ; and, those which act as 
hydrogogues, often prove beneficial. Care must be taken not to reproduce 
the Fever, by continuing their action too long. One of the best is the com- 
pound powder of jalap with the bark. Another is a pill composed of one 
grain of blue mass, one of aloes, two of rhubarb, and a fourth of a grain of 
elaterium. Free purging may be effected with two or three of these pills; 
and a single one will operate as an aperient. When the liver is torpid, and 
the discharges are not colored with bile, the elaterium should be omitted, 
and the quantity of blue mass doubled. 

3. Diuretics are frequently prescribed in this affection. They were prob- 
ably, at first, suggested by the dropsy which is often present. I am not 
certain as to their effects in my own practice, but have thought them bene- 
ficial. The following formula is as good as any other : 

K. Pulverized squill, ----- gr. xxiv. 

Nitrate of potash, ------ 3ii. 

Mix intimately, and divide into twelve papers: One to be taken three 
times a day. When inflammation is present, this refrigerant diuretic will be 
peculiarly proper. In an opposite diathesis, or when the tendency to relapse 
is great, two grains of the sulphate of quinine should be added to the 
powder. 

4. The bark, combined with an equal quantity of cream of tartar, has 
often done good. Should this compound purge too much, the proportion of 
the latter must be diminished. 

But the sulphate of quinine has attained a higher reputation than the 
bark. It is peculiarly demanded in recent cases, while the original morbid 
diathesis still lingers in the system. When given in the declining stage of 
splenitis its effects on the enlargement, are, perhaps, more favorable than in 
any other condition. And this leads me to say, that when no inflammation 
is present, an occasional bloodletting, if the powers of the system should not 
he greatly reduced, will much increase the efficacy of the bark, quinine, and 
other bitters, stimulants, and alterants. Many physicians, who practice 
where malignant intermittents prevail, speak in high terms of quinine, in 
the splenic enlargements, which are so rapidly generated by that form of 
fever; but, I have not met with any, who had witnessed the instantaneous 
effects which Piorry declares he has seen in the hospitals of Paris. When 
inflammation still lingers in the organ, the union of nitrate of potash with 
the quinine, is highly beneficial. Ten grains of the former, with five grains 
of the latter, may be given three or four times in the twenty-four hours. 
On the other hand, if the excitement be low, it will be proper to substi- 
tute for the nitre, five grains of Dover's powder. 

5. Iodine, from its promoting the absorption of goitrous tumors, has been 
extensively employed for enlargements of the spleen ; and was expected to 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 847 

act on the absorbent system. It has, undoubtedly, effected the object for 
which it was administered ; but not so constantly as to meet the anticipations 
under which it was at first prescribed. An extemporaneous formula, con- 
sisting of iodine or its tincture, administered in a solution of the hydrio- 
date of potash, may be readily devised ; or the latter may be given alone, 
in quantities varying from half a drachm to two drachms in the day and 
night. 

In the hands of some of our physicians, bromine has proved useful ; but 
I cannot speak of it from experience. 

6. Referring to the impoverished or spansemic condition of the blood, 
chalybeates seem indicated. I have seen good effects from the pro-carbonate 
of iron, in combination with the bi- tartrate of potash : but the best prepara- 
ration, when properly made and preserved, is the iodide of iron. It may be 
presumed that the ferro-cyanate of quinine would be efficacious, in cases 
demanding a chalybeate, but I do not know that it has been employed. 

7. Counter irritation, with blisters or antimonial ointment, is a common 
remedy. The former are to be preferred. To be of service, the plaster 
should be large. 

8. Throughout the whole treatment, the patient should be supported by 
nutritious diet, and have the excitement and perspiratory function of the 
skin maintained^by stimulating baths, frictions, and the use of flannel. 

9. In many instances it is impossible to reduce the enlargement, while the 
patient continues in the locality where it originated ; and it has been known 
to disappear, without remedies, under a change of place. Thus, Doctor 
Echols, of Selma, Alabama, went to Lexington for the prosecution of his 
studies, while laboring under an enlarged spleen ; and returned, in eighteen 
months, free from the disease, although he had discontinued all medicines. 

VII. Actual Practice of many of our Physicians. — I will now 
mention the modes of practice pursued by a number of physicians, beginning 
with the northern : 

Doctor Conant, of Maumee, Ohio, treats subacute inflammatory cases with 
oil of turpentine, externally and internally. Professor Brainard, of Chicago, 
Illinois, uses the blue mass, sulphate of quinine, and extract of taraxicum, 
with blisters. Doctor Henry, of Springfield, in the same State, after trying 
iodine ointment and mild mercurials, with some success, was led to employ 
the sulphate of quinine and the blue mass combined ; from which he obtained 
much greater benefits. Doctor Frye, of Peoria, in the State just mentioned, 
uses sulphate of quinine and sulphate of iron combined, keeping the bowels 
open with jalap or the extract of taraxicum. Has seen the hydrobromate 
of potash cure two cases, and do good in a third. Doctor Rowland, of 
Ottawa, in that State, sometimes bleeds once ; but relies upon the external 
use of iodine, and the internal administration of extract of conium macula- 
turn, sulphate of iron, and aloes, combined, and given in pills. Doctor 
Thomas, of Boonville, Missouri, has used muriate of ammonia with advan- 
tage. Doctor Hutchinson, of the same place, has cured the disease with 
blue pill and blisters. Doctor Flournoy, of Lexington, often bleeds in the 



848 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book 11. 

beginning, then gives the muriate of ammonia, blue pill, and tartar emetic, 
combined, employing external irritants at the same time. Doctor Digges, 
of the same town, uses iodine and cutaneous irritation. He has tried the 
muriate of ammonia only in old cases, when it failed. Doctor Long, of 
Marshall, in that State, has found the sulphate of quinine beneficial. Doc- 
tor Price, of Arrow Rock, uses external irritation, and administers the 
hydriodate of potash, with aperients, internally. Doctor Christian, of Mem- 
phis, has used small doses of calomel or blue pill, with tartar emetic, and 
muriate of ammonia, followed by the bark ; but has often found a change of 
locality indispensable to recovery. Doctors Shanks and Frazier, of the same 
city, have employed scarification and cupping, dry cupping, blistering, and 
the deuto-ioduret of mercury, externally, with bitters and stimulating aperients, 
internally. 

Doctor S. B. Malone, of Columbus, Mississippi, blisters, applies a plaster 
of cicuta, and administers calomel and the sulphate of quinine. Doctor 
Searcy, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has found the following compound useful: 
R. Sulphate of quinine, - - - - ) , . 

Castile soap, ------ j 

Aloes, "") 

Rhubarb, > each 3ss. 

Blue mass, ) 

Mix, and make into pills of the common size — one to be given three times 
a day. Doctor Guild, of the same town, bleeds, purges, and then administers 
quinine. Doctor Haywood, also of the same town, has found the disease to 
disappear spontaneously ; but sometimes uses calomel and tartar emetic in 
small doses. Doctors Dancy, Parish, and Davis, of Greensboro', in the 
same State, have observed the spontaneous disappearance of the disease; 
but, occasionally, prescribe blisters or tartar emetic ointment, and small doses 
of calomel. Doctor Echols, of Selma, treats it with cathartics and external 
liniments. Doctor Fearn, of Mobile, has used, successfully, the blue mass 
and rhubarb at night, with carbonate of potash and powdered mustard as 
diuretics, and the sulphate of quinine, with infusion of gentian, as a tonic. 

VIII. Concluding Remarks. — I find, on examining my notes, that in 
many instances, the treatment of enlargement of the spleen, was overlooked, in 
my conversations with medical gentlemen; but quotations enough have been 
made, to show the state of medical practice among us, in that affection. On 
the whole, I am disposed to believe it more inflammatory and obstinate in 
the north, than the south ; as well as more frequent, in proportion to the 
number of cases of intermittent fever. In the warmer latitudes, the en- 
largement seems to partake more of the character of simple congestion, 
than in the colder climates. 

It has sometimes been supposed, that a premature use of the bark con- 
tributed to the production of enlarged spleen. If this ever happened, it was 
because the lancet had not been adequately employed before resorting to that 
medicine ; which, from its tonic and stimulating qualities, may, at the same 
time that it arrests the paroxysms of fever, contribute to disorder the viscera. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 849 

Such an objection will not lie against the sulphate of quinine; and the 
sooner the Fever is cheeked, the less is the danger of enlarged spleen; as it 
is the repetition of the paroxysms, more than anything else, which produces 
that organic derangement. Nevertheless, venesection, in the higher latitudes, 
is of great value, as a preparative of the system for the quinine; and it is 
the omission of the lancet, which in many cases permits a result, that throws 
discredit on the quinine. 



SECTION V. 

DISEASES OF THE LIVER FROM AUTUMNAL FEVER. 

I. There is much in the symptomatology, and pathological anatomy of 
our autumnal fever, to raise and perpetuate, in our minds, the idea of a deep 
implication of the liver; much to justify the epithet 'bilious,' so generally 
applied to them ; which, indeed, would be a very convenient and appropriate 
term, if it could be so used, as not to suggest the idea of their originating, 
from some primary affection of the liver. All this implies, that the biliary 
function is, in general, greatly disturbed in these fevers ; which, we have al- 
ready shown, both by the phenomena during life, and the appearances after 
death, to be the case. The proper treatment of the morbid conditions of the 
liver during the Fever, has been already pointed out; and we come, now, to 
inquire into its condition after the Fever has been arrested. In doing this, 
the first fact which meets us is, that in many cases, the functions of the 
organ are natural and healthy, from the termination of the Fever ; the next, 
that when they are morbid, the liver appears in some cases to be free from 
inflammation, in others to be inflamed. We must study these conditions 
separately. 

II. Mere Functional Lesions. — 1. Torpor, or inactivity of the organ, 
in its secretory or excretory function, appears, sometimes, to constitute the 
only morbid condition. I am disposed to believe, that the liver is not, like 
the kidneys or the lungs, an organ which secretes continuously, but that its 
action is essentially intermittent. Its relations are with the stomach and duo- 
denum, whose functions are periodical ; and the whole may be presumed to 
work, under the same law of intermittence. The universal habit of taking food 
at intervals, and the certainty with which digestion is impaired, by the intro- 
duction of new aliment, while that previously taken, is undergoing conversion 
into chyme, demonstrate, that hunger and the functions of digestion, are 
essentially periodical. That, while they may be modified by habit, they are 
the cause and not the effect of habit. The reason of this, lies quite on the 
surface. If food were taken continuously, much of it would necessarily 
pass the pylorus undigested ; and not having experienced the action of the 
stomach, could not be converted into chyle, and would be lost to the nour- 
ishment of the system. The natural periodicity of the functions of the 
stomach being established; a corresponding periodicity, must be admitted in 



850 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

the functions of the duodenum. The chyme being prepared, the pylorus ex- 
pands, and the stomach, changing its mode of muscular movement, from a 
gestatory to a peristaltic or expulsive, pushes the alimentary mass into the 
supplemental organ ; there to receive an impregnation of bile and pancreatic 
juice; after which, the compound is to be transmitted to the small intestines, 
for absorption into the system. Now, it would be a physiological absurdity, 
for the liver and pancreas, to pour out continuous currents of secreted fluid, 
when the ends for which they are formed, can only be accomplished at inter- 
vals. I conclude, then, that those organs, when the individual is in health, 
are stimulated into activity, by the impress of food in the stomach, the ex- 
cited state of which, invites into the coeliac artery, more blood than before ; 
whereby more is sent through the liver, by the hepatic artery, and especially 
by the vena porta ; and, thus, it is not only roused into action by its nervous 
association with the stomach, but by the increased supply of blood. The 
secretion of bile and pancreatic juice goes on with activity, under such cir- 
cumstances ; the excretory ducts become filled ; and, by the time the chyme 
begins to pass the pylorus, the currents of secreted fluid, are pouring into 
the duodenum, to mingle with it — secretion, then, giving place to excretion, 
to be revived on the next call of the stomach. If these physiological spec- 
ulations be correct, it follows, that while the liver performs a continuous func- 
tion of circulation, in transmitting the blood of the vena porta, it executes 
a periodical function, of secretion and excretion. 

Now, an organ whose function is periodical, is much more likely to fall 
into torpor or inaction, than one whose function is incessant. Hence the 
frequency of torpidity, or suspended secretion, in the liver, and its continu- 
ance, in so many instances, after attacks of autumnal fever. In this condi- 
tion, the elements of the bile, which are developed in the blood, are not col- 
lected and combined in that organ ; and one of them, the coloring matter, 
manifests itself in the complexion, the urine, and the serum of the blood. In this 
manner, a variety of jaundice, more or less intense, may arise. But when the 
secretion of bile is not suspended, the excretion may be. The biliary ducts 
may not act with energy ; or duodenal inflammation or irritation, during the 
Fever, may have extended to the common gall duct, and caused a thickening 
of its mucous membrane, or a spasmodic constriction ; which, remaining, 
may interfere with the excretion of the bile. In these pathological condi- 
tions, the sallowness may be even deeper than in the other; and in all, the 
stomach, from its sympathy with the liver, and the bowels from the same 
cause, and also from the absence of their natural stimulus, the bile, soon show 
a variety of functional disturbances, such as anorexia, flatulence, acidity, con- 
stipation, or diarrhoea. As long as these conditions of the liver continue, the 
convalescence of the patient will be slow and unsatisfactory; his muscles of 
locomotion will be weak; his heart feeble and irritated; his nervous system 
morbidly sensitive, and his spirits gloomy. All this, I suppose, may exist 
without the slightest inflammatory affection of the organ; but it constitutes 
a good predisposition ; and, if allowed to continue, vicissitudes of tempera- 



parti.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 851 

ture, or some other cause, may, at length, excite inflammation. Let us now 
direct our attention to the removal of these functional disorders. 

III. The Remedies. — Before prescribing for the pathological condi- 
tions, the physician should, by his knowledge of diagnosis, ascertain that 
inflammation does not exist, when he may pursue the following method : 

1. An active emetic is generally of signal service. Nothing arouses the 
liver to renewed secretory action, or emulges its ducts, more successfully. 
One of the best is an infusion of the root of the sanguinaria candensis with 
ipecac. Tartarized antimony is too sedative ; and, if it be used, should be 
dissolved in some stimulating draught, as a tea of valerian root ; an opiate 
to be given after the operation. 

2. An active cathartic should next be administered. If the patient should 
labor under diarrhoea, a large dose of calomel and rhubarb, followed by an 
opiate at night, will be proper. If costive, a portion of calomel at night, 
with infusion of senna the next morning, or a dose of pills, composed of 
equal parts of calomel, gamboge, and aloes, should be given; and, after the 
operation, an anodyne. 

3. The patient may now be put upon the use, every night, of two or more 
of the following pills : 

R. Blue mass, -- \ 

Aloes, ------- - - > each 3ss. 

Ipecac, --------) 

Extract of taraxacum, ----- 3iss. 

Mix, and make into thirty-two pills. 

4. In the day, as much tincture of rhubarb with gentian, as may be neces- 
sary to secure, with the pills, two or three alvine evacuations, should 
be administered ; or the pills being sufficient to keep up the action of the 
bowels ; a cold infusion (made by displacement) of the bark of the wild 
cherry tree (Prunus Virginian a), may be substituted for the tincture, which 
will be especially required when there is stricture of the common gall duct — 
the prussic acid of the infusion, being well fitted to relieve that condition ; 
while it stimulates the patient into greater cheerfulness. 

5. Antacids will, in most cases, be required. The subcarbonated alkalies, 
answer very well in ordinary cases ; but, if the bowels should be obstinately 
torpid, magnesia will be better; or, on the other hand, if diarrhoea be present, 
lime-water and boiled milk should be preferred. 

6. The region of the liver should be sponged, and the feet immersed, in a 
hot nitro-muriatic solution, and flannel should be worn next the skin. 

7. The diet of the patient ought to be nutritious, savory, and stimulating, 
but moderate in quantity. 

8. He should be exhorted to take as much exercise as possible, on horse- 
back, or on foot, in the open air. 

9. Throughout the whole treatment, his nervous system will demand gentle 
narcotics and stimulants, especially at night, of which more will be said 
under the next head. 

By these means, the uninflammatory hepatic torpor, following our autumnal 



852 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

fever may, in general, be soon removed. Let us now turn our attention to 
the inflammatory condition of the liver. 

IV. Subacute Hepatitis. — The acute inflammation to which the liver 
is liable, during the Fever, may remain in a subacute form, after that disease 
has been arrested ; or the organ being, at the close of the Fever, in a state 
of torpor or engorgement, inflammation, under the influence of exciting 
causes, may supervene. On the relations between subacute hepatitis and 
the Fever, of which it is a consequence, the following remarks may be made : 

1. While, as we have seen, splenitis oftener follows intermittent than 
remittent fever, hepatitis is more frequently the effect of the latter than the 
former. It would be erroneous to say, that either is confined to a particular 
form of the Fever; but that each has a closer connection with one than the 
other is, I think, certain. I cannot explain the more frequent occurrence 
of hepatitis than splenitis, in remittent fever, except it be, that a gastro-en- 
teritis is oftener present in the former than the latter, and by continuity of 
mucous membrane, or sympathy, excites hepatitis. 

2. Of the relative frequency of these two affections, as consequences of 
autumnal fever, I cannot speak with statistical or numerical accuracy, but 
believe that the spleen suffers oftener than the liver. Slight degrees of 
inflammation may pass undetected in the former organ ; but, when seated in 
the latter, they manifest themselves in an obvious manner. Thus, it seems 
probable, from the number of known cases of splenitis, that if all were dis- 
covered, the catalogue would much exceed that of hepatitis, from the causes 
we are now considering. 

3. Of the relative prevalence of hepatitis, from the Fever, in the north 
and the south, I cannot speak positively ; but inquiry has satisfied me, that 
there is quite as much of it in the former as in the latter, in proportion to 
the number of fever cases. 

4. Hepatitis, I think, is more apt to run into suppuration, in the southern 
than in the northern portions of the Valley. The number of hepatic suppu- 
rations, of which I have collected an account, is less than the number of 
splenic abscesses. A large majority of them were south of Memphis ; the 
reverse of what is true in regard to abscesses of the spleen. Of the cases, the 
mode of termination of which I have ascertained, five, occurring in the 
practice of Doctor Drish, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, discharged themselves 
through the lungs ; one, a patient of Doctor Shanks, of Memphis, opened ex- 
ternally ; and one, mentioned to me by Doctor Vivian, of Dover, Missouri, 
took the direction of the bowels. Doctor Fearn, of Mobile, has had several 
cases, the termination of which I did not record. 

5. In estimating the influence of autumnal fever in producing hepatitis, we 
must not forget the effects of alcoholic intemperance, in exciting or predis- 
posing to that affection ; and thus causing it to occur more frequently than 
it would from the Fever alone. 

6. When at Memphis, Doctor Shanks took me to see a river- woman, who, 
after an attack of intermittent fever, had, at the same time, an enlarged 
spleen, and a suppurating liver which pointed externally. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 853 

7. If hepatic abscesses, as appears probable, are more common, in pro- 
portion to the number of cases of hepatitis, in the south than in the north, it 
follows that the inflammation is oftener parenchymatous in the former — 
membranous in the latter ; and this may explain the fact, that bilious ap- 
pearances are rather more conspicuous to the south than the north, while the 
number of cases of hepatitis is not greater. 

8. There are few inflammations more apt to recur than hepatitis. I know 
a lady in whom the disease followed autumnal fever, while she was still a 
child, that relapsed, at various times, for the next thirty years ; several of 
the attacks being prolonged and violent. 

II. The symptoms of subacute or chronic hepatitis, are constipation or 
diarrhoea; a suspended, depraved, or increased secretion of bile; acidity and 
irritability of stomach ; variable appetite ; in general, a foul and yellowish 
tongue; more or less jaundice of the skin and eyes, with yellowness of the 
urine ; tenderness, and sometimes pain in the epigastric and right hypochon- 
driac regions ; aching about the right shoulder, sometimes descending into 
the arm ; inconvenience in lying on the left side ; a hacking cough, without 
expectoration; a dry, harsh, and insensible skin, with coldness of the feet; 
occasional flushes of fever, according to the degree of inflammation ; almost 
constant frequency of the pulse, with fits of palpitation of the heart ; redu- 
ced activity of mind, whimsicality, despondency, irresolution, and fear of 
death. In addition to the direct sympathy of various parts of the body 
with the liver, they sympathize with the stomach, which is dyspeptic ; with 
the bowels, from which the liver withholds a due supply of bile, or irritates, 
with that which is unhealthy ; but, above all, the whole nervous system, and, 
indeed, all the tissues of the body, are irritated by the bile, or its elements, 
which float with the circulating currents, and act on the exquisitely, suscept- 
ible, interior membrane of the arteries. 

III. 1. In the treatment of the hepatitis following on autumnal fever, a 
copious bloodletting, in the higher latitudes, is, in some cases, indispensable ; 
but there are very few patients that will bear its repetition ; and the greater 
number do not demand the lancet. The depressing influence of biliary 
matter, mingled with the blood, seems to be the reason why copious vene- 
section is not supported in this inflammation ; but we must ascribe a part of 
the intolerance of this remedy, to the paroxysmal character of the Fever, 
which generated the inflammation. When general bleeding seems inadvisa- 
ble, cupping may be employed with advantage. 

2. The administration of small doses of calomel or the blue mass — but I 
regard the former as preferable — should be continued to the extent of ten or 
twenty grains a day, until the mouth is slightly affected. If much fever be 
present, and the stomach irritable, nitrate of potash may be advantageously 
combined with the calomel ; but when that organ is not specially involved, 
and the phlogistic action is considerable, minute closes of tartarized anti- 
mony or ipecac will prove beneficial. 

3. An occasional emetic or cathartic does good, by emulging the gall ducts 



854 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

— the inflammation "being of a low grade — and, at all times, the latter will be 
proper, to keep up the peristalsic action of the bowels. 

4. In obstinate eases, nitric acid internally may be tried ; and, in every 
stage and grade of the disease, the nitro- muriatic lotion to the right hypo- 
chondriac region, and the feet, will be beneficial. 

5. The extract of taraxacum often does good in this disease; but to pro- 
duce effect, it should be administered in larger quantities than are commonly 
given. Its powers are feeble ; and less than two drachms, every twenty-four 
hours, will not be likely to accomplish anything. 

6. When the disease continues till the succeeding summer, and is accom- 
panied by constipation of the bowels, sulphur-waters, drank for a few weeks, 
are often exceedingly beneficial. But, to prove so, the keen appetite which 
they produce, must not be indulged ; and, by the use of an opiate at bed 
time, the sulphur should, if possible, be determined to the skin. 

7. In every stage of the disease, the morbid sensibility and irritability of 
the system, must be paliated, with gentle narcotics, and anti-spasmodics ; 
which, as far as practicable, should be so combined with diaphoretics, as to 
act upon the skin. To this end, it is advantageous to combine Dover's 
powder, with the evening dose of calomel ; but the constitutional irritation 
often requires the administration of gentle narcotics, and stimulants in the 
day, when a pill of four grains of assafoetida, and a fourth of a grain of 
opium, may be administered, at such intervals as seem necessary. Or, in its 
stead, the following formula may be used : 

K. Sulphate of morphine, gr.ii. 

Sulphuric ether, ------- 3ij. 

Simple syrup, -------- gii. Mix. 

A teaspoonful, diluted with cold water, to be taken at discretion. 
As all medicines of this class, soon lose their effects ; and many cases of 
subacute hepatitis, continue for a long time ; a change of the narcotico- 
antispasmodic, often becomes necessary; and therefore, I subjoin the fol- 
lowing : 

B. Tincture of valerian, - - - - - - 3ii- 

Ammoniated alcohol, ------ 3ii. 

Tincture of opium, ------- 3L Mix. 

A teaspoonful to be occasionally administered. 

When we look at the value of the sulphate of quinine, in chronic splenitis, 
we may suppose that, it must be serviceable in chronic hepatitis from autum- 
nal fever, and as it coincides, in action, with the medicines we are now con- 
sidering, it is proper to employ it. Combined with Dover's powder, in the 
proportion of five grains of one to ten of the other, it may be given at night ; 
or it may be administered, now and then, throughout the twenty-four hours, 
according to the following formula : 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 855 

K. Sulphate of quinine, ------- gi. 

" morphine, ----- g r .i. 

Aromatic sulphuric acid, - - - - - gt.x. 

Sulphuric ether, -------- 3i. 

Simple syrup, - - • gi. Mix. 

A teaspoonful to be given, as occasion may require. 

8. In many instances, a change of climate becomes indispensable. It 
must always be made from a warmer to a colder latitude; choosing, at the 
same time, a locality but little infested with autumnal fever. 

9. I do not give a separate consideration to the diarrhoea, which in some 
cases follows on autumnal fever, as it is, generally, symptomatic of liver dis- 
ease, and ceases when its pathological cause is removed. 



SECTION VI. 

DROPSY. 

I. History. — Dropsy is another consequence of autumnal fever. In 
slight cases, the serous infiltration is limited to the lower extremities ; but 
in the graver, extends to the whole sub-cutaneous cellular tissue, giving uni- 
versal anasarca. Ascites is less common; and, never occurs, I believe, 
without cellular infiltration of the legs and feet. Hydrothorax from this 
cause, is exceedingly rare, and hydropericardium, still rarer. 

Dropsy seldom follows on remittent fever, except it terminate in the in- 
termittent form. When intermittents are cured at an early period, dropsy 
seldom appears. Chronic cases are commonly its pathological cause. Some- 
times, when the anasarca commences, the paroxysms of fever cease to recur ; 
and, after the lapse of a little time, the effusion ceases, that which had accu- 
mulated is absorbed, and the patient is restored. In other cases, both the 
paroxysms and the infiltration, keep on, until the limbs swell to a great size, 
and the ascites assumes a formidable character. In such cases, the Fever 
has been peculiarly obstinate, and of long duration ; or the constitution has 
been previously broken down by other diseases, or by intemperance. A high 
grade of the lymphatic temperament may, however, lead to the same result. 
Under these sinister circumstances, the disease may prove intractable ; and 
hydrothorax, or even hydropericardium, may, at last, supervene, and prove 
fatal. Dropsy from autumnal fever, prevails as extensively as the Fever 
itself; but whether it occurs more frequently to the north or to the south, I 
am unable to say. 

II. Pathology. — A difference of opinion prevails as to the immediate 
cause of this serous accumulation. 

1. One theory is, that the absorbent system is left in a torpid condition 
by the Fever, in consequence of which the serum, which naturally bedews 
the cellular tissue, and the peritoneal sack, becomes accumulated ; and the 



856 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

practice founded on this assumption is generally successful; a fact which 
supports, though it may not establish, the hypothesis. 

2. Another theory, refers it to increased secretion. This has been ap- 
plied to ascites, oftener than to anasarca; the peritoneum having been left, 
it was said, in a state of subacute inflammation. Such a condition of that 
membrane may undoubtedly exist after the Fever, and produce ascites; but 
we have no evidence of the fact; or that any degree of inflammatory 
action, prevails in the cellular tissue of the extremities. By experiments 
on the urine, I have found that, sometimes it is albuminous ; oftener is not. 
But if that condition should be present, and as Doctor Blackall believes, 
indicate inflammation, it does not follow, that it would be in the perito- 
neum, seeing that both the liver and the spleen are more probable seats. 

3. The popular opinion, both in and out of the profession, is, that these 
dropsies are occasioned by diseases of the spleen ; which operate to produce 
effusion, in two modes; a. By the increased secretion from the inflamed 
surface, generating ascites ; b. By the compression of the vena portss, when 
the organ is enlarged, obstructing the return of blood from the abdominal 
viscera, and thus occasioning effusion into the peritoneal cavity ; while by 
compression of the ascending vena cava, it determines a state of venous con- 
gestion in the lower extremities, and a consequent increase of serous effu- 
sion. That a subacute inflammation of the serous covering of the spleen, 
may cause increased secretion, is undeniable; but in many cases, the extent 
of that surface is so entirely disproportionate to the amount of dropsic 
effusion into the cavity of the peritoneum, as greatly to invalidate this hy- 
pothesis; which, moreover, will not in any degree explain the production of 
anasarca. But may not compression of the vena portse be adopted as the 
pathological cause of ascites ? The answer must be in the negative ; for, 
in. the first place, many cases of ascites occur when the spleen is not so en- 
larged as to reach to the linea alba; and in the second place, it is almost 
impossible that any enlargement, however great, or in whatever direction, 
should exercise a compressing power over that vein. Still less can it be ex- 
ercised upon the hepatic veins. But in reference to anasarca, the opinion is 
held, that the enlarged organ, exerts itself on the ascending cava. In this 
case, however, the ascites is left unexplained. Nevertheless, as the two 
forms of dropsy may depend on different pathological causes, it is proper 
that splenic enlargement, as a cause of anasarca, should be more carefully 
considered. 

I assume, then, that this enlargement is not a mechanical cause of anasar- 
ca, and rest the assumption on the following facts : 

a. It seems nearly impossible, that enlargement of the spleen should 
compress the ascending cava ; which not only lies to the right side of the 
vertebra, but is protected by the aorta, the diameter of which, however, it 
must be admitted, is not equal to that of the cava. And, as the organ advances 
across the abdomen, its convex surface continues in contact with the anterior 
walls, and the stomach and bowels are consequently behind, and interposed 
between, it and the great vein. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 857 

b. Many cases of anasarca follow intermittent fever, when the spleen is 
so little enlarged, as not to reach the median line of the abdomen, nor, even, 
project beyond the cartilages of the ribs ; and when, of course, its mechan- 
ical action on the vein is an impossibility. 

c. It is a fact of general notoriety, that many persons have their spleens 
enlarged to great dimensions, even for years, without experiencing anasarca. 

d. It is equally true, that when both affections exist, the anasarca may 
be removed, and the enlarged spleen still remain. 

e. We frequently see a considerable degree of oedema of the face, and 
other portions of the body, coexisting with the anasarca of the lower ex- 
tremities, and this too when the patient has not just risen from a recumbent 
posture, favoring the diffusion of the serum throughout the cellular system 
generally, but after he has been on his feet throughout the day; showing 
that the effusion had taken place in the upper parts of the body. 

From these facts we may conclude that although enlarged spleen and 
dropsy, often coexist, after intermittent fever, the former is not a mechanical 
cause of the latter. And, yet, it seems probable, that enlargements of the 
spleen do, but in a different manner, favor the production of dropsy. The 
blood which sojourns in the organ, may, perhaps, undergo changes, which 
contribute to a vitiation of the whole mass. We must, I think, admit such 
changes, though we are unable to show their exact nature. We know that in 
many cases, of rupture of the organ, or of cutting into it in post mortem in- 
spections, the blood which escapes is unusually black and will not spontane- 
ously coagulate. Professor Gross,* has cited a great number of authorities, 
for the fact, that in fevers, both the peculiar pulp, and the blood, of enlarged 
spleens, may assume a dark, dirty hue, a black-currant-jelly-like appearance, 
or the aspect of tar. Now, this blood, if the patient should not die, must 
of necessity, sooner or later, make its way through the vena portas, to the 
general circulation ; and thus, if a morbid state of that fluid can be a cause 
of dropsy, it may be, that enlargement of the spleen, contributes to the pro- 
duction of that disease. 

4. The diseases of the liver, studied in the last section, have been regarded 
as the cause of dropsy. Let us look at the facts in support of this 
opinion : 

a. Diseases of the liver, from intemperance, produce permanent jaundice 
and, finally, all the different forms of dropsy; and why may not hepatic dis- 
eases, from autumnal fever, originate the same effusions ? 

b. But it may be said, that remittent fever disorders the liver more than 
intermittent, while dropsy oftener follows the latter than the former. This 
however, may be for the reason, that intermittents so often follow remittents. 
The mischief to the organ, may have been done in the early stage of the 
fever : its consequences may show themselves after the fever has ceased or 
changed to an intermittent. Original intermittents, however, do themselves 



* Pathological Anatomy : Article Spleen. 
55 



858 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

produce lesions of that organ, of which every physician, in the Valley, must 
have seen examples. 

c. We can perceive how organic disorders of the liver may produce dropsy : 
First. An obstructed circulation through the organ, necessarily leads to a 
state of venous congestion, in all the portal viscera ; which may be the prox- 
imate cause of increased serous secretion into the peritoneal sack, and the 
production of ascites. Second. When tumefied, the organ, from lyingnear 
to and on the same side of the vertebral column with the vena cava, may 
compress it, and thus generate anasarca. 

d. Beside the function of transmitting the blood from the other abdom- 
inal organs, the liver is charged with separating from it the elements of the 
bile, which, failing adequately to do, they accumulate in that fluid. It ap- 
pears, moreover, that in autumnal fever, there is an extraordinary development 
of biliary elements ; and that a copious secretion and excretion of bile is, in 
general, a condition of perfect recovery. Here, then, we have an abundant 
source of impurity of the blood ; and to this pathological state, we may, 
perhaps, in part, ascribe the hydropic effusion. 

5. It is well known, that in protracted intermittent fever, the sweats, 
which follow the occasional paroxysms, are generally offensive. Even while I 
am writing this article, a student, laboring under a relapsing intermittent, with 
subacute inflammation of the spleen, but without liver disease or dropsy, 
assures me, that the perspiration which follows every return of his chill and 
fever, is sour and disgusting in its odor ; a sufficient evidence of a patho- 
logical state of the blood. 

6. The state of the urinary secretion, in autumnal fever, has not been well 
studied. We know, however, that the quantity of urine is often deficient ; 
and that, in chronic cases, it frequently throws down sediments; another 
evidence that the blood is unhealthy. 

7. To these sources of impurity we may, perhaps, add one more — the 
constitutional morbid action of the solids. Whatever difficulty may now 
exist, or may forever exist, in comprehending the reciprocal actions and reac- 
tions of the blood and the containing solid tissues, no accurate observer can 
fail to notice many proofs of their reality. The blood and the solids are, 
in fact, so united anatomically and physiologically — placed in such relation 
to each other — that, a priori, it seems quite impossible for one to be in a 
morbid condition, without affecting the other ; and, hence, in the course of a 
protracted and relapsing intermittent fever, the blood may become impover- 
ished in its red corpuscles or fibrin, or be otherwise deteriorated. 

To the morbid condition of that fluid, generated in so many different 
ways, we should, no doubt, ascribe the leucophlegmatic, wan, leaden, or 
sallow appearance of those who have long had ague and fever; and we 
may, perhaps, refer to the same pathological cause, the copious haemorrhages 
from the stomach and bowels ; which, as we have already seen, sometimes 
follow that disease, and which are, commonly, but not intelligibly, ascribed 
to enlarged spleen. Of the tendency to haemorrhage, created by a deteri- 
orated state of the blood, we have instructive examples in scurvy. 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 859 

Let us now proceed to inquire whether we can deduce the dropsy conse- 
quent on autumnal fever, in whole or in part, from this sanguineous vitiation. 

8. In proceeding to do this, we must exclude from the inquiry, First. The 
cases of ascites, which arise from subacute inflammation of the peritoneum. 
Second. Those which result from obstructed transmission of blood, through 
the hepatic ramifications of the vena portse ; and Third. Those anasarcas, if 
any, which are caused by the pressure of an enlarged liver on the ascending 
vena cava. After excluding all the cases which result from these patholog- 
ical causes, I suppose a much larger number remain unaccounted for, and to 
them we must now give attention. 

The pathological data, which lie before us, are the following : First. A 
relaxed and inactive state of the solids generally ; Second. An impaired 
activity of the organs of excretion, especially of the skin, liver, and kidneys. 
Third. A deteriorated state of the blood. 

Now, it is a physiological law, that if matters foreign to the constitution 
of the blood, find their way into it, by absorption, either external or interstitial ; 
or are developed in it by disorder of the solids; or retained in it by defect of 
excernent action, they must either be decomposed and become a part of that 
fluid ; or be eliminated through some of the emunctories of the system, or into 
its cavities. In the case of poisons injected into the blood vessels, some take 
one direction, others another. Iodine and nitrate of potash seek the kidneys 
— emetin and phosphorus the lungs — tartar emetic the mucous membrane of 
the bowels. But in the case of dead organic matter, such as we suppose to 
pollute the blood in the pathological condition we are now studying, there 
may not be an eclectic tendency, for the reason that it has lately belonged, as 
it were, to the whole system; and if it should direct itself upon the great 
organs of excretion, it might not be able to rouse them from their torpor. It 
is left, then, to irritate the serous and areolar membranes, and increase their 
exdosmosis : a passive function, for which they are at the time so much the 
better fitted, as they are the more relaxed or reduced in texture and vital 
force by the previous fever. In this way appear to be generated those drop- 
sical accumulations, which we are now studying ; to the more rapid increase 
of which a defective absorption may be an auxiliary cause. 

III. Treatment. — Let us test these hypotheses by studying the thera- 
peutics which they demand, and comparing them with what experience has 
shown to be successful. First. Should a subacute inflammation of any 
abdominal organ or tissue, still remain, it should be subdued. Second. The 
great excretory functions must be reexcited ; and, some one at least, brought, 
for a while, into greater activity than in health. Third. Absorption must 
be promoted. Fourth. The blood must be renovated, and the tone of the 
solids restored. 

Such are the indications to be fulfilled, and they demand the very means 
which are known to be most efiicacious ; the study of which, in detail, must 
now receive attention. 

1. When subacute peritonitis, hepatitis, or splenitis, or any complication 
of them, is known to exist, bloodletting, general and topical, must be the 



860 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book u. 

first remedy ; under the free resort to which an immediate improvement often 
takes place; for secretion will be diminished and absorption promoted. As 
to other antiphlogistic measures, they are so much the same with those 
required to fulfill the next indication, that they need not be here enumerated. 
2. To reexcite the excretory functions, the means specifically adapted to 
each must be employed, but not at the same time. In fixing on any one 
with which to begin, the physician must exercise his sagacity. If the bowels 
have been torpid and costive, he may select them; if the liver, it; if the 
kidneys, them ; he may even choose the skin and be successful. In adminis- 
tering the agents, respectively, appropriate to these great secretory outlets, 
if there be some degree of phlogistic diathesis, from visceral inflammation, he 
must choose the refrigerant and sedative. On the other hand, if the vital 
forces be greatly reduced, he should select the most exciting, and often ad- 
minister stimuli at the same time, or the evacuants will not promote excre- 
tion. But a measure, preliminary to all others, may be the administration 
of an emetic, which tends to arouse the organs, generally, into increased 
activity, and gives greater efficacy to all that is subsequently done. 

If the liver and bowels be fixed upon, as the first to which our remedies 
are to be directed, five grains of calomel or blue mass, with an equal quantity 
of Dover's powder, should be administered at bed time ; and, the following 
day, two scruples or a drachm of a powder, composed of equal parts of 
jalap, nitre, and cream of tartar ; to be aided in its operation, if necessary, 
with an infusion of senna and epsom salt. On the following night, the calo- 
mel and Dover's powder should be repeated, and, on the next day, the hydro- 
gogue. This course may be pursued for three or four days, according as the 
strength of the patient seems, or does not seem, to admit of it. But, as a 
substitute for the cathartics mentioned, a sixth of a grain of elaterium and 
a scruple of cream of tartar, may be administered every two hours, beginning 
early in the morning, and continuing it until purging is produced. If, by 
these means, copious watery discharges, colored with bile, are effected, a 
rapid absorption of the effused fluid, and a consequent reduction of the 
swelling, will take place. Should the quantity of Dover's powder, mentioned, 
be found too small to produce tranquillity and sleep at night, it must be 
increased ; and should the purging reproduce the ague, five or ten grains of 
sulphate of quinine, must be added to the opiate. 

If this course should not have been adopted, or have been prosecuted 
without effect, the physician must determine his efforts upon the kidneys. 
He may still, however, act upon the liver with calomel or the blue mass, in 
conjunction with diuretics. A composition which, perhaps, exerts more 
power in these cases than any other, is two grains of one of the mercurials 
just mentioned, two of squill, and eight or ten of nitre, intimately incor- 
porated, and administered, in the form of a bolus, every two hours, until the 
secretion of urine is augmented; and, then, every four hours, omitting the 
mercurial, if signs of approaching salivation should appear. As it will not 
affect the kidneys, should it act on the bowels, opium may be necessary. 
After this course has been continued for a few days, a copious flow of urine 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 861 

will, in general, take place ; and, at the same time, a diminution of the swel- 
ling will denote the progress of absorption. Other sedative diuretics are 
employed in the Valley ; of which I will only mention, as the best, an infu- 
sion of digitalis with the spirit of nitrous ether, taken in a solution of cream 
of tartar; and the hydriodate of potash, in ten or fifteen grain doses, three or 
four times a day. 

Of stimulating diuretics, the oil of turpentine, in such doses, as will not 
purge, often does good; and in cases of great torpidity, the tincture of can- 
tharides, may be given until strangury is excited, after which one of the 
compounds mentioned above, will keep up the discharge. Gin and water, or, 
even whisky and water, are well adapted to cases of this kind. An infusion 
of green tea, taken cold, often produces a decided effect. My preceptor, 
Doctor G-oforth, was exceedingly partial, in these cases, to the following pop- 
ular and domestic formula : 

R. Parsley root, ------- ^ 

Horse-radish, - I ,.-,., 

xn i i. j j r each giv, bruised, 

.black mustard seed, ----- f ° 

Juniper berries, ------ J 

Squill, 



Rust of iron, -------J 

Mix and infuse in a gallon of hard cider, for three days, in a covered 
vessel, and then, immediately after strong agitation, pass the liquid through 
a thin strainer, and bottle. The dose is from two to four ounces, four or six 
times a day. That the undissolved carbonate of iron, may be taken, the 
bottle should be agitated before pouring out the dose. I have repeatedly 
prescribed this compound with the happiest effects ; and it is generally ac- 
ceptable to the patient, because, he regards the ingredients as simples. 

In general, the diuretic treatment should be continued longer than the 
purgative ; but there are limits beyond which it should not be carried, and 
the physician ought, at length, to turn his attention to another great func- 
tion, that of the skin. This may, indeed, have been already done to some 
extent ; for when Dover's powder was administered at night, and the purg- 
ing was suspended, some influence was necessarily exerted on the external 
surface. The restoration of its functions should now, however, become the 
main object, and, therefore, neither cathartics nor diuretics, should be ad- 
ministered. In the prosecution of the diaphoretic plan, warm bathing, local 
or general, with frictions and shampooings, should be employed ; and ten 
grains of Dover's powder, with five of sulphate of quinine, given, once or 
twice every night, with hot infusions of balm, sage, sassafras, thoroughwort, 
or serpentaria. When, however, the powers of the system are greatly reduced, 
hot gin, or whisky toddy, should be preferred; or one of those stimulants 
should be added to one of the infusions just mentioned. In the day time, 
the patient should be kept in bed, or at least within doors, otherwise the 
perspiration will be checked. Many years ago, Doctor Allison, who had 
been Surgeon- General of Wayne's Army, told me, that he had cured a 



862 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book m 

female patient of anasarca, following on intermittent fever, by making her 
drink hot gin toddy, and dance daily to fatigue, in a warm room. 

The excitation of the absorbents, has been stated as one of the objects 
to be accomplished. It may, indeed, be said to be the great end in view. 
But, it will be perceived, that very little remains to be said under this head; 
for all that has been advised, has contributed to fulfill this indication. More- 
over, of medicines that act specifically on the absorbent system, we know 
but little. Nevertheless, it seems probable, that digitalis exerts an effect 
of that kind ; as we seldom observe diuresis under its administration, except 
when there are dropsical effusions ; which, being absorbed, irritate the kid- 
neys into increased secretion. There is little doubt, moreover, that iodine 
exerts an influence on the absorbent system ; and hence, perhaps, in part, the 
efficacy of the hydriodate of potash, in the diseases under consideration. 
But there are means of a different kind, for promoting absorption — these are 
compression and exercise. As a general rule, bandages will accomplish but 
little, till the absorption has commenced ; when they should never be omitted, 
from both the limbs and abdomen, if the disease exist in both. Of the 
power of exercise over the absorbent system, there can be no doubt. When 
the abdominal distension is great, it cannot be taken, because the diaphragm 
cannot descend ; and if there be enlarged spleen, the difficulty will be much 
increased. But in the treatment of anasarca, the value of active, or sus- 
tained locomotion, will be decisive. Its effects are not limited to the action 
of the muscles upon the veins and lymphatics ; but found, likewise, in the 
increased exhalation from the lungs, from deeper and more frequent inspira- 
tions, which tend, at once, to the elimination of the absorbed fluid, as if 
from the skin or kidneys ; and to an improved condition of the impoverished 
blood. And this brings us to our last indication — the restoration of the flesh 
and strength of the patient. 

Tonics, scarcely ever to be omitted, after the absorption of the serum has 
been effected, may, in many cases, be advantageously administered before. 
For example, when there is still a strong tendency to the recurrence of the 
febrile paroxysm, under slight exposure, or at quartan, or heptan periods, 
the bark, alone, or combined with cream of tartar, will contribute to dimin- 
ish effusion and promote absorption, as well as arrest the recurrence of the 
Fever. And, when the effusion has suddenly become very great, with a fee- 
ble pulse, and cool or cold, bloodless, and semi-transparent skin, that medi- 
cine, and the proto-carbonate, proto-tartrate, or proto-sulphate of iron, are 
powerful means of arousing the system into increased absorption and secre- 
tion; while they contribute to augment the solid materials of the blood, and 
thus diminish the tendency to the effusion of serum into the cavities. Of 
the whole, the proto-carbonate has, perhaps, been most frequently employed ; 
and there is much testimony in its favor. The iodide of iron, and the hydro- 
cyauate of quinine are, also, well adapted to such cases. 

The absorption of the serum having been effected, some of the medicines, 
just named, alternated with vegetable bitters, must be continued for a con- 
siderable length of time ; great care being taken to keep the secretions, in a 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 863 

healthy condition, by such means as are least debilitating. If they should 
fail, the effusions will recommence. At the same time, compression, frictions, 
and percussions, should be applied to the limbs ; and kneading with the fists 
to the abdomen, should there be nothing in the state of the liver or spleen 
to forbid them. The diet of the patient should be mixed and nutritious, 
but not in excess ; and he should take as much exercise in the open air as 
possible ; having the surface of his body well protected. 



SECTION VII. 

PERIODICAL NEURALGIA. 

I. Prevalence, Seasons, and Subjects. — Relying upon the information 
received of others, in connection with my own experience, I may say, that 
neuralgia is decidedly the most frequent of all the consequences of autumnal 
fever. It prevails from north to south — everywhere, indeed, that our peri- 
odical fevers occur ; but most, where inter mittents are most prevalent in 
comparison with remittents. Doctor Flournoy, of Lexington, Missouri, is 
the only physician who has told me, that he had seen it precede the fevers of 
autumn. Its subjects, then, were probably those who had experienced 
attacks of the Fever the year before. In general, it follows the annual 
epidemic ; and, therefore, occurs chiefly in winter, and in spring when vernal 
intermittents prevail. Occasionally, in certain localities, the number of 
winter cases is so great, as to constitute it a kind of epidemic. From June 
to December, it is comparatively rare. It affects adults more than children, 
and men more than women ; at least, this is what I have observed in my own 
practice. In some cases it becomes so established, as to return with great 
frequency for years. Such, for a long time, was the condition of the late 
President Harrison, who resided in a locality infested with intermittent fever. 
Many years ago, I knew a Philadelphia merchant, who traveled much in the 
West, and was obliged always to carry with him a quantity of the bark — the 
only medicine which afforded him relief. 

II. Seats and Symptoms. — The true type of this painful affection, and, 
by far, the most common, is known under the popular name of ' sun-pain ;* 
by the profession called periodical hemicrania. Its common seat is the right 
or left extremity of the forehead ; but it often spreads over the entire orbit 
of the eye. Occasionally it runs back to the occiput, limiting itself to one 
side ; but now and then it attacks the whole head ; raging, however, with 
greatest intensity in the frontal region, and generally more on one side than 
other. In some cases the skin of the forehead shows a considerable degree 
of hyperaemia; but I never saw evidences of inflammation. When it ex- 
tends to the orbit, the eye becomes red, there is a copious secretion of tears, 
and considerable intolerance of light. It commonly shows a distinct quoti- 
dian, intermittent type ; but, in some cases, is tertian; and now and then 



864 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES OF THE [book ii. 

only remittent. I cannot say, that the paroxysms are never ushered in with 
a distinct chill ; but do not recollect its occurrence in my own practice, nor 
has it been mentioned to me by others. Although the paroxysm may recur 
at any time in the twenty-four hours, its legitimate period is the latter part 
of the night or early in the morning ; which, with its gradual increase during 
the forenooon, and its abatement or entire cessation toward night, has pro- 
cured for it the name of ' sun-pain.' As it ceases, the redness of the eye, 
when that organ is involved, diminishes or disappears, and the tolerance of 
light returns. 

As to constitutional symptoms, the liver, stomach, and bowels, are much 
less disturbed than in relapses of intermittent fever. The pulse is apt to 
be accelerated during the paroxysm, and, occasionally, there is some develop- 
ment of heat in the skin; but, in many cases, scarcely a single symptom of 
fever is present. 

I must now enumerate other parts of the body, in which this affection ha s 
been observed, by those with whom I have conversed; having also witnessed 
several of them myself. 

In the north, Doctor Conant has seen it in various parts of the body ; 
Doctor White saw one case, in which it occurred about the middle of the 
humerus ; Doctors Baker and Kitterage, have seen it in the extremities ; Doc- 
tor Wallace, in the teeth and side of the chest; Doctor Dresbach, in the sacrum, 
coccyx, and lower extremities : In one case it attacked the spermatic cord 
and testicles, and the paroxysms alternated with others in the head, feet, 
and stomach. In the west, Doctor Price has frequently seen it attack the 
stomach — in one instance that organ and the diaphragm, the paroxysms 
coming on regularly at midnight ; Doctor McCullough has known it assail 
the os occipitis, the right side of the chest, and the wrist. To the south, 
Doctor Christian has had two cases in which it occurred in the splenic, and 
four in the uterine region ; Doctor Kittral has twice seen it in the ear ; 
Doctor Walkly had a case in which, under the influence of electro-magnetism, 
it shifted to a tooth, then to the external angle of the eye, then to the tem- 
ple of the opposite side, and then to the arm, when it ceased ; Doctor Barnett 
has seen several cases in which it fell upon the uterus, and, also, upon the 
tongue; Doctor McMurtery has seen it affect the testicle and the liver; 
Doctor H. C. Lewis saw a case in which, after a white swelling of the knee- 
joint, it attacked the gastroenemii muscles of the same limb, and returned 
the next autumn in the same part. Finally, it is a familiar fact, that the 
membranes of the jaws, and even the teeth, are often attacked. Thus, I 
have seen the pain of decayed teeth return at regular, diurnal periods. 

In addition to these citations, which show that various parts of the body 
are affected, I may add, that many cases of what, from their history, are 
called chronic rheumatism, have such diurnal or nocturnal exascerbations as 
should, perhaps, entitle them to a place in the catalogue of neuralgias. 

Although the affections we are now studying, very commonly follow at- 
tacks of autumnal fever, many cases do not. They depend, however, on the 
same cause ; but occur without the intervention of the Fever. This is proven 



part i.] INTERIOR VALLEY OF NORTH AMERICA. 865 

by their prevailing in the same places, having the same symptoms, and being 
cured or relieved by the same treatment. In general, the cases which have 
not been preceded by fever, are of the mildest grade. The disease we are 
now considering, doubtless attacks many parts of the body, not highly en- 
dowed with sensibility, and disturbs their functions, without giving the acute 
pain of neuralgia. Such cases may be detected by their periodicity, and 
the absence of the signs of inflammation. Professor Gross, whose popu- 
larity as a physician equals his fame as a surgeon, has, as he informs me, 
met with such cases, from the country around Louisville; and they have also 
occurred in my own practice. 

III. Pathology. — Periodical neuralgia, is a pain or aching of the white 
fibrous tissues; but sometimes of the red; and, perhaps, also of others. 
The nervous irritation is not generally, or necessarily, of that kind which 
invites blood into the part, though such a fluxion may be produced. A true 
inflammatory action is, however, not set up ; for the irritation ceases, and 
with it the hypersemia, before the inflammation can be established. When 
it attacks the fibrous membranes of the cranium, it is sometimes mistaken 
for arachnitis : and I have seen the paroxysms become progressively worse 
under an antiphlogistic treatment. Why it is oftener seated in the extremi- 
ties of the fifth pair of nerves, than any others, I cannot tell ; but we have long 
known, that ordinary tic douloureux has its chosen seat in the same nerves. 
The reason that a part which is affected with periodical neuralgia, does not 
suffer organic changes, is to be found, I suppose, in the absence' of inflamma- 
tion, the immediate cause of most lesions of structure. This negative char- 
acter, taken in connection with its periodicity, places the disease among the 
neuroses, and reveals to us the true character of intermittent fever, as far as 
the primary impression of the remote cause is concerned. It, also, teaches 
us why that fever cannot, in general, be arrested by means which only lower 
the excitement of the system; and why it readily yields to opium and qui- 
nine, when the system is brought, by depletion, into, a state favorable to 
their action. But the disease, in both its febrile and its neuralgic stages, is 
of a peculiar kind, and, therefore, not every agent which acts powerfully on 
the nervous system, will arrest it. 

IV. Treatment. — I know of no disease, in the treatment of which our 
physicians are so unanimous, as of that now before us. From north to south 
it is essentially the same. Everywhere the sulphate of quinine is the popu- 
lar remedy ; and by nearly all it has been found infallible. But this infal- 
libility, in many cases, is limited to an arrest of the paroxysms ; which after 
a while may recur. In fact, this painful affection obeys the same laws as 
protracted and relapsing intermittent fever. By some physicians, the qui- 
nine is administered without any preparation of the system ; while others 
always subject their patients to the operation of emetic and cathartic medi- 
cines. There are cases which do not, and others which do, require that 
preparatory treatment. As a general rule, the longer and oftener, the dis- 
ease has returned, the less is the necessity for those evacuants ; and, of the 
two, emetics are more beneficial than cathartics. Sometimes, when the qui- 



866 THE PRINCIPAL DISEASES, ETC. [book ii. 

nine has failed before, it has succeeded after, the operation of an active 
emetic. When the attack is violent, and distinctly marked with diurnal, or 
nocturnal paroxysms, opium is a valuable adjuvant to the quinine. Thus, a 
grain of that medicine, or ten grains of Dover's powder, with ten of quinine, 
may be administered at bedtime ; and another dose of the same kind, be- 
fore day, in anticipation of the paroxysm ; which it will generally avert, 
provided the patient continue in bed during the forenoon. But in some 
cases the proportion of opium may be doubled. The next night, half the 
quantity of these medicines will be sufficient. In obstinate cases of long 
standing, a method, not so prompt, will be preferable. Thus, the bark, in 
substance, may be administered in drachm doses, three or four times a day. 
Or a compound of quinine, opium, and arsenious acid, as for relapsing in- 
termittents, may be substituted for it. Doctor Vivian, of Missouri, assured 
me, that he had found the carbonas-ferri, of much service in some cases of 
this kind. A variety of local applications have been made. In my own 
practice they have done but little good. Yet a blister to the nape of the 
neck, has, occasionally, given immediate relief, the pain being seated in the 
face or head. Of other applications, over the affected part, Doctor Barnett, 
of Mississippi, and Doctor W. A. Davison, of Missouri, informed me, that 
that they had seen veratria afford relief; and Doctor Talbot, of the latter 
State, has employed a saturated, alcoholic tincture of stramonium seeds with 
advantage. 



The article Autumnal Fever is now brought to a close. It has ex- 
tended through many pages ; but a smaller number would not have sufficed, 
to present, even an outline, of its etiological, and therapeutic history; 
through so wide a geographical range, as that of the southern half of our 
Interior Valley ; in almost every part of which, it is an annual endemio- 
epidemic. Of all our diseases, it is the one, which has the most intimate 
relations with soil and climate — that, in which, peculiarities, resulting from 
topographical and atmospheric influences, are most likely to appear. Hence 
it was chosen, to stand next to the Book of General Etiology; as illustra- 
ting, better than any other disease, the importance, of the facts which make 
up that Book. It is, moreover, the great cause of mortality, or infirmity of 
constitution, especially in the southern portions of the Valley; and, there- 
fore, entitled to severe and patient attention. What I have collected and 
presented, has required more labor, than many of our brethren might sup- 
pose ; and, yet, they will not, perhaps, realize so fully as I do myself, how 
much must be added — how many errors corrected — before the pages 
through which they have traveled, can be entitled to universal acceptance. 
Meanwhile, if what has been written, should stir up a single young physi- 
cian, to a more diligent observation of the Fever, or save the life of one 
individual, who might otherwise have become its victim, my labor will not 
have been in vain. 

END OE VOLUME FIRST. 



INDEX. 



Abdomen in remittent fever, 827. 
Adirondack center, 15. 
African variety, 637. 

Agricultural labors, influence on healtb.,684. 
Akron, 374. 

Alabama River, 18, 37, 182. 
Alcoholic beverages, 668. 
Alexandria, 160. 
Alleghany River, 275. 
Town, 274. 
Alpine summer residence for invalids, 397. 
Altitudes, curves of, 19-26. 

influence on mean temperature, 
464. 
Alton, 142. 

American bottom, 121-137. 
Amherstburg, 354. 
Amusements, 696. 
Analysis of soils, silt, and water, 75-76-77, 

243,293-303. 
Angle of the delta of the Mississippi, 107. 
Animal food, 654. 
Animalcular hypothesis, 723. 
Animals, distribution of, 630. 
Ann Arbor, 357. 

Annual mean temperatures, 455, 473-479. 
temperature, curve of for 
the Interior Valley, 530. 
Anthony, Falls of St., 148. 
Appalachian Mountains, 7, 28. 
Appalachicola Bay, and River, 178,181. 
Aqueous meteors. 587. 
Arctic Basin, 31, 442, 606. 

Ocean, 444. 

regions, winds of, 570. 
Area of Interior Valley, 5. 
Arid south-west wind, 577. 
Arkansas river, 14, 122,163. 
Arrow rock, 169. 

Arsenious acid in intermittents, 750-777. 
Artesian wells, 195. 

Arts and manufactures ; influence on 
health, 695. 



Aspects of Interior Valley, 6. 
Atchafalaya, 62. 

Athabasca river, and lake, 8, 442. 
Atlantic Ocean, 580. 
States, 641. 
Atmospheric pressure, 531. 

effects of, 556. 
Atmospheric and terrestrial mean temper- 
atures, compared, 469. 
Attakapas, 79. 
Augusta, 257. 
Autumnal Fever, 703. 
Autumn, temperature of, 504. 
Axes, hydrographical, 9, 449. 
mountain, 13. 

B. 

Balize, 88. 

topography and scenery, 88. 
geology, 90. 
inhabitants, 94. 
town, 95. 

modes of living, 96. 
diseases, 96. 
Barometric observations, 531. 

at St. Louis, 531. 
at Cincinnati, 536. 
at Hudson, 541. 
at Toronto, 545. 
generalizations, 550. 
extreme annual ranges, 553. 
monthly and quarterly,554. 
pressure, effects of, 556. 
Barrens, 237. 
Barren ground, 444. 
Bar-room drinking, 669. 
Basin of the upper lakes, 384. 

tides — daily fluctuations — ground 

swells, 384. 
annual rise and fall, 385. 
prolonged rises, 386. 
temperature, 387. 
marginal forests, 388. 
Bathing, 679. 



868 



INDEX. 



Baton Rouge, 108. 

Batture, 102. 

Bayou Atchafalaya, 62. 

Black, 81-S4. 

La Fourche, 63. 

Iberville, 61. 

Manchac, 61. 

Plaquemine, 84, 107. 

Teche, 62. 
Bayous around New Orleans, 99. 
Bayou Sara, town of, 110. 
Beaver and Erie canal, 282. 
Benton, 209. 

Big Beaver river, 12, 282. 
Big Black river, 208. 
Big Sandy river, 17,259. 
Big Stone lake, 19. 
Biloxi bay, 58. 
Birds, migration of, 633. 
Bitters as tonics, 749. 

morning, 668. 
Black hills, 174. 
Black river, N. Y., 405. 
Black river, Ohio, 371. 
Black-slate, valley plain, 307. 
Black swamp, 365. 
Black Warrior river, 191. 
Blood, deterioration of 731-732-733, 739, 

771, 819. 
Bloodletting, 743, 771. 
Bloomington, 322. 
Blue licks 255. 

mound region, 328. 
Bluff zone, 204. 
Bolivar, 212. 
Booneville, 168. 
Boothia Felix, 445. 
Brain, state of in intermittent fever, 752, 771 . 

remittent fever, 825. 
Brazos river, 158. 
British immigrants, 641. 
Brownsville, 269. 
Buchanan, 266. 
Buffalo, 380. 
Burlington, 143. 

bay, 408. 
Buttermilk, 658. 
Bytown, 417. 



Cahawba river and town, 184. 

Cahokia, 140. 

Cairo, 135. 

Calculated mean temperatures, 467. 

Calms, 586. 

Calomel in intermittents, 777. 



Calomel in remittents, 804. 
Canada, autumnal fever in, 708. 

West, 353. 
Canadian river, 163. 
Canals— New Orleans, 100. 

Pennsylvania, 272. 

French creek, 281. 

Conneaut, 282. 

Ohio and Erie, 286, 374. 

Cincinnati and Dayton, 297 

Whitewater, 297. 

Beaver and Erie, 379. 

Erie, 403. 

Rideau, 418. 

Welland, 390. 

life upon, 688. 
Canebrake, Alabama, 195. 
Cane, native, northern limits of, 254. 
Canton, 287. 
Cape Diamond, 424. 

Catoche, 32. 
Caribbean Sea, 580. 
Carver's Cave, 472. 
Carondelet, 138. 

Carroll county, Mississippi, 210. 
Carrolton, 249. 
Castalia and Cold Spring, 367. 
Cathartics in intermittents. 745, 767. 
Caucasian variety, 637. 
Cayuga marshes, 401. 
Cedar creek dam, 717. 
Cellars, 681. 
Centers, hydrographical, 9. 

mountain, 13. 
Chagrin river, 376. 
Chambly, Canada East, 421. 
Change of locality in intermittents, 816. 
climate, effects of 647. 
food, effects of, 648. 
political, moral, and social con- 
dition, 648. 
Chattahoochee river, 181, 
Chautauque lake, 277. 
Cheat mountain, 265-267. 

river, 264-267. 
Cherokee country, 231. 
Chicago, 341. 
Chickasaw bluffs, 133-134. 
Chihuahua, 154. 
Chillicothe, 295. 
Chippewa, 390. 
Chocolate, 661. 
Choctaw, Mississippi, 210. 
Chronic action of the cause of autumnal 
fever, 841, 833. 

intermittents, 809. 



INDEX. 



869 



Cider, 669. 
Cincinnati, 299. 

mean temperature of, 525. 
barometrical observations at, 536. 
Claiborne, 184. 
Clarksburg, 266. 
Clear and cloudy days, 594. 
Cleveland, 375. 
Climate, general views of, 447. 

mean temperature of the year, 453. 
of the Interior Valley, 449. 
Climatic etiology, 447. 

distribution of plants and animals. 

623. 
native plants, 624. 
cultivated plants, 628. 
quadrupeds, 631. 
birds, 633. 
reptiles, 634. 
fishes, 635. 
insects, 635. 
man, 636. 
Clothing, 676. 
Coal mining, 691. 
Coasts of the Mississippi, 84. 
Coffee, 659. 
Cold, pole of, 445-484. 

in intermittents, 768. 
stage of intermittents, 737. 
Coldest and hottest months compared with 

mean temperature, 506. 
Colorado river, 157. 

Color, peculiar of liver in autumnal fe- 
ver, 830. 
Columbiana county, Ohio, 284. 
Columbus, Georgia, 181. 

Mississippi, 193. 
Ohio, 294. 
Commercial pursuits, 685. 
Complications of intermittents, 765. 
Concordia bottom, 122. 
Conewango creek, 277. 
Configuration of the Valley, 19. 
Conneaut lake, 282. 

Consequences of autumnal fever, 831-835. 
Continental extremes of climate, 484. 

aqueduct, 20. 
Coosa river, 188. 
Copper mine river, 442. 

region, 334. 
Cordilleras, 151, 556. 
Corsets, 677, 

Coteau des Prairies, 7, 19, 20, 24. 
Cotton limit, 215. 
Covington, 301. 
Croghansville, 368. 



Cuba, island of, 46. 
Culinary vegetables, 656. 

arts, 656. 
Culminating line of the Valley, 19-25. 
Cultivated plants, 628. 
Cumberland mountains, 225, 228, 232, 
250, 259, 629. 
river, 233-236. 
Cupping in remittents, 799. 
Curative treatment of intermittents, 745. 
Curves of altitude from east to west, 22. 

migration from Europe, 638. 
Cuyahoga basin, river, and falls, 372-5. 

D. 

Danville, 252. 

Davenport, 145. 

Debris of rocks, 26. 

Decatur, 224. 

Delta of the Mississippi, 60, 70, 73, 77, 111, 

Demopolis, 198. 

Depth of the Lower Mississippi, 66. 

Detroit, 355. 

straits 351. 
Dew, 606. 
Dewpoint, 601-609. 
Diet, 653-657. 
Diluvium, 27. 

Diseases,f uture increase and decrease,of,701 . 
Diurnal changes of temperature, 510. 
Dodgeville, 329. 
Donaldsonville, 106. 
Dress of men, 676. 

women, 677. 

children, 678. 
Drift, 27. 

of Mississippi and St. Lawrence, 430. 
Dropsy from autumnal fever, 855. 
Drummond's Island, 349. 
■ Duck river, 232. 
Dundas, 408. 
Dunnville, 383. 
Du Poisson's voyage, 112. 
Dykes at New Orleans, 100. 

E. 

Eastern townships, Canada East, 421 . 

Electricity, atmospheric, 611. 

Elk river, 226. 

Elyria, 371. ™ 

Emetics in simple intermittents, 744. 

malignant intermittents, 766. 

remittents, 782. 

malignant remittents, 801. 

vernal intermittents, 815. 
English immigrants, 643. 



870 



INDEX. 



Epidemic fever, 1838-39; 1820, 294,363; 

1819, 370. 
Erie Lake, Basin of, 358. 

southern, 359. 
northern, 382. 
town of, 378. 
Escambia river, 50. 
Esquimaux, 438, 444, 638. 
Estuaries compared, 55, 430. 
Estuary, Mobile, 54. 

Pascagoula, 58. 

Alabama, 182. 

Ohio, 219. 

Maumee, 361. 

St. Lawrence, 426. 
Evansville, 308. 
Evaporation, 603-606. 
Everglades, 178. 
Evil of winds, 586. 
Exercise, 696. 



Falls of Ohio, 246. 

St. Anthony, 148. 
Febrile diseases, 703. 
Fever river, 145. 
Fever autumnal, 703. 

variety and identity 703. 

geographical limits, 704. 

at twenty-six military posts, 706. 

at Canadian posts, 708. 

causes of geographical limits, 709. 

soil, 709. 

living vegetation, 710. 

surface water, 710, 

temperature, 712. 

assigned remote causes, 716. 

meteoric hypothesis, 716. 

malarial hypothesis, 719. 

vegeto-animalcularhypothesis,723. 

value of these inquiries, 727. 

first effects of remote cause, 728. 

action on the skin, 728. 

on the stomach and bowels, 729. 
lungs, 730. 
blood, 732. 

intermittents, 734. 

remittents, 735. 

development, and pathological 
character, 736. 

cold stage, 737. 

hot stage, 739. 

local affections, 740. 
Fever intermittent, 741. 

simple, 742. 

history, 742. 



Fever intermittent, pathology, 742. 

preparative treatment, 743. 

curative treatment, 745. 

sulphate of quinine, 746. 

vegetable bitters, 749. 

arsenious acid, 750. 

inflammatory, 751. 

diagnosis and pathology, 751. 

treatment, 753, 

recapitulation, 755. 

malignant, 756. 

general history, 756. 

symptomatology, 758. 

pathology, 764. 

complications, 765. 

treatment in the paroxysm, 765. 

evacuants, 766. 

external stimulants, 767. 

internal stimulants, 770. 

means of relieving the internal or- 
gans, 770. 

treatment in the intermission, 773. 

bark and the sulphate of qui- 
nine, 773; 

opium, 776. 

arsenious acid, 777. 

piperine, 777. 

calomel, 777. 

regimen and relapses, 777. 
Fever remittent, 779. 

simple and inflammatory, 779. 

diagnosis, 779. 

tendencies and terminations, 780. 

treatment, 781. 

first treatment in the west, 782. 

advantages and disadvantages of this 
treatment, 783. 

treatmentas for gastro-enteritis,784. 

purging practice, 784. 

tendency at the present time, 786, 

facts relative to quinine, 789. 

modifications of treatment, 793. 

malignant, 794. 

diagnosis and pathology, 795. 

treatment, 799. 

indications and difficulties, 799. 

venesection and cupping, 799. 

external stimulation, 800. 
emolients, 801. 

vomiting, 801. 

purging, 802. 

calomel, 804. 

various remedies, 806. 

sulphate of quinine, 807. 

cases and remarks, 808. 
Fever intermittent, 809. 



INDEX. 



871 



Fever intermi tents, chronic cases, 809. 
relapses, 811. 
vernal, 811. 
deferred attacks, 812. 
treatment of winter cases, 814. 
vernal cases, 815. 
change of locality, 816. 
popular empiricism, 817. 
salutary effects of, 817. 
Fever autumnal, pathological anat. of, 818. 
mortality, 818. 
condition of the blood, 819. 
pathological anatomy of intermit- 

tents, 820. 
pathological anatomy of remit- 
tents, 823. 
consequences of, 831. 
First plowings, 325, 357. 
Florence, 222. 
Florida, 47, 178; town, 53. 
Fog, 606. 
Fond du Lac, 334. 
Food, change of, 648. 

solid, 648. 
Forests, 50, 55, 59, 71, 77, 90, 101, 105, 130, 

179, 219, 624-625-626-627. 
Fort Adams, 124. 

Armstrong, 145. 
Brady, 335. 
Brooke, 49. 
Clinch, 51. 
Crawford, 146. 
Dearborn, 342. 
Gibson, 164. 
Gratiot, 351. 
Henry, 413. 
Jackson, 87. 
Jessup, 161. 
King, 179. 
Leavenworth, 172. 
Livingston, 86. 
Maiden, 354. 
McComb, 181. 
Mackinac, 346. 
Mississaga, 407. 
Mitchell, 181. 
Pickering, 134. 
Pike, 86. 
Smith, 164. 
Snelling, 146. 
St. Philip, 87. 
Towson, 161. 
Wacassa, 180. 
Wayne, 361. 
White, 180. 
Winnebago, 339. 



Fort Wood, 87. 

William, 334. 
Four Lakes, 327. 
Fox river, 339. 
Frankfort, 251. 
Franklin, Missouri, 169. 

Pennsylvania, 276. 
French Creek, 280. 

immigrants, 638. 
Frost, 606. 



Galena, 145. 
Gallipolis, 291. 

Galveston, island and town, 45. 
Gauley valley, 262. 
Genealogies, national, 643. 
Genesee river, 394. 
flats, 395. 
above the fiats, 396. 
Geographical and geological outlines of re- 
gions east of Mississippi, and south of 
Ohio, 176. 
Geological outline, 26. 
section, 215. 
Geology of the falls, 247. 
Georgian bay, 350. 
German immigrants, 642. 
Glades, 262-266. 
Good effect of winds, 586. 
Grand gulf, town of, 127. 
river, Canada, 383. 
Ohio, 377. 
Great Bear Lake, 442. 

Fish, or Back's river, 442. 
plains, 173. 
Slave lake, 442. 
Green Bay, 337. 

Brier, valley, 261. 
Greensboro, Alabama, 197. 
Grog, 668. 
Gros Cap, 335. 

Groups of climatic stations, 486. 
Gulf of Mexico, 32. 

position, form, and area, 32. 
depth, 33. 
currents, 34. 
temperature, 36. 
tides and inundations, 39. 
coasts, 40. 
St. Lawrence, 429. 
Guyandotte river, 259. 

H. 

Habitations, 681, 
Hamilton, Canada, 408. 



872 



INDEX. 



Harmony New, 314. 
Harrodsburg springs, 242. 
Havana, 46. 

Heart in remittent fever, 827. 
Heat, and cold extremes of, 478. 
in algid intermittents, 768. 
Helena, 132. 
Hill country, Mississippi and Alabarna,176- 

199. 
Holston river, .226. 
Hopkinsville, 237. 
Hot springs, Washita, 162. 
Howard county Missouri, 169. 
Hudson, Ohio, 373. 
bay, 437. 
basin, hydrography of, 438. 

phys. geography of, 439. 
hydrographical basin, 437. 
Humidity, 601. 
Humid south west wind, 579. 
Huntsville, 224. 

to Knoxville, 225. 
Huron Lake, 345. 

eastern shore, 350, 
western shore, 350. 
river, Michigan, 356. 

Ohio, 369. 
town, 369. 
Hurricanes, 616. 
Hydrographical base line, 3. 
system, 8. 
axes and center,(in theval- 

ley), 9. 
axes and center (moun- 
tains), 13. 
axes and centers, number 

of, 18. 
curve longitudinal, 21. 
basins, 28. 

southern, 32. 
Arctic, 442. 
regions west of its lacus- 
trine axis, 443. 
regions east of theaxis,444. 

I. 

Iberia, New, 106. 
Ice cream, 658. 
Illinois river, 320. 

lower part of, 321. 
Indianapolis, 310. 
Indian country, 173. 
summer, 608. 
Interior Valley of North America, 2. 
Intermarriages, 645. 
Intermittents, 734. 



Intermittents, simple, 742. 

inflammatory, 751. 
malignant, 756. 
chronic, 809. 
relapsing, 811. 
vernal, 811. 
deferred, 812. 
anatomy of, 820. 
consequences of, 834. 
Introduction, 1. 

Invalids, temporary residence for, 366. 
summer voyages for, 347. 
alpine residence for, 397. 
northern summer voyage for, 432. 
voyages up the Mississippi, 149. 
upper Tennessee river, 230. 
Irish immigrants, 642. 
Iron mining and smelting, 693. 
Isle du Noix, 421. 
Isothermal curves, 475. 

J. 

Jackson, Miss., 203. 

Jacksonville, Illinois, 321. 

Jefferson Barracks, 138. 
city, 168. 

Jeffersonville, 306. 

Jews, 643. 

Journey of health on the great plains, 174. 

Juliet, 326. 

Junction of Mississippi and Missouri riv- 
ers, 142. 

Jussieua grandiflora, purifying influence 
of, 79. 

K. 

Kankakee river, 326. 
Kanzas river, 171. 
Kaskaskia river, 320. 
Kenawha river, 261. 

lower valley of, 263. 

its salines, 263, 695. 

Little, 264. 
Kentucky, north east, 254. 
river, 249. 

effects of dams and locks, 250. 
Key West, 47. 
Kingston, Canada, 413. 

Tennessee, 226. 
Kingwood, 267. 
Knoxville, 226. 

L. 

Labrador, 25. 
Lachine, 419. 
Lacustrine axis, 443-444. 



INDEX. 



873 



Lafayette, 312. 

Lakes of the Interior Valley, 8, 

Lake Athabasca, 442. 

Big Stone, 20. 

Borgne, 61. 

Canandaigua, 400. 

Catahoola, 122. 

Cayuga, 400. 

Champlain, 420. 

Chatauque, 277. 

Chetimaches, 62. 

Concordia, 122. 

Crooked, 400. 

Erie, 358. 

Great Bear, 442. 

Great Slave, 442. 

Huron, 345. 

Lovelace, 122. 

Maurepas, 61. 

Michigan, 336. 

Of the Woods, 24. 

Oneida, 400. 

Onondaga, 403. 

Ontario, 389. 

Pontchartrain, 61. 

Providence, 122. 

Sandy, 331, 

Seneca, 400. 

St, Clair, 351. 

St. Peter, 432. 

Superior, 333. 

Traverse, 20. 

Winnebago, 10. 

Winnipeg, 8, 19, 438. 

Wollaston, 8. 
Lancaster, Ohio, 290. 
Lawrenceburg, 305. 
Lemonade, 658. 
Lexington, Ky., 253. 

country around, 252. 
Lexington, Missouri, 170. 
Liard's river, 443. 
Licking river, 254. 
Licking river, Ohio, 288. 
Life upon the gulf, 686. 

our rivers, 686. 
northern lakes, 688. 
canals, 688. 
of voyageurs, 689. 
of Santa Fe traders, 691. 
Liquid diet, 657. 
Little Rock, 164. 
Living, modes of, 653. 
Liver in remittent Fever, 827. 
Llano estacado, 6. 
Lodgings, 679. 
56 



Localities, comparison of, 207, 229. 
Louisville, 248. 

M. 

Mackinack, island, town, and fort, 346. 

residence for invalids, 347. 
Madison barracks, 406. 
Madison, Indiana, 306. 
Madison, Wisconsin, 32,8. 
Magnetic dip, and direction, pole of, 445. 

intensity, pole of, 441. 
Malarial hypothesis, 719. 
Malignant intermittent fever, 756. 

remittent fever, 794. 
Malt liquors, 669. 
Mammoth cave, 239. 
Manhattan, 362. 
Marietta, 289. 
Marion, 186. 
Matamoras, 153. 
Maumee River, 360. 

Bay and estuary, 361. 
Canal, 362. 
Maysville, 257. 
McKenzie's River, 443. 
Meadville, 281. 

Mean annual temperature, 453. 
general table, 455. 
calculated table, 467. 
by induction, 516. 
St. Louis tables, 519. 
Cincinnati tables, 525. 
of Interior Valley, 530. 
Mechanical arts, 695. 
Melville island, 445. 
Memphis, 133. 
Mercer, Pennsylvania, 283. 
Meteoric hypothesis, 716. 
Methodist, Indian manual labor school, 171. 
Mexican basin, 28. 
Miami, Missouri, 170. 
Miami Valley, 297. 
Michigan City, 343. 
Michigan Lake, 336. 
Microscopic discoveries, 723. 
Middle Tennessee, 232. 
Migration from Europe, 639. 
Milk, 657. 
Milneburg, 105. 
Milwaukie, 340. 
Mineral Point, 329. 
Mineral water, artificial, 667. 
Mining, coal, 691. 
iron, 693. 
lead, 693. 
Minnesota River, 9. 



874 



INDEX. 



Minor bays, 57. 

Pascagoula, 58. 
Biloxi, 58. 
St. Louis, 59. 
Mississippi, above the Delta, 121. 

Tensas or Concordia bot- 
tom, 122. 

Yazoo bottom, 129. 

St. Francis bottom, 131. 

American bottom, 137. 

Upper, 141. 

sources of, 331. 
Mississippi River, Delta of, 60-61. 

descriptive hydrography, 61. 

rise and fall of, 64. 

depth, 66. 

temperature, 67. 

suspended and dissolved ma- 
terials, 70. 

age, growth, composition, 73. 

vegetation, 77. 

Jussieua grandiflora, 79. 

rice lands, 87. 

marine extremity, 88. 

passes, 64. 
Missouri River, 166. 

settlements north of, 172. 

voyages up, 174. 
Mobile Bay, 54. 
city, 55. 
Modes of living, 653. 
Moisture of climate, 603. 

region of the Gulf, 604. 

West of Gulf and Missis- 
sippi, 604. 

East of the Mississippi, and 
north of Gulf, 605. 

of northern Lakes, 605. 

Arctic, 606. 
Monclova, 153. 
Mongolian variety, 638. 
Monongahela River, 264. 

lower basin, 268. 
Monroe, Michigan, 359. 
Monroeville, Ohio, 370. 
Monterey, 152. 
Monte Sano, 224. 
Montezuma marshes, 401. 
Montgomery, 187. 
Months, temperature of, 496. 
Montreal island, 418. 
city, 419. 
to Quebec, 423. 
Moral condition, change of, 648. 
Morning bitters, 668. 
Mortality of autumnal fever, 818, 



Mountain, Adirondack, 15, 23, 406, 420. 
Appalachian, 5, 7, 16, 25, 176, 
229, 261, 264, 278, 427, 
450,475. 
Cordilleras, 22, 151, 158, 475, 

541, 582, 624. 
Cumberland, 225, 227, 231, 

234, 629. 
Ozark, 7, 28, 165, 630. 
Rocky, 5-6, 13-14, 22, 25, 167, 
173, 175, 436, 442, 451-452, 
468, 475, 481, 484, 515, 554, 
557, 591, 604, 631-633. 
Sweet- water, 6. 

White and Green, 15, 30, 420. 
Muscle shoals of Tennessee River, 223. 
Muskingum River, 284. 

below Zanesville, 285. 
above Zanesville, 286. 
pool, 289. 

N. 
Nashville, 234. 
Natchez, 124. 
Natchitoches, 161. 
Navarino, 337. 
Navy Yard, Pensacola, 52. 
Nebraska River, 14. 
Negro variety, 637. 
Nelson's River, 10. 
Neuralgia, periodical, 865. 
New Albany, 307. 
New Madrid, 132. 
New Orleans, 97. 

position and plan, 97. 

lakes and swamps, 98. 

bayous, 99. 

dykes, 100. 

canals, 100 

street currents, 100. 

inundations, 101. 

forests, 101. 

fevers of the swamp, 101 • 

batture, 102. 

city filth along the riv- 
er, 102. 

boats and shipping, 102. 

fever on the river side, 103. 

condition of the city, 103. 

composition of society, 104. 
Newport, 301. 
Niagara River, 391. 
Falls, 391. 
town, 407. 
Nomenclature of fever, 703 
North American variety, 638. 



INDEX, 



875 



North-west passage, 445. 
Northers— Los Nortes— 582. 
Norwalk, 370. 
Norwegians, 643, 648. 
Nueces River, 157-158. 



Oakland college, 207. 
Ogdensburg, 415. 
Ohio Basin, 217. 

River trough, 219. 

general views, 257. 

remainder of, 316. 
Ohio and Erie Canal, 286. 

City, 376. 
Opelousas, 108. 
Osage River, 168. 
Oswego River, 400. 
town, 405. 
Ottawa, 325. 

River, 417. 

P. 

Painesville, 378. 

Pairs of months, temperature of, 507. 

Pascagoula Bay, 58. 

River, 201. 
Passo del Norte, 155. 
Passes of the Mississippi, 64. 
Pathological anatomy of intermittents, 820. 

remittents, 823. 
Pathology of intermittents, 736, 742, 751, 
764. 
remittents, 780, 795. 
Peace River, 443. 
Pearl River, 203. 
Pembina, 440, 518. 
Penetanguishine, 349. 
Pensacola Bay, 49. 

town, 51. 
Peoria, 323. 
Perdido Bay, 53. 
Peru, 325. 
Physiological characteristics, 644. 

etiology, 637. 
Physiology, statistical, 650. 
Pickensville, 192. 
Pine woods, 53, 59, 160, 178-179, 189, 202, 

205. 
Pittsburgh, 271. 
Plains, great, 173. 
Plants, native, climatic^geography of, 624. 

cultivated, 628." 
Plaquemine, 107. 
Plymouth township, 356. 
Polar Sea, 444, 452, 484. 



Polar Basin, 442, 493. 
Pole of cold, 445. 

magnetic direction, 445, 
intensity, 441. 
Poles, 643. 

Political condition, change of, 648. 
Port Gibson, 207. 

Hudson, 110. 

Huron, 353. 

Sarnia, 351. 
Portsmouth, 296. 
Prairies of Mississippi, 194. 
Prairie du Chien, 146. 

Tremblante, 80, 327. 
Predictions on change of diseases, 701. 
Prescott, 416. 

Presidio del Rio Grande, 153. 
Pressure, barometric, 531. 

physiological effects of, 556, 
Pulaski, 283. 



Quebec, 424. 
Quincy,143. 
Quinte Bay, 411. 



Q. 



R. 



Rain, 587. 
Rainy days, 594. 
Raisin, River and Basin of, 359. 
Randolph, 134. 
Ravenna, 373. 
Recreation, 696. 
Red River, the north, 10, 440. 
south, 14, 159. 
Relapsing intermittents, 811. 
Remittent fever, simple and inflammato- 
ry, 779. 

malignant, 794. 
Reservoir of Ohio and Erie Canal, 287. 
Rice lands, 87. 
Richelieu, valley of, 15, 421. 
Rideau Canal, 418. 
Rio del Norte, 14, 152. 
Rivers, 9. 
River water, 662. 
Rochester, 394. 
Rock Island, 145. 
Rocky Mountain [axis, 13. 
Rodney, 127. 
Rutherford^county, 235. 

S. 
Sackett's Harbor, 406. 
Saginaw Bay, 350. 
Saguenay, 13, 428. 



876 



INDEX. 



Salina, 404. 

Valine county, Missowri, 170. 

Salines, Kenawha, 263. 

Saltillo, 152. 

Salt making, 694. 

River, 242. 
Sandusky Basin, 366. 

City, 366. 

Lower, 368. 

Upper, 369. 
Sandwich, 354. 
Sandy River, 258. 
Santa Fe, 155. 

traders, 691. 
Santa Rosa, 50, 51. 
Saskatchawan River, 14,20, 439, 441. 
Sault de St. Marie, 335. 
School, manual labor, Indian, 171. 
Seas, 8. 
Seasons, temperature of, 485. 

table of, 487. 
Selkirk's Colony, 440. 
Selma, 186. 

Sierra Madre, 151, 158. 
Shade trees, 683. 
Shawneetown, 317. 
Smelting iron and lead, 693. 
Smoke Fog, 608. 
Smythfield, 267. 
Snow, 587. 
Snowy days, 594. 
Social condition, 648. 
Soil, 709. 

Sources of the Mississippi, 331. 
Southren Basin, 29-31. 
South Pass, 22. 
Spaniards, 640. 
Sparta, 226. 
Spleen, diseases of, 835. 

enlargement of, 842. 
inflammation of, 838. 
suppuration of, 840. 
Splenitis in intermittents, 751. 
Springfield, 322. 
Spring Hill, 56. 
Statistical physiology, 650. 
Stature of man, 650. 
Stephenson, 145. 
Stillwater, 330. 
Strength of men, 652. 
St. Catharine, 407. 
St. Charles, 142. 
St. Clair Lake and Straits, 351. 
St. Croix Lake and River, 330. 
St. Francis Bottom and River, 131. 
St. Frandisville, 110. 



St. Lawrence Basin, 30, 332. 

River, from Ontario to Mon- 
treal, 414. 
from Montreal to Quebec,423. 
Estuary of, 426. 
Gulf of, 429. 

summer resort, for inval- 
ids, 432. 
and Mississippi compared,430 
St. Louis River, 334. 
St. Mary's Straits, 334. 
St. Peter's River, 147. 
Summit level between Southern and North- 
ern Basins, 19. 
Superior Lake, 333. 

southern coast, 334. 
Surface water, 710. 

Sulphate of quinine in simple intermit- 
tents, 746. 

malignant intermittents, 773. 
simple remittents, 786. 
experience of many physi- 
cians, 789. 
malignant remittents, 807. 
Sweetwater Mountains, 6. 

River, 22. 
Synclinal axis of the Valley, 7, 19. 
Syracuse, 404. 

T. 

Table drinks, 657. 
Tampa Bay, 49. 
Tampico, 44. 
Taos, Valley of, 156, 
Tea, 658. 

Temperature of the Interior Valley, 453. 
mean of the year, 453. 
difficulties of the subject, 453. 
object to be kept in view, 453. 
ascertained mean tempera- 
ture, 453. 
general table of, 455. 
decrease from increase of 

latitude, 460. 
decrease from altitude, 464. 
by calculation, 466. 
table of the same, 467. 
decrease above the forty- 
eighth parallel, 467. 
table of the same, 468. 
further use of the forego- 
ing tables, 468. 
atmospheric and terrestrial 

compared, 469. 
influence of Northern Lakes 
upon, 473 



INDEX. 



877 



Temperature, variation in different years, 
473. 
greatest variation, table of, 474 
isothemal curves, 475. 
Interior Valley and Atlantic 

plain, 476. 
no change from cultivation, 
477. 
Temperature — extremes of cold and heat, 
478. 
table of the same, 479. 
extremes and means com- 
pared, 480. 
influence of mountains on 

the range of, 481 . 
Northern Lakes, 482. 
Hudson Bay, 482. 
Polar Sea, 482. 
relation of the minima and 
maxima to mean heat, 482. 
continental extremes, 484. 
lesser variations, 485. 
Temperature, mean of the seasons, 485. 

table of the seasons, 485,487. 
deductions, 491. 
of the months, 496. 
tabular view, 496, 498. 
summer months, 500. 
winter months, 501. 
spring months, 503. 
fall months, 504. 
divergence of the hottest 
from the coldest months, 
504. 
hottest and coldest compar- 
ed with, 506. 
pairs of months, 507. 
Temperature, diurnal and sudden varia- 
tions, 510. 
regular diurnal changes, 510. 
occasional sudden changes, 
514. 
Temperature, mean, determined by induc- 
tion, 516. 
of St. Louis, 519, 
of Cincinnati, 525. 
curve of the Interior Val- 
ley, 530. 
Tensas bottom, 122. 
Tennessee, middle, 225, 232. 

comparison between eas.t and 
west, 229. 
Tennessee river, 17, 222. 

upper waters, 230. 
voyages upon, 230. 
Terre Haute, 313. 



Texas, southern, 157.* 
Thames, 354. 
Thirst, 661. 
Thompson's Island, 47. 
Thousand Islands, 414. 
Thundering spring, 56. 
Thunder storms, 613. 
Tierras calientes, 151. 
templadas, 151. 
frias, 151. 
Tiffin, 368. 

Tipton Co., Tenn., 212. 
Tobacco, 673. 
Tombeckbee, 192, 199. 
Tonawanda creek, 390. 
Tornadoes, 616. 
Toronto, 409. 
Tortugas, 47. 

Treatment of simple intermittents, 743. 
preparative, 743. 
curative, 745. 

of inflammatory intermittents, 
753. 
malignant intermittents,765, 

773. 
simple remittents, 781. 
malignant remittents, 799. 
chronic intermittents, 814. 
vernal intermittents, 815. 
Trent, valley of, 408-411. 
Trois Rivieres, 423. 
Turn again river, 443. 
Tuscaloosa, 190. 

river, 191. 
Tuscumbia, 223. 
Tygart's valley, 265. 

U. 
Union Town, 269. 
Unjigah river, 443. 
Upper Mississippi, 149. 

V. 

Vapor, weight and tension of, 602. 
Varieties of population, 637. 
Variety Caucasian, 638. 
Vegeto-animalcular hypothesis, 723. 
Venice, 367. 
Vera Cruz, 42. 
Vicksburg, 128. 
Vidalia, 125. 
Vincennes, 314. 

Voyage early up the Mississippi, 111. 
Voyages on Upper Tennessee, 230. 
Voyageurs, 689. 



878 



INDEX. 



W. 

Wabash below New Harmony, 315. 

region west of, 316. 
Wabash river, 311. 
Warren, 276. 
Washington, Mi., 125. 

Ohio, 294. 
Washita, 162. 
Water, 661. 

river, well, and spring, 662. 

effects of, 664. 

impure, 666. 

from leaden pipes, 666. 

rain, 667. 

surface water, 710. 
Weight of men, 650. 
Wells Artesian, 195. 
Western District of Tennessee, 212. 
Wetumpka, 188. 
Wheeling, 269. 
White river, 309. 
Whitesburg, 225. 
Wilson Co., Tenn., 235. 
Winds of the Interior Valley, 557. 

introductory observations, 557. 
tabular viewsat our militaryposts,559. 



Winds, tabular views at various civil sta- 
tions, 564. 
order of, 572. 
relative prevalence, 573. 
the south east, 574. 
south west, 576. 
north west, 579. 
north east, 583. 
reduced to semi-circles, 584. 
calms, 586. 

good and evil of our, 586. 
Windsor, 354. 
Wine, 668. 
Wisconsin river, 330. 
Woodville, 206. 

Y. 

Yellow fever, 44-45-46-47-48, 52, 57-58, 
96, 103, 106-107, 110, 126-127, 129, 134, 
160-161, 291. 
Yazoo bottom, 129. 
river, 130. 
city, 131. 
Youghiogheny river, 267. 



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